At first glance, former NFL quarterback Joey Harrington’s career doesn’t have too many parallels with Wrexham or soccer, a sport he stopped playing around the age of 10.

But the third overall pick in the 2002 NFL draft insists the Welsh club’s rise chimes with his own. So much so that Harrington and his family regularly wake up at home in Portland, in the west-coast state of Oregon, early on Saturdays to watch Phil Parkinson’s side playing live 4,750 miles away.

“If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be buying a subscription to something called the Vanarama National League,” he says about the competition, the fifth-tier in English football’s pyramid, Wrexham won in 2022-23, “I’d have laughed at you.

“Now, though, I’m up at 6.30am every Saturday to catch the 7am match (3pm UK time). No way could I have imagined doing that just a few years ago. But, as a family, we’re totally wrapped up in the club and the journey they are on.”

Harrington’s own sporting journey comes with pedigree. His dad John played quarterback for the University of Oregon in the late 1960s and his grandfather Bernie did the same for the state’s University of Portland around 25 years earlier. If he hadn’t served in the Second World War, Bernie would no doubt have played in the NFL after being heavily courted by several teams, among them George Halas’ Chicago Bears.

Joey’s three years following in his father’s footsteps as Oregon’s quarterback proved transformational for the team, as they went from also-rans to being ranked No 2 in the U.S. college game. Harrington was the key man — and a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2001 — before the Detroit Lions drafted him the following year. Only fellow quarterback David Carr (Houston Texans) and future Hall of Famer Julius Peppers (Carolina Panthers) went off the board quicker.

He spent four seasons in Detroit, then had stints with the Miami Dolphins, Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. An impressive resume by any standards, but one that showed no indication of a retirement involving a small club playing a totally different sport on the other side of the Atlantic.

Enter series one of Welcome To Wrexham, the documentary charting Hollywood celebrities Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ takeover of the club, and a subsequent family visit to north Wales.

“Our sons, Jack and Emmet, had reached the age where you want to start exposing them to international travel,” Harrington says. “To give them a perspective of the world and what’s out there.

“We framed the trip by getting tickets through Nike (a major backer of the University of Oregon’s sports teams) to Manchester City versus Liverpool. The boys, both goalkeepers, were thrilled, as they had gravitated towards soccer, even though everyone assumed my kids would play American football.

“The plan was to spend time in London, call in to see some friends in Bristol and drive to Manchester. Jack, my eldest, then says, ‘Can we stop by Wrexham on the way?’ We’d all watched series one of the documentary by now and loved it.”

Wrexham were locked in a two-way scrap for the National League title with Notts County at the time, but when the Harrington family visited the ground they were given a warm welcome, including an impromptu ground tour from Geraint Parry, club secretary and Wrexham’s longest-serving member of staff.

“The first person we bump into in the tunnel is (Wrexham’s then goalkeeper and former England international) Ben Foster,” recalls Harrington. “He walks straight up to the boys, and I’m not exaggerating here, starts talking to them like they were family, asking all sorts of questions.

“When he found out their favourite position, straightaway he says, ‘I’m a goalkeeper, too, my name is Ben’. You could see the click in Jack’s eyes, as he realised, ‘Oh my God, this is Ben Foster, the England goalie’.

“Another three steps down the tunnel and (Wrexham’s manager) Phil Parkinson appears. He says, ‘Hi’ to the boys and then has a conversation with my wife, Emily, that she still talks about today. It’s probably a conversation he’s had a thousand times, one that he doesn’t even remember. But the fact he took a few moments to talk family and the boys with Emily said a lot to me.”

The Harringtons’ whistle-stop tour also involved meeting the club shop staff and head groundsman Paul Chaloner before calling in at The Turf, the pub next to Wrexham’s home which has been made famous by the documentary.

“Wayne (Jones, landlord) was brilliant with the boys,” he adds. “Made them feel so welcome that Jack, who remember is 13 at the time, so this is his first time in a bar, says to me, ‘Dad, can we play pool? There’s loads of quarters lined up on the table we can use.’

