Story Time: When Joey Harrington Performed with Jason Mraz
Captain Comeback always knew how to put on a show, but his performance with Jason Mraz and Blues Traveler has been one of the greatest "Non-Football-Oregon-Football" mysteries of our time.
Football is still over (and we lost our DC), the Men are on “COVID Pause” after their traditional Mountain Split, and the Women only play once this weekend (#11 Arizona).
There’s a whole lot of limbo, so let’s just talk about Joey Harrington.
Some years ago— probably while I was googling “Joey Harrington” over and over—I stumbled upon this incredible, almost unexplainable YouTube video.
It features our very own accomplished concert pianist, Joseph Harrington, performing Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” for a small crowd. But what makes this video even more amazing is that actual-famousperson Jason Mraz is sitting right on top of the piano, singing along.
Joey getting to perform alongside a Grammy winner like Mraz would be wild enough, but watch this video for a little longer and you might realize that the mystery harmonica man in the back is none other than the-only-famous-harmonica-person-ever, John Popper.*
*Popper could have written "The Times They Are a-Changin’,” but Dylan could never have written “Hook.” On that, you can rely.
But why does this video exist? Where was the grainy footage taken? And why the hell doesn’t Jason Mraz know the lyrics to fucking “Piano Man”?
I answered these questions so you don’t have to.
After a little more googling, I discovered an old press release that announced this show as a benefit concert for the Harrington Family Foundation.
“An Acoustic Night of Music” was sponsored by Best Buy, and was held at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on June 26th, 2003—the summer after Joey’s rookie season. It benefitted Shriner’s Hospitals for Children Portland, and the weekend also included a star-studded autograph signing at the Clackamas Best Buy a few days prior.
Here’s the press release for that Best Buy bash:
“Joey Harrington of the Detroit Lions, along with John Popper and Chan Kinchla of Blues Traveler, will sign autographs for fans at the Best Buy store in Clackamas, Ore. on Tuesday, June 24.”
I have never longed to stand in line outside the Clackamas Best Buy in the Summer of ‘03—until now.
For an extra bit of Seven Degrees of Separation between Mraz/Harrington, Youtube commenter Mijadi1987 noted:
It's funny that a few months after this Jason sang the national anthem at the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game. Joey Harrington was the Lions starting qb at the time and can be seen in the video of the performance on youtube.
Thanks to Mijadi1987, I found that anthem performance, along with this Patriotic Joey screenshot. Sure enough, Mraz opened for the 2006 Lions-Packers Thanksgiving game. Detroit won 22-17 with 5 field goals and 5 forced turnovers. Joey threw for 183 yards and 1 pick—hey, if it gets the job done, then it gets the job done.
Overall, Joey was 1-3 on Thanksgiving while with the Lions. That might be part of the reason Detroit isn’t such a big fan of his.
HOWEVER the franchise as a whole is just 37-41-2 all-time on Thanksgiving, so it’s not like they’ve created culture of winning on Turkey Day.
Kind of unfair to hold Joey to a standard which you don’t hold yourself to, yeah?
Besides, maybe the Lions were the problem after all. Because in 2006—right after Detroit kicked him to the curb—Joey came full circle by tossing 3 scores against his former team on Thanksgiving as quarterback of the Dolphins.
He gobbled up the MVP pie at midfield after the game. Celebrating with pie on your opponent’s field might just be more disrespectful than dancing on a logo, but hey, it was his best game as a pro, let him rub it in.
Captain Comeback even managed to complete a pass to Justin Peelle during the game. Something about old habits.
So that’s the story of that one time Joey Harrington, Jason Mraz, and John Popper performed “Piano Man” together.
Fun Fact:
Of all the buildings or rooms on the UO Campus that could be named after Joey, you kight guess that it was an athletic facility. But the “Joey and Emily Harrington Family Piano Practice Studio”** in the Frohnmayer Music Building is the only one that bears his name. I’ve been there, it’s just a small room with a piano. I think it’s pretty cool that he wanted to create a space like that, rather than dump a few extra bucks on top of Uncle Phil’s athletic fund.
**This is roughly the name, I don’t remember it exactly.
I still don’t know why Mraz doesn’t know the words to “Piano Man” though. Maybe he’s strictly an 80s Joel guy.
At least he said: “You got a nice bar, Joe.”
Go Ducks.