Desmond Harrison (born October 8, 1993) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

who is a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and later West Georgia.

College career

Following his time at

Contra Costa College Contra Costa College is a public community college in San Pablo, California. It is the west campus of the Contra Costa Community College District. It is part of the California community colleges system, one of the three college systems in Californ ...

, Harrison was seen as a top recruit after being named to the All-American Community College First-team. Harrison joined the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

for his junior year, but was deemed academically ineligible to play before the season started. This was because Harrison had taken an online course at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

during his time at Contra Costa, and BYU's school policy stated that student-athletes from other universities could not receive credit from online courses. The NCAA later cleared Harrison to play. Harrison later missed the entire 2014 season after he was suspended a total of 3 times. He was able to use this as a redshirt year, but he was not able to rejoin the program for the 2015 season. After leaving Texas, he spent two years away from football, and later joined the

West Georgia Wolves The West Georgia Wolves (UWG Wolves, formerly the West Georgia Braves) are the athletic teams that represent the University of West Georgia, located in Carrollton, Georgia, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Wolves compete as members ...

for the 2017 season. Following his senior season at West Georgia, Harrison was invited to the

2018 Senior Bowl The 2018 Senior Bowl was an all-star college football exhibition game featuring players from the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and prospects for the 2018 draft of the professional National Football League (NFL). The game was the last ...

Professional career

At the 2018 NFL combine, Harrison garnered attention after running the 40-yard dash in 4.9 seconds, the 2nd fastest of any offensive line prospect at the combine. He also recorded an unofficial time of 4.75 seconds. Despite a strong combine, he was not selected in the

2018 NFL Draft The 2018 NFL Draft was the 83rd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2018 NFL season. The draft was held on April 26–28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; it was the first draft ...

Cleveland Browns

Harrison signed with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

as an undrafted free agent on May 4, 2018. After an impressive rookie training camp, the Browns named Harrison their starting left tackle on September 7, 2018. Following the Browns' firing of head coach

Hue Jackson Hue Jackson (born October 22, 1965) is an American football coach who is the head football coach at Grambling State University. An offensive assistant at both the collegiate and professional levels, he held coordinator positions in the Nationa ...

on October 29, 2018, Harrison was benched by interim head coach

Gregg Williams Gregg Williams (born July 15, 1958) is an American football coach. He most recently served as the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL) from 2019 to 2020. Previously, he was head coach of the Buff ...

in favor of Greg Robinson. On June 5, 2019, Harrison was waived by the Browns after a missed flight caused him to miss the first day of Cleveland's mandatory mini-camp, deemed to be "one too many missteps" for Harrison.

Arizona Cardinals

On June 6, 2019, Harrison was claimed by the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

, the day after he was waived by the Browns. A month later on July 17, the Cardinals released Harrison following news of assault allegations and a felony arrest warrant in North Carolina.

Personal

In July 2019, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Harrison, who was charged with assault on a person by strangulation and assault on a woman by a man. He turned himself in to police in Greensboro, North Carolina on July 19, 2019, and was held at the Guilford County Jail. He was suspended for the first six games of the

2021 NFL season The 2021 NFL season was the 102nd season of the National Football League (NFL). The season was the first to feature a 17-game regular season schedule as the league expanded the season from 16 games. The regular season started on September 9, ...

by the league on March 10, 2021.

References

External links

West Georgia Wolves bioTexas Longhorns biotwitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Desmond 1993 births Living people Players of American football from Houston American football offensive tackles Contra Costa Comets football players West Georgia Wolves football players Texas Longhorns football players Oak Ridge Military Academy alumni Cleveland Browns players Arizona Cardinals players