“I’m, like, ‘No, no, no, that isn’t how it works’. But the guy whose money it was said, ‘Don’t worry about it, you can have my slot’. At a time when the entire world was starting to convene on this small town in Wales, these guys treated my family like we were the first to visit.

“I’ve seen professional sports at the highest level, including a decade in the NFL. I’ve seen what that world looks like. So, as a father, to see how everyone — literally to a person, from the club shop staff to the guy running the pub and the Premier League goalkeeper who stopped a PK (penalty kick) against Notts County just a couple of weeks later — treated my kids and my family, Wrexham could lose every single match for eternity and I would still support this club.”

Autzen Stadium; Eugene, Oregon. October 12, 2024.

Actor Kaitlin Olson is back at her former university for the huge college football matchup between Oregon, who are ranked No 3 in the nation, and second-placed Ohio State. She’s joined in an Oregon record crowd of 60,129 by husband Rob. As in Rob McElhenney, her co-star in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Wrexham’s co-owner.

2 years ago @Wrexham_AFC welcomed my family. Saturday my OR&Wrexham worlds collided. ExDir @thehumphreyker is running 26.2 for @WrexhamMiners. To help, I’ll match every $ donated 2his cause up to $2,620. It’s a small world &kindness comes full circlehttps://t.co/DyzB8WQ2JD pic.twitter.com/1tYU2SpfFx

— Joey Harrington (@joey3harrington) October 19, 2024

Also in attendance is Harrington, back where it all began for him as a college quarterback in the 1990s. They all get talking during the afternoon and later pose for a post-match celebratory photo that sees the trio perform the ‘O’ hand signal that has become synonymous with Harrington’s final Oregon game before turning pro.

“This was the first time I’d met Rob and Kaitlin,” he says. “They were great, no pretence about them at all. You’d never know they were Hollywood stars. They were just part of the family and were so welcoming to me and my friends.

“We chatted Wrexham and I showed them the photo of Ben Foster with the boys. How they both were didn’t surprise me. It’s exactly how we’d been treated in Wrexham, where the town, the team, the organisation follow the example of the leadership.”

Harrington and his family are yet to visit Wrexham for a match, though he hopes to rectify that next year. They did attend the pre-season friendly against Manchester United in San Diego, California, last year where Paul Mullin suffered four broken ribs and a collapsed lung, along with this July’s match between Wrexham women’s team and Portland Thorns that attracted a crowd of 10,379 — a record for the Welsh club.

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The latter came shortly after Harrington had been confirmed as an investor in National Women’s Soccer League club Thorns, alongside two-time Olympic decathlon Ashton Eaton and Olympic heptathlon bronze medalist Brianne Theisen-Eaton.

It’s quite the turnaround for someone who readily admits to being turned off the game for years by what he considered to be play-acting in men’s football.

“I’d see the guys go down on the pitch and a stretcher would be brought out to carry him off,” says Harrington, 46, who has pledged $2,620 to executive director Humphrey Ker’s fund-raising attempts for the Wrexham Miners’ Rescue by running next year’s Manchester marathon.

“He’d then get to the sideline, where the magic spray would come out and he’d be fine. I had no respect for that. So, despite playing until fourth grade, my experiences with soccer were not very positive.”

It took watching Canada’s Christine Sinclair, the sport’s all-time leading international goalscorer with 190 goals in 331 games, play for the University of Portland in the early 2000s to start changing his mind.

“Christine got knocked off the ball,” he recalls. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh great, here come the theatrics’. But, no, she popped right back up and gave the girl an elbow on the way back up. Not only was she instantly my favourite player but I thought, ‘I’m only going to watch women’s soccer’.”

Harrington playing for the Miami Dolphins in 2006 (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Welcome To Wrexham helped change that stance, especially after he started to spot those parallels between his own career and how the Welsh club’s fortunes were being transformed under Reynolds and McElhenney.

“What really resonates is the similarities with what has happened at Wrexham and my own time with the Oregon football programme,” he says. “When I showed up in ’97, we were seen as irrelevant by the rest. We were afterthoughts. So, a group of us sat down and decided to change things. We were going to win things, and specifically a national championship.

