2007 NFL Draft: Ryan Harris Ready to Tackle the NFL

By Jeremy White, NFLHS.com

Ryan Harris is an interesting guy. At 6-foot-5 and 305 pounds, he's got the perfect build to play offensive tackle in the NFL. He played that position to near perfection at Notre Dame, where he helped protect Brady Quinn and open holes for Darius Walker.

Well spoken like all Notre Dame students, Harris has ambitions larger than football: He wants to one day be the governor of his home state of Minnesota. Politics is a slippery slope, though, and when he enters that arena he'll likely answer as many questions about his religion as about his football prowess.

That's because he converted to Islam in the eighth grade. He's the only Muslim in his family, he says, and he insists many of the values of Islam and Christianity - the predominant religion in the U.S. - are the same. Oddly enough, he went to a Catholic high school and Catholic college. Despite that, Harris says he never had any trouble at either level over his religion.

"It's never been an issue," he says.

While he calls politics his "number two dream," his number one dream is football. Playing in the NFL is something I've thought about since I was a little kid."

One trait that helps Harris on the football field - and will be invaluable in politics as well - is his durability. He can take a beating, as evidenced by the fact he started 45 consecutive games at Notre Dame.

"That's something I really take pride in," he says. "When you play on the line you're going to get hurt at some point, but I've always wanted to be there for my teammates and help them succeed."

Before moving on to Notre Dame, Harris played at Cretin-Derham Hall, a Catholic high school in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. He played both sides of the ball there and starred on teams that enjoyed plenty of success.

"The program our high school coach put together is truly amazing," Harris says. "It was an honor to be a part of that program. A lot of good players came out of my high school."

Harris was nearly as effective on the wrestling mat as on the gridiron.

"I wrestled in the 217-pound weight class as both a sophomore and a junior," he says. "My last year wrestling was my junior year. I went 28-2 that year, but I didn't go to state. I lost to the guy who went on to win state."

Back on the football field, Harris says he enjoyed defense as much as offense, but admits that "early on I realized offense was where I could succeed the most, so I decided to dedicate myself to that."

Though he had to stop wresting as a senior in high school to prepare his body for playing football at Notre Dame, Harris recommends all prep football players find another sport in addition to football. He particularly recommends that linemen learn to wrestle.

"It helped me be a better football player and a better lineman, especially," he says. "It helped my agility, my footwork, my stamina. It taught me how to use somebody's body weight against them. You learn a lot by wrestling."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.