The Harrington Family Foundation

The retired Pro Bowl quarterback couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Standing on the sideline during a Detroit Lions practice, he cringed as Joey Harrington dropped back again and again and threw the ball.

"I was absolutely horrified in the way Harrington was being trained," said the former NFL star, who asked that his name not be used. "From his footwork to his mechanics. ... They were ruining a young talent."

The Lions made Harrington the third overall pick of the 2002 NFL Draft, but in his four seasons as quarterback, Detroit went 19-45, never winning more than six games in a season.

Even as critics dissected his skills and fans booed him off the field, Harrington was ever the optimist. "Joey Blue Skies'' is what they started calling him.

But the future never seemed bright.

"I couldn't figure it out," said Harrington, who will make his second start for the Dolphins today against the New York Jets. "I was being criticized for thinking we could get better. ... People wanted answers and I wasn't giving them what they wanted. I didn't point fingers."

The Lions never really became "Harrington's team,'' said Detroit play-by-play radio announcer Dan Miller.

"It's tough to be a leader when you're not putting up numbers," Miller said. "Joey tried to do the right thing, I'll commend him for that. But his performance and the team's performance never added up to wins."

So what went wrong in Detroit for a quarterback who entered the league as a former Heisman Trophy finalist with so much potential?

It certainly appeared that Harrington was given an opportunity to succeed. The Lions signed a high-profile free-agent receiver in Az-Zahir Hakim and spent a first-round pick on another one, Roy Williams. Then, after Harrington's rookie season, Steve Mariucci was hired as coach, bringing with him a West Coast offense that he had run efficiently with the San Francisco 49ers.

But one NFL source called Mariucci's offense "remedial and backward," a scheme that wasn't a good fit for a developing quarterback.

By the time Mariucci was fired late last season and replaced by defensive coordinator Dick Jauron, Harrington had played for three coaches and several offensive coordinators.

As if his head wasn't spinning enough, he also was forced to play almost immediately as a rookie, starting 12 of 14 games in which he appeared.

"That's about the worst thing you can do to a young quarterback," said Tom Donahoe, the former general manager and president of the Buffalo Bills, who considered taking Harrington fourth overall in 2002 if he had still beenavailable.

"He was thrown in there and he just wasn't ready," Donahoe said.

Lions fans, who haven't seen their team in the playoffs in six years, had no time for patience.

Last season, two straight incomplete passes would have the crowd calling for veteran backup Jeff Garcia, and when Harrington walked off the field after an October loss to Carolina, the fans grew hostile.

"Twenty-five thousand people chanting, 'Joey sucks!' It was the most humiliating thing," Harrington said this week. "It was something I never believed would happen to anybody.

"I felt that eyes were on me every time I stepped out of my front door. ... Every time I got in my car, every time I got to the facility, was on the practice field, on the game field. I felt like every time I went to the dry cleaners people were watching me."

But the worst came after Mariucci was fired with five games left in the season.

Cornerback Dre Bly told the Detroit Free Press that he blamed Harrington for Mariucci's dismissal.

"We're all at fault, but I just feel like Joey's been here four years, and being the No. 3 pick in the draft, he hasn't given us anything," Bly said. "He hasn't given us what the third pick in the draft should give us."

Bly later apologized for his comments, but Garcia reflected the mood in the locker room when he was named the starter instead of Harrington late last year.

"The decision didn't come as a surprise to me," Garcia said at the time. "I think everyone in the locker room knows what the situation is and what it should be."

Mariucci, who now works for the NFL Network, could not be reached for this story.

Miller, the Detroit announcer, knows Harrington didn't always play well, but he sympathized with a young player taking the brunt of criticism.

"There is no way a human being can endure what he had to endure and stay that confident," Miller said. "Joey would have had to play error-free football for this to work out and that's a lot to ask."

Harrington coped by often thinking about his grandfather, Bernie, who attended all of his grandson's games until his death in 2002 - before he ever saw Joey play as a professional.

"I thought about him a lot, especially when things were going so poorly," Harrington said. "I think he would be proud of me."

Harrington, 27, is proud of himself for not getting bitter in Detroit or lashing back. Some observers wanted him to stand up to teammates, defend himself, but Harrington preferred to take the blame and move on.

"The most frustrating part is when people started pointing fingers, nobody stood up," he said. "I felt like a lot of people turned their backs on me."

He arrived in South Florida grateful for a fresh start, but questions remain about his future.

Several NFL executives have criticized Harrington - lanky at 6-feet-4, 220 pounds - for not doing more to get stronger, to build himself an NFL body, Donahoe said.

Others are still waiting to see consistency from a quarterback who threw for 19 touchdowns and more than 3,000 yards two years ago, but still has more interceptions (64) than touchdowns (60) in his career.

Now is the chance for Harrington to rehabilitate his image and reignite his career. Can that happen?

"Joey's good enough and smart enough to be a top-flight quarterback in this league," said ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Sean Salisbury. "I still believe in him."

Donahoe believes the struggles of Daunte Culpepper, replaced last week by Harrington, might lead to a new starter for Miami.

"Who knows?'' Donahoe said. "Now that Joey's in there, they may have a difficult time taking him out."

And this blast from Harrington's more glorious past: "He's mentally tough. He believes in himself. ... I don't ever worry about him not having the perseverance to succeed,'' said California coach Jeff Tedford, who coached Harrington at Oregon.

And Joey Blue Skies? He's as positive as ever.

"Being nice and being competitive are two separate things," Harrington said. "I will fight you to the end and I'll have a great time doing it. I may be smiling and joking with the guys, but that doesn't mean I'm not intense. And that doesn't mean I can't play."