Marvin Harrison is a football superstar, but he sure isn’t a commercial superstar. Harrison had a deal with Degree antiperspirant
in the late 1990s and another with the Got Milk campaign following the Colts Super Bowl victory in 2007, but little else.
Despite Harrison’s pairing with Peyton Manning as part of one of the National Football League’s most potent offensive combinations, nothing much has stuck.
Given his recent interview with the Indianapolis Star and the comments from Indianapolis Colts fans that article generated, his act might be wearing a bit thin on the team’s supporters.
Sports marketers seem divided on Harrison’s unwillingness to give coherent responses to local reporters’ questions or to make himself available to the team’s fans. “He doesn’t want to have any representation within this community outside the No. 88 on the football field,” said David Morton, president of locally based Sunrise Sports Group. “That’s his prerogative.” In a short 2003 interview with Sports Illustrated, Harrison said, “I’m not into talking because that never won any football games.”
Sports marketers agree that Harrison’s silent act has killed most commercial opportunities he might have to make money off the football field. Well, unless you count his bar and car wash in Philadelphia. “Marvin Harrison never had any intent to maximize his commercial viability,” Morton said.
His handlers at the powerful sports marketing agency, IMG, certainly had that intent. They predicted shortly after Manning exploded onto the scene, that the duo—which IMG both represented—would make piles of cash in off-the-field endorsements. Harrison never made much use of his associations with IMG—or Manning—in the commercial realm.
Morton gives Harrison credit for staying true to himself. “He shouldn’t be pushed to be something he’s not,” Morton said. “A player can build himself into a brand, but it has to be true to who he is. To falsify a brand makes it worse for the fans.”
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It's not an act. That's why I like Marvin. He's true to himself, as Morton says.
Just because a person is a hall fame sports performer doesn't mean he or she has to be a world class marketing figure. Marvin Harrison's ongoing silence off the field leaves his sterling performance on the field as his only legacy. Considering he'll surely be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame, that's not a bad legacy to have.
Can you recall a negative comment by any Colts player or executive detrimental to Marvin's performance? I surely cannot.
As for Barry Bonds, he went out of his way to be rude, profane and insultive with both the press, the fans and his team mates. Yes, there are many of them who spoke out on what a jerk BB was/is.
There's no way to compare Barry Bonds egotistical jerk act with Marvin's under the radar shyness.
Your sentence....just because he was never charged with anything doesn't mean he wasn't a part of it...is laughable. Guilt by association or press innuendo means nothing - unless you're watching Inside Edition.
Let's leave it at this. You choose to negatively judge Marvin Harrison by what he doesn't say and doesn't do. I choose to sit back and enjoy his performance on the field. You know, where games are won?
What Marvin Harrison (and any other pro athlete) does off the field is no concern of mine. He owes me nothing more than 100% effort in the game.