Called ‘The Grinch,’ Najee Harris hopes to finally break long run for Steelers

Najee Harris has a wide smile he wears often, and his interactions with media are typically gregarious and friendly. So it was surprising when the rookie running back revealed what some of Pittsburgh Steelers teammates call him.

“They call me ‘The Grinch’ around here,” Harris said after the Christmas Eve practice at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “That’s how much I come off as (grumpy).”

Don’t worry, veteran team captain Cameron Heyward came to the rescue, buying Harris a Christmas tree for his home.

“(Heyward) said, ‘Do you have any (Christmas) lights on at our house or have a Christmas tree?’ ” Harris said. “I said, ‘No, nothing,’ and then he said, ‘If I buy you a Christmas tree, you’ve got to put it up, post it and send him a picture and I got to send (coach Mike Tomlin) a picture.”

Even if it was a smaller tree than he’d hoped, Harris seemed pleased with his new festive holiday décor. But not as pleased as he would be if he was able to break a long run.

Harris has been productive as a rookie, but his 3.6 per-carry average is middling. And one reason it’s so low is a lack of long runs. A couple of carries of 60 or more yards, for example, and all of a sudden he’s easily over 4.0 per carry.

Harris never has been and never will never be a true speed burner who breaks big runs regularly. But does he take note that he has not managed one or two through 14 games of his first NFL season?

“Of course,” Harris said. “But that takes a team effort of creating that type of a hole, I guess. Have I had that many looks at having like a 60-yard run? I mean, I don’t think I have. I can go back and look at it again. But… if you look at all the good running teams, I guess you could look at the Colts, you see that a lot of them are executing their assignments, the Titans a lot of them are executing their assignments.

“We are just not there I guess, but we are going to get there. It just takes time.”

Harris has one carry of more than 20 yards all season — a 23-yard run against the Minnesota Vikings. All of the other running backs among the top 10 in the NFL in carries have at least two carries of more than 20 yards.

There have been 35 carries of least 40 yards in the NFL this season.

“I actually just texted (running backs coach Eddie Faulkner) yesterday, ‘I need a big run,’ ” Harris said. “But it comes in time. Just can’t be too, I guess, (impatient) to do it.”

Only a Grinch, after all, would lament it too much so as to let it spoil the Christmas season. Not that Harris had any festive plans for his time off the clock late on Christmas Eve and early on Christmas Day.

“I’m gonna just chill, I guess,” Harris said. “Eat some noodles. I don’t know. I mean it’s just me in there, you think I watch (Christmas) movies by myself? I might watch ‘Spiderman.’

“They call me ‘The Grinch.’ I don’t know, Merry Christmas, I guess.”

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