Michigan State
If there were a textbook definition of the mentality one should have for entering a football combine, Sean Harrington might have it.
The 6-foot-4, 227-pound linebacker flew under the radar at Michigan State. A walk-on who felt like he was finally gaining some ground after his sophomore season, he tore his ACL at the start of his junior season in 2016, lost the year and seemingly lost his place with the team.
“I started on all four special teams (as a senior). I don’t think I got enough playing time as I should have, as I deserved,” Harrington said by phone last week. “It’s kind of the way things worked out with the season we had (in 2016), there wasn’t much room for opportunity to get all the other players on the field as there were in years past.
“I accepted my role there but still worked hard toward everything and took an approach that I’m going to get the start this week. I would have liked to have played a lot more than I did. I think I deserved to play a lot more than I did. Every time I was on the field I executed my job and did what I needed to do to make sure our team was going to come out victorious.”
“Going into college I kind of had a chip on my shoulder, for sure. I wanted to prove to everybody that I belonged . . . That was the approach I took into practice, every single lift, every practice on scout team.”
Sean Harrington on trying to earn playing time
His four years at MSU behind him, an economics degree under his belt and some work done on a second degree in international development, Harrington feels like he still has a lot more football to play. That’s where the CFL National Scouting Combine presented by adidas comes in. Harrington, who grew up in Michigan but has dual citizenship thanks to his Sarnia, Ont. born mom, Natalie, is ready to show scouts what he can do.
“I’ve been working extremely hard and I think I’m going to surprise a lot of people,” he said. “I feel very confident in myself and the numbers I’m going to put up.”
In his senior year of high school at St. Mary’s high school in Orchard Lake, Michigan, Harrington was full of potential and opportunities. Named to the third-team all-state football squad by the Detroit Free Press, Harrington was also a three-year letterman as a hockey player. Despite a good year on the football field (“My film from my senior year in high school, not to brag, but it was really good,” Harrington said), there were no Div I offers. He was academically accepted at MSU and had a couple tryouts with junior teams in the United States Hockey League, but ultimately decided to have his path start with going to university, not ending there. So he focused in on the MSU football team.
That film? He sent it to Pat Narduzzi, then the Spartans’ defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. He might have sent it to him a couple times. It went out to other staffers too. He eventually was invited for a visit and was offered preferred walk-on status. His foot halfway in the door became his starting block.
“Going into college I kind of had a chip on my shoulder, for sure,” he said. “I wanted to prove to everybody that I belonged and that I’m worthy of a scholarship and that I can help this team excel. That was the approach I took into practice, every single lift, every practice on scout team. That’s the mentality you have to have, that you’re here to prove yourself.”
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Sean Harrington had two tackles in helping his team win the Holiday Bowl in December (Michigan State University)
He’ll take that mentality with him to Winnipeg, where he’s once again under the radar. He seems himself as a linebacker in Canada, with the ability to be an on-the-ball pass rusher.
“I have the size, the speed and the ability to come off the edge. That was the position that I crafted and excelled at through college,” he said. “I still need to cover man-to-man and play linebacker and drop and do all of the things that a linebacker can do, but I also have the ability to get off the edge and get to the quarterback and finish.”
The son of two lawyers and one of five athletic children in his family — his younger sister, Lia, is a junior that plays defence on the Michigan Wolverines hockey team — all that Harrington knows is competing.
“My mom is without a doubt the most competitive person I’ve ever met in my life,” he said. “I think (his parents) instilled hard work and dedication but also just I guess for lack of a better term, not taking crap from anybody, proving myself, competing and always being true to myself and kind of just having a winning mentality.”
Grit, hustle, determination, whatever you want to call it, Harrington has a lot of it packed into that six-foot-four frame. He can’t wait to show it in Winnipeg.
“I love the game of football. It’s always been my passion, playing sports and competing,” he said. “This is a great opportunity I have ahead of me here. I think I’m going to take full advantage of it and I’m going to surprise a lot of people.”
