Yesterday the internet was atwitter with the new GQ story on Marvin Harrison, wonderfully authored by Jason Fagone. I had the pleasure of talking with him yesterday afternoon about the article.

We try to cover as much about the way the story was constructed as the information therein. How long did it take him to research and write the story? And if he was able to parse through the information – from witness accounts to police reports to first-person interviews with victims – and write a story that all but proves Marvin Harrison not only beat a man in the street after a disagreement, but went back into his car wash and had a broad-daylight shootout with the man, hitting him and other by-standers, why the heck couldn’t the prosecutor’s office in Philadelphia do that?

How different is the burden of proof to write a magazine article and actually prosecute someone? If the DA was concerned about conflicting statements or witnesses recanting their stories, why would a guy like Robert Nixon, who was shot in the back by, as he claims, a stray bullet

from Harrison, talk to GQ for this story? (Nixon is suing Harrison and hopes to take the money to move his family out of Philadelphia). Or was it just that police and the prosecutors thought that all the parties involved were, as the story states, ‘pieces of shit?’

Did Fagone have any concerns with the way he set up the lead to his article, telling the story through the eyes of Nixon? And was he concerned about what to believe, both in his findings and his interviews? When it’s he said-he said, who do you trust?

We run though the entire GQ story in detail, including the fact that Harrison admitted in a police interview that the gun was in his possession the entire time. We also talk about Harrison’s familial backstory, which was news to me.

And speaking of news to me, we talk about why in the world this story has been so woefully under-reported from a national standpoint. Gilbert Arenas bringing guns to the locker room is an international circus, but it seems that, safe one brief news cycle and a follow up last year by ESPN the Magazine, the Harrison story never caught on as big as it should when a Hall of Fame wide receiver allegedly shoots people in the street.

Has the media confused Harrison’s quiet demeanor with being a good guy? Are we so caught up with TO and Michael Irvin and Chad Ochocinco that we just assumed because Harrison kept his trap shut that he must have been a good citizen? Is that why the story hasn’t been bigger?

And now that the story is out, does Fagone, who lives in Philly, fear that he and his family might be a target?

Please go read the article if you haven’t yet. It’s entirely fascinating.

Hard Left Turn:

No way to get out of that segment so we move on to talk about the weekend in the NFL. Nick and I discuss how FOX got screwed by the NFL by getting the early games on both Saturday and Sunday and discuss ways the league could have set up the games to placate both networks. FOX has a big night planned on Sunday and would have benefited from the afternoon slot to lead into their prime time lineup. But the 1pm game between Dallas and Minnesota could, potentially, be the highest-rated non Super Bowl of all time. The numbers have been insane for the NFL this year. This could be the biggest.

Housekeeping:

We talk about Dick Ebersol’s shot at Conan O’Brien and take our own shot, in jest, at the fine folks at Slate’s Hang up and Listen podcast. Yes, I think I call them out to a duel. We’d kick their ascots. (We just need a third person to help. Preferably someone who can handle fighting three people at once.)

Thanks for listening.