“A lot of people laughed at us. But we stuck at it and things began to change. OK, we didn’t win the national championship in my senior year, we finished No 2 in the country. But to put the programme in a place where we remain part of the national conversation was incredibly special.

“Later, I got to the NFL and it was a business — ‘What can you do for me? How am I going to get mine?’, stabbing people in the back to get another year (on your contract). Which I get when you’re in a multi-billion dollar business.

“But my point is I’ve personally experienced what can happen when you get a group of people together who truly not just care about the goal — which is coming out of irrelevance into prominence — but also each other. I see the same thing at Wrexham.

“There’s more to it than just putting butts on seats, there’s more to it than just scratching and clawing your way to the top. It’s how you do it and who you bring along and why you do it that also matters. Wrexham get that.”

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(Top photo: The Harringtons on their visit to the Racecourse Ground/Joey Harrington)

Georgia was the overwhelming preseason No. 1 team. Texas is the highest-ranked SEC team in the College Football Playoff at No. 3. Alabama has more Top 25 wins this season than the CFP’s top five teams combined.

But the SEC team that no one wants to play right now is one that isn’t even in the top 10.

“If you ask me right now which team I’d least want to face, it’s Ole Miss,” said an SEC defensive coordinator of a Top 25 team. “They’re now the most talented defensive team in the league. They have all these difference-maker pass rushers and a true lockdown corner in Trey Amos.

“They just got all these dudes up front. Three guys in the top five of sack leaders in the SEC (Suntarine Perkins, 10 sacks and No. 1; Princely Umanmielen, 9.5 sacks and tied for No. 2; and Jared Ivey, 7.5 sacks and tied for No. 5). That’s crazy! (J.J.) Pegues was a featured guy for them last year; he’s still really good (11.5 TFLs, two sacks) and he’s not even one of their top three! Walter Nolen is also really good. An inside guy with four sacks is pretty dang good. It’s really impressive.”

The other part of this that multiple SEC assistant coaches noted was that Ole Miss beat up Georgia even though the Rebels were without their best player, Tre Harris, a wide receiver who has been dealing with a lower-body injury. Harris’ 141 yards per game leads the country.

Last Saturday the Rebels held Georgia to its fewest points of the Kirby Smart era (10), its fewest total yards in seven seasons (245) and its fewest rushing yards since 2021 (59). Ole Miss leads the SEC in yards per play allowed in games against ranked opponents among the 14 teams who have faced at least two Top 25 opponents. Last year, the Rebels were dead last in the SEC at 7.81 YPP in those games.

To say Ole Miss has a ferocious defensive front is an understatement. It’s why defensive line coach Randall Joyner, a Larry Johnson protege, is making a good case to get Broyles Award consideration. That award is given to the nation’s top assistant, but, of course, Rebels defensive coordinator Pete Golding is also making a compelling case. Ole Miss has 23 more TFLs than anyone else in the SEC (103) and 18 more than anyone else in the country. It also has 13 more sacks than any other team in the SEC.

Four players already have double-digits in TFLs, and Ivey is close at 9.5. Last year, they only had one guy in double digits (Ivey with 11.5) Eight Rebels have at least four TFLs.

A big piece of that impact is due to the commitment Ole Miss made this offseason to upgrading its talent in the trenches through the portal.

Umanmielen, who transferred from Florida, and Nolan, who transferred from Texas A&M, were the big headliners. But other transfers are making a statement: top tackler Chris Paul Jr. (74 tackles, 10 TFLs) from Arkansas; second-leading tackler T.J. Dottery from Clemson; Amos from Alabama; and defensive back John Saunders from Miami (Ohio). Some current leaders transferred three years ago, like the 325-pound Pegues (Auburn), Ivey (Georgia Tech) and linebacker Khari Coleman (TCU).

The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Umanmielen has had 11.5 TFLs and 8.5 sacks in his last six games and has emerged as a dominant force for the Rebels.

