(Marvelous?) Marvin

During the AFC Championship Game I said something that riled a few people up. The words I used exactly were "Marvin Harrison is overrated." Obviously I was wasted and rooting for the Patriots at the time. Everyone got so up in arms about it that I might as well shut up, even though I knew Harrison had never came up big when the Colts needed it in the playoffs. Afterwards, I researched Harrison and a few other relevant receivers and found the information I was looking for. Harrison is having a Hall of Fame career, but he has continually not shown up when the playoffs rolled around. Up until this Super Bowl, one might sat he is the receiver equivalent of the quarterback that has thrown him the majority of his touchdown passes.

What would you define as overrated? In my mind there are two main examples of an athlete being overrated. One is the old cliche of a player continually is considered to be underrated by so many people, that he/she is thus overrated. When I proclaimed that Harrison was overrated, I was met with responses of how he was underrated. Harrison has been overshadowed by contemporaries such as Randy Moss and Terrell Owens, receivers with similar statistics that run their mouths much more in the press. As a result, the "cool" thing to do these days in the media is to label Harrison as underrated compared to these loud mouth receivers that receive more attention than quiet Harrison.

The other common example of an overrated player is someone who puts up a bunch of great numbers, but does not show that same production in the most important of situations and games. While I can not give every example from regular season games where Harrison made a great catch, I have a good sample size (13 games) of Harrisons' production, or lack there of, in the playoffs. Below is a comparison of Harrison and his contemporaries, as well as other top receivers from the past 25 years.

Player Gms Catches Yds/gm TDs 100yd gms
Marvin Harrison 13 55 59.7 2 1
Randy Moss 8 35 90.4 9 3
Terrell Owens 10 50 70 4 3
Torry Holt 10 47 63 4 2
Hines Ward 10 57 76.1 8 4
Jerry Rice 28 151 80.2 22 8
Cris Carter 14 63 61.4 8 2
Michael Irvin 16 87 82.1 8 6

The numbers pretty much speak for themselves. Now you can blame Harrisons' QB if you want. We all know the playoff problems that he has had. The fact remains though that Harrison has the worst numbers of any of these receivers, with a couple dwarfing him. Not only that, but almost every other guy listed has a signature moment in the postseason. Most noticeably, Hines Ward and Jerry Rice each have Super Bowl MVPs, while Owens had a legendary Super Bowl effort in a losing cause. Maybe Harrison is waiting for the Super Bowl to show his true playoff greatness...

Maybe I am totally of base. Maybe Harrison is not "overrated", but instead just not "clutch." All I know is that I do not care about the numbers that a player on my team puts up. I never cared about Michael Strahan breaking (if you call it that) the season sack record. I cared about Strahan sacking Trent Dilfer in Super Bowl XXXIV. If I am a Colt fan, this game is where guys like Harrison and Manning define their careers. The numbers are great on paper and fun to watch, but the Super Bowl is where they will be remembered.

Bring on the hate....All I know is that in a big spot, I would rather have any one of those guys split out wide over Marvin. Show me something this Sunday and I can change my tune....

STKAFI