As it turned out, it wasn't Joey Harrington who was embarrassed. It was everybody who had dismissed him as a quality NFL draft selection.
The Oregon quarterback had chosen to stay home rather than show up at the draft site in Manhattan and sit through player after player being selected before him, but he became the first round's pivotal figure as the selection of the Detroit Lions.
The Lions had been expected to reach for cornerback Quentin Jammer of Texas. By settling on Harrington, the Detroit club caused this shuffling near the top of this 47th annual procedure:
Buffalo was left with a choice between the draft's most heralded offensive tackles, Mike Williams of Texas and Bryant McKinnie of Miami. The Bills had offered suggestions that their defensive line was the area they were most desirous of reinforcing, but they named Williams.
The Chargers also went in a direction that had not been widely anticipated, taking Jammer.
And the Dallas Cowboys were thrown into what on television appeared to be a tizzy. The Cowboys had coveted Jammer. Jerry Jones, next up, wound up dealing out of the No. 6 position in the first round, with Kansas City arriving there from No. 8 and naming Ryan Sims, a defensive tackle from North Carolina. On their choice, the Cowboys took Oklahoma safety Roy Williams.
All because of a decision to identify Harrington that Detroit had made at the 11th hour. Harrington said 10 minutes before the pick was official – 10 minutes after the Lions were put "on the clock" – the team advised his agent that it was going with Jammer.
Five minutes later, Lions player personnel director Bill Tobin was on the phone with Harrington in Oregon.
"I was unbelievably surprised," said the quarterback. "I had been told five minutes earlier that the Lions were going in a different direction. We (he and his agent) were told they were on the phone with Jammer's agent, working on a deal. I was just about to sit down and relax for a while."
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Harrington completed 58.8 percent of his passes and threw for 2,764 yards and 23 touchdowns (with just five interceptions) last fall in leading Oregon to a 12-1 record and a Fiesta Bowl title. His ability to deliver victories was what persuaded the Lions to claim him, according to general manager Matt Millen.
Millen, asked if it was difficult for the team to pass on Jammer, said, "Yes." He also said he had not always supported Harrington's selection.
"He's not unbelievable in one area; he's just really good at a lot of things," said Millen. "He has leadership skills. He has a presence. Will you find guys with a stronger arm? Yes. Will you find guys with better escape qualities? Yes."
"What I bring to the field isn't all physical skills," Harrington said. "I'm not a player that is going to go out and run a 4.3 or throw a ball 75 yards down the field."
Harrington is being likened to another Oregon quarterback, Dan Fouts, whom the Chargers drafted in Round 3 in 1973. You could look him up in the Hall of Fame.
"He 'graduated' into being a good quarterback," said former Chargers coach and general manager Harland Svare, who made the choice of Fouts, at the time explaining, "That sounds like a quarterback." Svare, though, did not pick Fouts on a whim; he had done the necessary research.
"His character was what stood out the most, his mental toughness," said Svare. To Svare, it was important that as a San Diego rookie, Fouts could observe and learn from John Unitas.
Harrington and the quarterback named by the Houston Texans on choice No. 1, David Carr of Fresno State, have no such figure from whom to learn. Detroit's seasoned quarterbacks are Ty Detmer, a journeyman, and Mike McMahon, a second-year player. Houston is an expansion team.
Carr and Harrington should not be expected to perform creditably in the NFL until they have been blooded by two or three seasons, according to Svare. "It's a learning process," said Svare, "and you can't get out of it."
Two other big-name college quarterbacks who face position changes in the NFL were taken earlier than expected. Indiana's Antwaan Randle El was selected late in the second round by Pittsburgh, which plans to use him mainly as a slot receiver and returner. Nebraska's Eric Crouch, the Heisman Trophy winner from Nebraska, was chosen late in the third round by St. Louis, which lists him as a wide receiver.
There was no suspense at this draft's beginning, the Texans weeks ago having determined to take Carr. Choice No. 2 also went as anticipated, with Carolina choosing North Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers.
Completing the draft's first round required more than five hours, a record, as teams moved through a welter of trades in which they switched positions. One of the apparent winners: Oakland, which twice dealt up, first with Washington and then with Atlanta, in moving up from No. 21 to No. 17. On this selection, the Raiders claimed Phillip Buchanon of Miami, a cornerback whose coverage skills are thought by some to exceed those of Jammer.
On their second selection (at No. 23) in the first round, the Raiders came away with Napoleon Harris of Northwestern, a 253-pounder considered the draft's leading linebacker.
Buchanon was among a cadre of athletes from Miami's national champions to be taken in the opening round. McKinnie went to Minnesota on choice No. 7, tight end Jeremy Shockey to the Giants on No. 14, safety Edward Reed to Baltimore on No. 24 and cornerback Mike Rumph to San Francisco on No. 27. Robert Thomas, a UCLA linebacker from Imperial High, went to St. Louis on selection No. 31. Bruins running back DeShaun Foster was the second player named in the second round, going to Carolina.