“His quick get-off is phenomenal,” a Rebels coach told The Athletic this week. “He sets them up where he wants to counter them, sometimes with a spin move, or he will go speed-to-power rush at times. One of the (Georgia) tackles overset too quickly because he was so worried about Princely’s speed rush, so (Umanmielen) countered him with a spin move and was able to get a sack. He’s very smart and does a good job of studying the opposing tackles. He picks them apart.”

Umanmielen only played one snap in a 29-26 loss to LSU due to injury.

“If we had him, we win that game,” said that Rebels coach.

The 6-1, 210-pound Perkins, a former five-star recruit, has been another nightmare for offenses.

“He’s so freakin explosive. He’s one of the best QB spies in the country,” said the Rebels coach.

“He is stronger than you think at the point of attack for being a lighter guy,” said a rival SEC DC who has seen a lot of Ole Miss on crossover film. That coach has been very impressed with the job Golding has done this year. “They run more games than he used to at Alabama. He’s been really aggressive on first and second downs and he has really cut that D-line loose.”

What else is on my radar

Trends in the coaching carousel

The coaching carousel often follows perceived trends. This winter is not expected to have a lot of changes, but one thing to watch is whether older, proven winners from lower-levels of football are in vogue. Why? Athletic directors and search company heads have taken note of what has happened at Indiana this year, I’m told.

Curt Cignetti has led the Hoosiers to a 10-0 start. The 63-year-old began his head coaching career in 2011 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the Division II PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference), where he spent six seasons before moving on to FCS Elon in the CAA (Coastal Athletic Association), where he went 14-9. Cignetti was then hired at James Madison, where that program elevated to FBS under him; JMU went 11-1 last year in the Sun Belt. Cignetti follows in the success of Lance Leipold, a former Division III coach who has won big everywhere he’s been while moving up.

Cignetti’s established ways in running a program have paid off in Bloomington. It’s why Skip Holtz, who has spent over two decades as a head coach outside the Power 4 and is now winning big in the UFL, could be in play for the Southern Miss and Rice openings. Same for Sam Houston’s K.C. Keeler, a 65-year-old who has won two FCS national titles. Keeler took a team that went 3-9 in its first season in the FBS in Conference USA to a 7-2 mark that began with a blowout win at Rice in August.

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Keeler, I expect, will be in play for the Rice vacancy as well as USM.

SEC QB draft stock

Georgia QB Carson Beck’s draft stock isn’t the only one in an interesting spot. LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier, a redshirt junior who spent much of the previous two seasons on the sidelines watching Jayden Daniels, had begun to emerge as the top quarterback prospect in the 2025 class, according to our NFL draft expert Dane Brugler. But that changed since halftime of the Tigers’ loss to Texas A&M last month.

Nussmeier, the son of Eagles QB coach Doug Nussmeier, ranks No. 30 on Brugler’s latest Top 50 Big Board. “With only 10 collegiate starts on his resume, Nussmeier would be wise to return to school,” Brugler wrote.

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In recent weeks, defenses have continued showing him different pictures and giving him different looks, whether that meant to show six up and bring pressure, or drop out people off the edge.

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Nussmeier has thrown five INTs in the last two games — both double-digit losses. Still, his arm talent is tantalizing.

“I do think he’s the most talented,” a long-time NFL scout told me. “If I were a GM, I would pick him over all these guys. He just needs to play a lot more. I think he’s seeing things that he’s never seen before. He’s got 11 starts and it’s starting to show. (Texas A&M coach Mike) Elko did some stuff to him, and he looks confused.”

“I think he’s as good as any of them,” another SEC DC said. “He is way more aggressive than Carson Beck. He is a true gunslinger, where he’s like, if my guy is covered, I can throw him open — and 70 percent of the time he’s gonna be right. He’s also cost his team at times because they are so much more one-dimensional than Georgia is.

“This kid is probably taking a beating right now. This kid is like Brett Favre. He’s a freaking gunslinger. If he figures it out, in another year or whatever, he can have a really great career. I’m telling you: In big moments, in two-minute drives, you’re like, ‘Holy shit, this dude is good.’”

