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After Derrick Harmon was the 21st general team on Thursday, the new Pittsburgh Steeler had to give the news to his mother.
Harmon could not see the draft with his mother because he was on a vital support in a hospital.
Harmon said being recruited was “bittersweet” because he couldn’t spend it with his mother.
Just after being selected, Harmon traveled to a hospital to visit his mother, Tiffany Saine, and told him that “his son was recruited.”
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The defensive line of Oregon Ducks, Derrick Harmon (55), reacts in the second half against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2025 Rose Bowl football game game at the Rose Bowl stadium. (Kirby Lee/Imagn images)
According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Saine died shortly after.
Harmon, a defensive Tackle, was taken by the Steelers.
Harmon said his mother had a stroke when he was a first -year student in the state of Michigan, which left her paralyzed on her left side. He had “about eight brain surgeries,” said Harmon.
“She is the reason I am here. She is the reason I did everything to this point,” Harmon said.
The defensive line of Oregon Ducks, Derrick Harmon (55), reacts in the second half against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2025 Rose Bowl football game game at the Rose Bowl stadium. (Kirby Lee/Imagn images)
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Harmon also said he used his zero money to buy his mother an accessible truck.
“Man, how resistant he was, man. Only growing from my point of view, my situation, I grew up with her having probably seven, eight brain surgeries,” Harmon said after being selected. “And after all those brain surgeries, man, she didn’t give up.
“She still led me to practice, she still went to work. I always back in my head since the beginning of my university career was: ‘Why can’t I go ahead? If I am tired, I am wounded, whatever, why can’t I move on? If you can get up and can move on with brain surgeries.”
“So only her resistance and her hard work, really. She was my inspiration.”
The defensive line of Oregon Ducks, Derrick Harmon, forces a loose ball for the field marshal of the Idaho Vandals, Jack Layne, on August 31, 2024, at the Autzen stadium in Eugene, Ore. (Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard/USA Today Network through IMAGN images)
The 5 -foot 5 -inch and 310 pounds Harmon spent three seasons in the Michigan state before transferring to Oregon, where it became a disruptive force. Harmon was a second team all-American last season while ending with five catches and 10½ cups for loss for the Ducks.
