The secret to how Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison moved 7 kids to Seattle to debut for Seahawks
Damon “Snacks” Harrison stayed home unsigned for all of training camp plus the first month of the NFL’s unprecedented COVID-19 season.
But the 31-year-old former All-Pro defensive tackle wasn’t kicked back and chillin’ at his house in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“Snacks” was WORKIN’ at home. With his kids.
How many children?
“Whoo! You got pen and paper, man?” Harrison said Thursday.
“It’s seven of them....ages: 12, 10, 6, 3, 1-year-old twins—and a 5-month-old.
“Lemme try to make sure I didn’t miss anybody...”
Whoa! Seven kids. Three of them under 17 months old.
That’s why Harrison decided Oct. 7, four games into the season, to sign with Seattle.
The 350-plus-pound, ninth-year veteran even agreed to go on the Seahawks’ practice squad and stay there for a month. That was to work back into football shape—he hadn’t played since December, his last game for the Detroit Lions—and out of dad-chasing-kids-around-the-house shape.
“Well, honestly, it was being at home with my kids, full time, during the season, that kind of made me want to jump back out there a little bit,” he said.
He flashed a huge grin.
Say no more.
He’s finally ready to make his debut for the Seahawks (6-2) on Sunday, replacing injured Bryan Mone in the defensive-line rotation for their NFC West test Sunday at the Los Angeles Rams (5-3).
“Got a real chance to play this week. Yeah, he does,” coach Pete Carroll said. “This might be his coming out party, so trying to give him a little love there. I’m hoping he’s going to play this week.
“Look forward to getting him involved.”
The Seahawks’ defense could use the help. Any and all help.
It’s ranked last in the NFL in total yards allowed. Halfway through the season Seattle is on pace to break the league record for a season by more than 1,000 yards. The Seahawks are also last in pass defense. They are 30th out of 32 teams in points surrendered per game, and just allowed 44 in last weekend’s loss at Buffalo.
The massive Harrison has been primarily an inside run-stuffer tying up centers and guards throughout his career. But the Seahawks could use help in run defense, too. Last month Minnesota romped for 201 yards on the ground before Russell Wilson rallied the Seahawks to a one-point home win.
Carroll and defensive coaches have liked how Mone has fit with starting tackles Poona Ford and Jarran Reed. Reed had 2 1/2 sacks, two tackles for losses and three quarterback hits last week at Buffalo.
But now Mone has a high-ankle sprain.
And here comes “Snacks.” Finally.
Harrison has in the month since he signed grown into part curiosity and part Seahawks urban legend among fans, even his new teammates.
Reed said last month he was excited to play next to Harrison, an All-Pro with the New York Giants in 2016.
“He’s a very large person. Very large,” said Reed, who at 306 pound isn’t exactly tiny.
Asked to compare Harrison to anyone else he’s played with, Reed chuckled and said. “I don’t know.
“He’s very big.
“I can’t wait to get him on the field.”
If you still trying to wrap your brain around moving seven kids under the age of 12 across the country, during a pandemic, finding them a new home amid a new job, COVID-19 tests for the entire family and more, well, so is Harrison.
How did he do it? The same reason he’ll be on the field Sunday against the Rams: Alexis Harrison.
“It’s my wife, man,” he said.
“She’s a superstar, man. She’s a real-life superhero.
“After being home with that many kids for that long...you know, I’m at work most of the day, and to come home and I hear my wife talk about her day and how tough it’s been—in my line of work I’m like, ‘That’s not tough.’
“Until I had to do it myself.
“Oh, my goodness, man! That’s tougher than anything I’ve done, in my life.”
The Harrison do more than just raise their half-dozen-plus-one kids at home and move them across the country into the rain—”yeah, man, they don’t like the weather,” he said.
Harrison and his wife work with Habitat for Humanity. They donate holiday meals to underprivileged families. He started the Damon Harrison I Told the Storm Foundation. Its mission: to empower disadvantaged youth.
The native of New Iberia, Louisiana, was quoted by Forbes in 2018 saying: “I was once one of those kids I try to help.”
He’s hosted youth football camps, basketball camps, Thanksgiving turkey drives, toy drives for Christmas. He’s collected donations of school backpacks. All through his foundation.
He won a 2018 United Way Hometown Hero award for his community service, in his final year playing for the Giants.
His wife has been a pillar in that work, too.
“So hat’s off to her. She’s the one that makes it happen,” Harrison said before his latest Seahawks practice Thursday.
“She’s making in happen, right now, actually. It’s all on her. I’ve got to give it all to her.”
