(Photo via Brooke Pryor of ESPN Twitter)
After Alabama running back Najee Harris was selected by the Steelers at 24th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, he had a press conference with the media, and an unexpected cornerback for an AFC North team appeared in the Zoom call.
It was Marcus Peters of the Ravens who jumped into the Zoom call and said Harris will be seeing him twice a year. Harris said Peters was telling him that before the draft also.
So, what's the connection between Harris and Peters? They're both from the Bay Area and Harris had his draft party in Oakland. Harris is from Martinez, Calif., which is 30 minutes north east of Oakland and told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wanted to assemble a Bay Area-based crew, and Peters is an Oakland native, so it was fitting. Their friendship is traced to former NFL running back and Oakland's own Marshawn Lynch, with whom Peters shares an agent.
Harris also gave back to his community on draft day yesterday. In middle school, Harris was living in a homeless shelter and yesterday, he returned to throw a draft party for the kids and families at the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program.
Along with giving back to his Bay Area community, Harris also mentioned in his press conference with the media that he wants to give back to the Pittsburgh community as well once he gets settled in the city.
"I guess I'm a very giving person. I do a lot of stuff in the community," Harris said. "One thing that I went to Alabama from the West Coast, and one thing I was doing was seeing how was the poverty rate and was there things I could do in that situation. In Pittsburgh I have never lived there, I've never been over there before. All I know is about the football. I'm always hoping to learn new things. I want to see what ways I can help in the community and ways and stuff like that, having food banks, just doing stuff in the area where I can just help out people off-the-field wise stuff, too. Just really stuff like that, giving back to the community."