Damon Harrison leads Jets to Super Bowl title - in Madden
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) The New York Jets are Super Bowl champions - at least in Damon Harrison's videogame world.
The nose tackle nicknamed ''Snacks'' has been playing an advanced copy of EA Sports' Madden NFL 16, which hits stores Tuesday, for the last two weeks and completed a full season Sunday night by leading the Jets where only Broadway Joe has gone before.
''All the way,'' a grinning Harrison said. ''Calvin Pryor was just the Super Bowl MVP last night. I finished up. Seriously.''
In Harrison's game, the second-year safety returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the big victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Harrison has visual proof, too, and couldn't wait to show Pryor the pictures of the screen captures he took.
Jets fans - and players - certainly wouldn't mind if Harrison's video game result played out in reality. The franchise hasn't won, or even appeared, in a Super Bowl since Joe Namath led New York to a win over Baltimore in 1969.
While the Jets have had to press reset on their unsettled quarterback situation with Geno Smith sidelined six to 10 weeks with a broken jaw and Ryan Fitzpatrick starting in his place, Harrison had no problems sorting things out.
''I went with my guy, Geno, man, throughout the year,'' a smiling Harrison said. ''I turned the injuries off, so everybody was able to stay around for the entire year.''
Harrison gave the game an overall positive review - ''It's pretty good, man'' - but had an issue with one of the skill ratings assigned to him. The 6-foot-4, 350-pound lineman has a 50 rating for speed, with the rare 100 being the fastest, meaning he's not exactly the unstoppable and elusive force, say, Bo Jackson was in the Tecmo Bowl games of the 1980s.
''We need to talk to the main guy about the speed,'' Harrison said. ''I'm a whole lot faster.''
Harrison wasn't expecting to be a videogame speedster, although he edited his rating to 99 for his own game.
''Something reasonable, a 72,'' he said of his ideal rating for speed. ''I'm the slowest defensive lineman we have. Mo (Wilkerson) and Sheldon (Richardson) are like 70, 72. They're a lot faster than that. But if the main guy's watching this, I mean, you've got to get me in the 60s, man. I can't play (as) myself like that.''
Oh, and the Jets' defense should be a pretty sack-happy bunch if it's anything like how Harrison's version turned out.
''I finished with 13 sacks, Muhammad had 15 and Sheldon had 20,'' Harrison said, adding that he moved first-round pick Leonard Williams around between end and tackle. ''As a whole, we finished pretty good.''
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