HUNGER GAMES
Snacks devours foes, leads Jints on playoff run
HE IS a Giant in every way. A bully who Wellington Mara and Bill Parcells would have loved imposing his will at the point of attack, a humble teddy bear of a man who commands respect in the locker room and the meeting rooms and inspires teammates with his wisdom and heart.
They call him Snacks, and it is a f itting nickname because he eats running backs who dare come his way. On Monday night, Damon Harrison will be playing Santa Claus at a Toys For Tots event in Manhattan as part of his I Told The Storm Foundation. On Sunday, he will be playing Scrooge to Matthew Stafford and the Lions. A 340-pound Scrooge, give or take a few snacks, who brings a ferocious mentality to an indomitable defense.
“Dominate. Dominate the guy that’s in front of me for four quarters, make him hate his job, make him not want to block me,” Harrison told The Post. “Have it to where one guy can’t block me.”
On a defense not lacking in leadership, Harrison is their E.F. Hutton. When he speaks, everybody listens.
“He might have a bigger impact off the field than he is having on the field,” defensive captain Jonathan Casillas said, “which says a lot.”
Casillas recalls Harrison’s words in the locker room before the Cowboys game.
“He was saying pregame last week that he don’t know how to win. ... He hasn’t won in his career, he hasn’t been to the playoffs,” Casillas said. “And, he was looking to guys that have won — Eli [Manning], Zak [DeOssie], myself, all of us having two rings, Victor Cruz. He was looking to us, on that day, to see what we’re doing. If we’re leading. If we’re leading by example. Show him how to win, how winners approach a day like this.
“That’s what he said before the game. And then after the game, it was, ‘Everything was done together, which we did collectively.’ ”
You better believe it resonated with his fellow Giants. “He calls himself out sometimes,” Casillas said. “He kinda humanizes himself.
“He’s a full-round entity of what you want as a defensive tackle, as a person, as a human being.”
Harrison’s impact — even in his first season since coming over from the Jets — is not lost on Manning, either.
“He’s good in the locker room, just bringing the team together, has a great attitude, brings it every day in practice,” Manning said. “Kind of a guy that does whatever it takes. He’s playing scout-team offensive line a few weeks ago. He brings that entertainment around the locker room, but on the field, that intensity that you have to have in this game.”
Harrison is third on the team behind Landon Collins and Casillas with 47 tackles, with 1.5 sacks to boot. Odell Beckham Jr. is long on style. Harrison is more substance than any of them, a glue guy without which you cannot win. The Giants’ $46.2 million rock — boulder, actually.
“I’m glad he’s on my team so I don’t have to play games against him,” center Weston Richburg said. “He’s a big human being, he understands how to use his hands really well.”
He understands how to deflect attention from himself the way he deflects offensive linemen and running backs.
“I don’t consider myself a leader at all, honestly,” Harrison said. But everybody says he is. “No, man, they’re just being nice,” Harrison said. “I’m just a guy who loves to talk a little bit and has a little wisdom that guys just like to pick my brain, and I’m always willing to talk.”
And what wisdom do you impart?
“Just being in the moment, taking advantage of what you can, working as hard as you can to be able to attain everything you want to attain,” Harrison said.
He prided himself on being the game’s best run-stopper during most of his four years with the Jets and when asked if he believes he still is, he says: “Yes, sir.”
He deserves to be in the Pro Bowl.
“It’s not my main focus right now,” Harrison said.
The playoffs are his focus. It would mean the world to him to play meaningful Janu- ary football. “The season’s not over yet, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and say anything like that,” Harrison said. “We’re happy with where we are right now, but we aren’t satisfied at all where we are, we know we can be better.” Santa Snacks Monday night. “I just think it’ll just mean a lot more to the people that’s there if I physically dress up as Santa Claus. Kinda just putting a face if you will, to the entire event,” he said. Scrooge first, Sunday afternoon.