Detroit Lions' Will Harris talks stopping Lamar Jackson, cryptocurrency's future

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Will Harris is second on the Detroit Lions with 13 tackles through two games. The third-year safety stopped to answer five questions for the Free Press this week before he faces Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Ford Field.

Dan Campbell said this week that he believes in playing a lot of down-safety defense to stop Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens’ rushing attack. Can you explain in football terms why the safety positions are so important this week?

“It’s definitely going to be all hands on deck with a guy of that magnitude, a guy with that many physical attributes. It’s going to be an all-hands-on-deck effort. We’re going to need everybody from the front to the linebackers, second level, to everyone in the back end. So I think that’s just what he meant by that is that we all have to be active and this is a guy who can get out of the pocket at will or scramble around and make plays with his arm and his feet.

“Up front, those guys are going to continue to do a really great job of plugging all that stuff and making it messy for them and then we just have to play sound football, just do assignment football and all do our jobs collectively as a group. And just fly around. The more hats to the ball, especially around this guy, we’re going to need it.”

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How do you feel about cryptocurrency?

Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook runs the ball against Detroit Lions safety Will Harris during the second quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium, Nov. 8, 2020.
Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook runs the ball against Detroit Lions safety Will Harris during the second quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium, Nov. 8, 2020.

"This past offseason I kind of started dipping my toe in the water with crypto. Obviously, there’s opinions everywhere, some for, some against. There’s a lot of biased opinions. There’s very few unbiased opinions about crypto, so I’ve just been trying to educate myself. Who knows? Is this something the world moves forward with? I don’t know, but it’s just something that has been prevalent in the news over the past year, so I’m at the position now where I can just look into it. I’m not doing anything crazy, but I’ve looked into it.”

Is it the future?

“It depends on who you ask, really. It depends on who you ask. Some people will tell you that we’re doing away with cash. Some people will tell you that crypto literally is the future. Some people will tell you that crypto and going electric and all that (is a scam). It’s just you’ve got to pick and choose the right algorithm for yourself. That’s what I’ve been trying to do. There’s so much out there.”

You can have dinner, my treat, with one current NFL player and one past NFL player, living or dead. Who are the two guys you pick and why?

“Oh man, ooh. That’s a great question. You would think that guys would think about this more, guys playing in the league would think about this more. Umm … circle back to that.”

What is your gameday morning ritual, from what you eat, to what you listen to, to what you do in the locker room?

“A lot of guys have a headbanger playlist in the morning to get them hyped in the game or whatnot. I kind of take the other approach, I like to stay as level-headed as possible all the way up until the game, and then right before the game is when I really tap in, I switch over from one playlist to the next. So the first one, just waking up, getting my mind right, getting my head right, looking over my last adjustments, will be like R&B. Something smooth, something to keep the vibe level-headed. You don’t want to get too worked up, too early. I eventually make that switch over right before kickoff.

“(That playlist is) a whole bunch of everything. I’m originally from Atlanta, so a whole bunch of Jeezy, a whole bunch of T.I., a whole bunch of Future. A whole bunch of everything. You name it, I got it all in there.”

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You went to boarding school in Connecticut, I think we talked about this a couple years ago in the locker room, while your family was still in Atlanta. How did that experience help you mature as a person?

“It helped me a lot because it was kind of like college before college. I’ve always been an independent person, but I found myself having to just take care of a lot of things on my own and a lot of things that would eventually end up helping me with the next level with college. So once I went to B.C. (Boston College), nothing was new to me. I was a freshman, but I was well above my years just because I was already used to moving around by myself and making things happen kind of by myself and being independent and off away from home. So it helped me a lot.

Let’s circle back to the second question. Two people you can have dinner with, one current and one past NFL player. Who are you picking and why?

“All right, I got you. So past player, I’m going to sit down and have lunch with Peanut Tillman, because I need to know how he was able to get all them balls out (by creating fumbles). And I watch his stuff all the time, but he just had a knack for it. He just had the right angle, the right amount of power, the right everything to always get the ball out. And that’s something that when you’re playing defense, it kind of sounds easy to just punch at the ball, but these guys, when everything’s moving full speed, it’s a little harder than it sounds. But at the same token, he was so great at that and I’d literally spend the whole dinner just asking him how to punch the ball out better and how he does it.

“Current player, man, ooh — me and Jamaal (Williams) never sat down one-on-one for no dinner, so to be honest I might (pick him). I’m in the locker room with him, but you guys get the luxury of having all his most famous quotes and stuff like that. I would love to have that one-on-one just to rap with him a little bit. Jamaal Williams, for sure. Who wouldn’t want to have lunch or have dinner with Jamaal Williams?”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Will Harris on Lamar Jackson, cryptocurrency