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A wild-card QB prospect

The biggest wild card in the 2025 NFL quarterback draft class is Louisville’s Tyler Shough. The 6-5, 230-pounder began his career at Oregon before transferring to Texas Tech before transferring again to Louisville. He’s thrown 20 touchdowns and five INTs this season and has thrown nine TDs and just two picks in four games against Top 25 opponents.

“The guy with the best tape in terms of the physical tools is Tyler Shough,” said an NFL scout. “When you watch him compared to the Riley Leonards, Will Howards and Kurtis Rourkes, throw Mark Gronowski in there, Shough’s arm talent looks head and shoulders better. I know there are some age and durability questions about him. He’s never finished a season, so knock on wood, I hope he makes it through this year. He can really chuck it. If you were to tell me four years from now that he’s been able to stay healthy and is a winning starter in the NFL, I wouldn’t be shocked by that.

“It’s a weird (quarterback) class.”

(Photo illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Wesley Hitt, John Bunch / Icon Sportswire via Getty)

Colorado coach Deion Sanders says he’ll do his part to steer his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, and Buffaloes’ receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter to better situations in next year’s NFL Draft.

During an appearance on Fox Sports 1’s “Speak,” Deion Sanders was asked by co-host Keyshawn Johnson if he would step in during the draft process if the “wrong” team drafted Shedeur.

“Yeah, but I’m not going to do it publicly. I’ll do it privately,” Sanders said. “I’m gonna be Dad until the cows come home, and with Travis as well.”

.@DeionSanders says he will step in if the wrong team drafts Shedeur. 👀 pic.twitter.com/WK67vSyouY

— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) November 12, 2024

Shedeur Sanders and Hunter are both likely first-round picks. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler had Hunter as No. 1 on his latest list of the top 50 NFL Draft prospects. Sanders was No. 23, third among quarterbacks behind Miami’s Cam Ward and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe.

Sanders declined to identify teams he wants Shedeur to play for, but instead pointed to traits he wanted in a team for Shedeur’s next stop.

“Somebody that can handle the quarterback he is and somebody that can handle, understanding what he’s capable of,” Deion Sanders said. “Someone that has had success in the past handling quarterbacks or someone and an organization that understands what they’re doing. Not just throwing you out there amongst the wolves if you don’t have the support and the infrastructure of the team.

“Forget the (offensive) line. He’s played with lines that weren’t great but he’s been able to do his thing. But just the infrastructure of the team and the direction of where we’re going.”

Colorado is 7-2 and ranked 17th in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. The Buffaloes host Utah on Saturday and are alone in second place in the Big 12, on pace to play for the league title and a spot in the Playoff.

Hunter is atop The Athletic’s Heisman Straw Poll this week.

Sanders has coached his son throughout his football career, from youth leagues to high school and at Jackson State before the duo came to Colorado together after the 2022 season. Sanders also reiterated he was happy to be at Colorado when asked if he would be interested in coaching the Dallas Cowboys, where he played for five seasons.

“Shedeur has started every game in high school, every game in college but one and he is like that, man. He has a true gift. It comes from God and he loves football,” he said. “This kid loves this game and he has an insatiable appetite to win. And I want somebody to be able to propel him to the next level as well, not just get drafted by a team because we ain’t having it.”

Eli Manning, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants, famously declared along with his father Archie Manning that Eli would not play for the San Diego Chargers ahead of the 2004 NFL Draft. The Chargers held the No. 1 pick but the Mannings opposed Eli beginning his career there, in part because of how the franchise handled personal problems that arose during Ryan Leaf’s tenure there after being picked No. 2 in 1998. The Chargers drafted Manning but traded him to the New York Giants the same day.

The move echoes one Sanders made during his own draft process in 1989. The Giants asked draft prospects to take a two-hour psychological assessment at the NFL Scouting Combine. Upon learning the Giants had the 18th pick in the draft, Sanders declined to take the assessment.

“I said, ‘I’ll be gone before then. I’ll see y’all later. I ain’t got time for this,’” Sanders recounted in a 2017 interview.

The Atlanta Falcons drafted him fifth overall.

Required reading

Photo: Christian Peterson / Getty Images