This story originally appeared in Mile High Sports Magazine. Read the full digital edition.
Growing up with a tough-as-nails mom meant Chris Harris Jr. and his younger sister, Brittany, had to stay on the straight-and-narrow.
“We always feared our mom, so we never wanted to get in trouble,” says the cornerback, who signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2011. “She definitely had to bring the hammer down, but we were pretty good kids.”
Chris’ parents divorced when he was 5 years old, so the siblings lived with their mom, Lisa Goff, in an apartment in Tulsa, Okla. and saw their father, Chris Sr., every other weekend. Lisa worked as a mail carrier by day and a basketball referee in the evenings to support her children. As a result, she was gone a lot and Chris had to take over as man of the house.
“My mom definitely taught us responsibility early, being on schedules, discipline [and] making sure I had my room clean,” he admits.
“He’s always been obedient and responsible,” Lisa says. “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Along with those qualities, Chris says the number one life lesson his mom preached was to have a strong faith.
“She instilled ‘God first’ and always had us going to church,” says the two-time Pro Bowler.
“It’s always about thanking God for everything he gave us,” says Lisa.
That includes the gift of a daughter for Chris and his wife, Leah, and a granddaughter for Lisa. In fact, Lisa was in the delivery room when her first grandchild, Aria, was born in October of 2014. “It was very special and I was excited for this little bundle of joy,” Lisa remembers. “We just prayed for a healthy baby.”
Lisa makes the three-hour drive from Tulsa to the Harris’ offseason home in Dallas almost every weekend to visit her grandbaby and, of course, her son and daughter-in-law.
“Chris and Leah always joke and say that I don’t come to see them, I come to see Aria,” Lisa says with a laugh.
Adds Chris: “She already loves to be around us, but now that we have Aria she wants to be around even more. Aria loves her like crazy, too.”
Lisa, who turns 50 on May 13, also travels to Denver for all of her son’s home games. And this past February, she made one of the most memorable trips of all, to Santa Clara, Calif., as Chris and his Broncos teammates won Super Bowl 50.
“She’s seen me play a thousand games, but to be able to have her at the biggest game of my life definitely meant a lot,” the 26-year-old says. “It started with her. It was good for me to have the person who put me in the game be there for me.”
All that tough love has paid off. With a Super Bowl ring and three special ladies in his life, things are rosy, or better yet, pink, for Harris right now.
And even more pink is coming soon to the Harris household, as Chris and Leah are expecting another daughter in July.
