He got to spend all day on the field and in the weight room. After spending two hours in the weight room working out this morning, Harrison jogged onto the practice field in all his padding.

Today was a little chilly for practice. Still the Panthers held it outside since it was supposed to be cold this weekend for their game against the Cowboys.

It was about 30 degrees. So Harrison wore a long sleeve shirt under his blue practice jersey. Under his pants and socks he wore warm leggings. And under his helmet, he wore a balaclava.

Luke punched him lightly in the shoulder. "I'll race you."

"And I'll kick your ass."

"On three."

They both counted to three and bolted in the direction of the field. Luke kept up with Harrison, who was pretty quick for a linebacker. As they made it to the field, Harrison lost Luke out of the corner of his eye. While still running, he looked over his shoulder to see Luke belly sliding on the grass.

He busted out laughing as he came to a stop and headed back to see Luke. "What the hell did you do?"

Luke was laughing too. "I totally tripped."

Harrison held his hand out for Luke and pulled him to his feet. "That's hilarious."

Just then the rest of the team came running out of the locker room to stretch and begin the three hour practice.

❺❾

After scrimmaging against the offense, Coach Rivera let the guys choose what they wanted to work on for the last hour of practice. Harrison decided to work on his footwork. And that was because he wanted to tackle something.

He was working one on one with the linebacker coach who set up an obstacle course for him to go around before he could take a shot at the tackle bag that played as their quarterback.

Harrison got the go ahead. He lunged forward into the sled, which he pushed for a few yards before shuffling his feet through a series of pads laying on the grass.

After that he came to the center between two large circles. Two coaches were standing with pads to push him as he barreled right through. Freeing himself of all the obstacles, he took off in a full sprint for a few yards before tackling the bag.

After running the drill a few times, he and the linebacker coach moved onto the second drill he wanted to work on. He was standing right in front of the coach before dropping back into coverage.

Harrison saw the ball pointed to his right, where he quickly spun around and shuffled that way while still heading backwards. Then he had to go to the left and finally back straight down mid field where he jumped and caught a pass.

He tossed the ball to the nearest coach before sprinting all the way back towards the linebacker coach who threw him a short pass. It was a very short pass. Still in stride, he began to dive forward to catch the ball. At the last second he snuck his hand under the ball just about the ground and pushed it up to himself as he fell. Harrison secured the ball as he hit the ground, rolled over a few times and popped up back on his feet.

Even Coach Rivera was impressed. "That was a hell of a catch!"

❺❾

After practice, Harrison signed autographs like he normally did. He was singing a ball for a little boy, when he asked, "is football your favorite thing to do?"

It was until he met Carrie. There were a few things he'd gladly do with Carrie over football. But to save himself from having to explain how those things worked to a 7-year old, Harrison went with, "yes."

Then he handed the ball back to the little boy and asked, "what's your favorite thing to do?"

Harrison waited for his response as he signed another ball. "I like watching you play and go fishing with my dad."

"You're a fisherman?" He asked as he handed the ball back to the fan and received a jersey to sign. "My dad and I always went fishing in Lake Michigan when I was little."

"Because you're from Chicago right?"

He nodded. "What's your favorite species to fish for?"

"Steelhead."

"Nice. I used to catch those a lot with my dad."

"Don't go anywhere. You have to see this picture."

Harrison signed a few more autographs before the little boy handed him his mother's phone. It was a picture of him holding the biggest steelhead Harrison had ever seen.

"That's the biggest steelhead I've ever seen," he admitted.

"It was huge," the little boy told him with a huge smile on his face.

"When I was your age, I caught a 13 pound walleye. That went on the wall."

"Do you still fish a lot?"

He shrugged. "Not as much as I used to. The only time I really can go is during the offseason. I do want to take my fiancée sometime."

"I think she'll love it!"