Chris Harris has spent his entire football career defying expectations. Despite a successful run at the University of Kansas, he went undrafted in 2011. Undeterred, Harris earned an invite to the Denver Broncos training camp. Once there, he showed the NFL what they overlooked months earlier in the Draft as he made the Broncos All-Rookie team recording 65 tackles and an interception.
Once he was settled in, things just kept getting better. Harris helped the Broncos win a Super Bowl in 2015 and was named First Team All Pro in 2016. Some people might let success like that get to their heads. Others use it as leverage to create positive change in the world. Chris Harris has used his success to give back to Oklahoma, a place he likes to call “The Underdog State”.
“It means a lot to represent Oklahoma because there’s not a lot of us representing us in the NFL. It feels great knowing that I’ve left a legacy here.”
I caught up with Chris before a day of training camps in Bixby, Oklahoma on a street named after him. Hundreds of kids from all walks of life stepped foot on Spartan Field to meet with their football heroes and see that their dreams are not as far out of reach as they may seem and that despite adversity and other people’s preconceived notions, greatness is powered by passion.
