NFL Draft Diamonds Prospect Interview: Antonio Harris, LB, Fairmont State University

•           Name: Antonio Harris
            •           Height: 6’1”
            •           Weight: 235 lbs.
            •           Position: LB
            •           College: Fairmont State University
            •           Twitter: @HarrisAntonio8

Tell us about your hometown, and what you love most about it?
            • I was born in Montclair, New Jersey but I was raised in St. Petersburg Florida. What I love most about St Petersburg is that it is a hotbed for talent, with countless players playing professional football.         

List these three in order of importance and why: Film Study, Strength and Conditioning and Practice?
            • First, it is film study, football is a mental sport and I feel that it is vital to understand your opponent in order be well prepared for any game. Practice would be number two in my book because perfecting your craft with multiple repetitions in order to win a game is utterly important. Last but not least strength and conditioning because you learn to strengthen your body physically and mentally while overcoming obstacles.  

What do you worry about, and why?
            • I worry about not reaching my full potential. Because in the future and you’re sitting thinking about if you made the right decision or not and wishing you could have done something different.

Give me an example of when you failed at something. How did you react and how did you overcome failure?
            • My redshirt freshmen year when our team went 6-4. I keep that feeling of losing in the back of my mind every time I picked up a weight, ran a sprint, or strapped my shoulder pads up. I feel like I let my team down so I used that failure to fuel myself and to make sure I never felt that feeling again.

What do your teammates say is your best quality?
            • Passionate

Who is the best player you have ever played against in college?
            • It is very hard to say because I have played against a lot of good players      

What would your career be if you couldn’t play football? 
            • Either a doctor or a plumber         

Room, desk, and car – which do you clean first?
            • Room, Car, Desk            

If there was a disaster and you could either save three strangers or one family member, which would you choose and why?
            • A family member because family means more to me than everything.           

If you could be any television or movie character, who would you be and why?
            • Don Vito Corleone, because he didn’t say a lot but always got the job done.              

Tell me about your biggest adversity in life and how you’ve dealt with or overcome it?
            • Leaving Florida to go to college. Being 16 hours away from my mom was really hard on me but I learned to deal with problems on my own and learned how to deal with things like a man.             

What is your most embarrassing moment?
            • I will never forget when I was in the 7^th grade and I played for my middle school basketball team. Every game my mother would be the first row screaming in a small Catholic school gym, to guard the kid “like white on rice” and other words of encouragement. This would happen every game.  

What was the most memorable play of your collegiate career?
            •It would have to be my interception against UVA-Wise when I intercepted I felt like time froze and I was in the air just staring at everyone in the crowd.        

What song best describes your work ethic?
            • A boogie wit da hoodie- not a regular person          

What is the most important trait you can have (Physical or Non-Physical) to help you succeed at the next level? 
            •perseverance and work ethic          

If you could bring one person back from the dead for one day, who would it be and why?
            • I would bring back my grandfather. I never really got to say bye to him because I was living in Florida at the time and in my family, my grandfather wasn’t always the greatest person, but when I was born my mother would tell me that my grandfather wasn’t the same man anymore because he would act totally different around me.

If you were to open a dance club, what would you name it? 
            •   Studio 53

Who is the most overrated player in the NFL? 
            • Richard Sherman            

Would you rather be liked or respected, and why?
            • Respected because you could always like or dislike someone one day and then change your mind the next. But when you’re respected its either you are, or you are not, there is no in-between      

What player who had his career derailed by off-field issues do you feel for the most and why?
            •Michael Vick because he opened a lot of eyes while he was playing. Other teams would game plan around one player which is incredible for just one player to go to another organization.

Do you love to win or hate to lose?
            •No question about it, I hate to lose. It is the worst feeling in the world.  

Who has been the biggest influence on your life and explain why?
            • The biggest influence in my life is my mom because the adversity that she went through and the hard work that she put in in order for me to have a better life.