The Harrington Family Foundation

The formal post-game news conference was over, the questions had been asked and answered, and Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington sat alone on the platform with a couple of reporters who'd chronicled his glorious years at Oregon.

This is different now, the NFL, where Sunday afternoon the Lions lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 24-17, in Candlestick Park. It was the Lions' 19th straight road loss, dating to 2000, and their fourth straight loss this season, and their 17th loss in 21 games over the past two seasons.

In his 17th NFL start, Harrington had thrown a touchdown pass but been intercepted twice, each resulting in a short field for the 49ers, each leading to a San Francisco touchdown.

"That was the issue today," Harrington had told reporters earlier. "I put the defense in a tough position a couple of times."

And afterward Harrington was asked the most difficult thing about his second season in the NFL.

"Losing, losing, losing," he said slowly and softly. "And I feel no matter what I try, it doesn't work. It's just a matter of reps, and seeing, over and over and over. And that's why you see young quarterbacks struggle, because they haven't seen it enough. You just have to get out there and play, and you can only get that experience one day a week.

"It's tough to know that I'm physically capable of doing it, I'm mentally ready to do it, but putting those two together takes time."

Harrington won't celebrate his 25th birthday until Oct. 21, and already he's been a starter for the equivalent of a full season plus one game. He's had two different head coaches - the current Lions coach, Steve Mariucci, spent the past six seasons as head coach of the 49ers, and his homecoming loss was the big story in the Bay Area - and experienced some of the highs and lows of being the hoped-for savior of a downtrodden franchise.

With the territory comes criticism, and Harrington has received some this season; indeed, the quarterback who cried after the Ducks lost at Wisconsin in his junior year was criticized earlier this season for seeming unfazed after a Lions loss.

But Harrington, who's made it clear that he's going to be himself - it's Joey, not "Joe," and he's from Orygun, not "Ore-gone," and he played jazz piano at halftime on Monday Night Football's takeoff on "American Idol" - said he won't change his personality, or his determination to find the positive steps in the Lions' struggles.

"I'm not going to change," he said. "There was a big uproar last week because I was too positive. I wasn't affected enough by losing? That's a bunch of crap, to be honest. I'm affected more than anybody else, because I'm out there taking the beating. I'm out there laying myself on the line to win these football games. And to say I don't react emotionally is ridiculous.

"(But) I know it's going to be a long haul. I know it's not going to happen right away. And in order to keep my head fresh, in order to keep positive, in order to keep plugging, I have to stay that way. Because it's tough. When you lose 16 out of your last 20 games, it's tough to walk in the next day and say, `You know what, here are the positive things I'm going to take from it, because we're going to get better,' because the natural human reaction is to say, `Well, I guess we're not that good.'

"Well, you know what, I don't feel that way. I don't feel we're not as good as the teams we're playing. There are mistakes that we can learn from."

He hasn't read the newspaper in a while. He doesn't watch the TV sports news.

"You can't," he said. "You can't expose yourself to that stuff, because when you watch it, you're taking somebody else's perspective, and it's a perspective that doesn't sit in the meeting rooms with you, and it's a perspective that isn't on the practice field with you, and what they see, what the public sees, isn't always as black and white as that.

"I really feel that there are steps that I'm making. I really do. I'm feeling more comfortable. And that's why it's more frustrating. We're not winning games. ... People are going to talk, and write what they're going to write, but it doesn't compare to what I'm feeling, and what I expect. They want me to be better, and I expect myself to be better. It's just frustrating knowing that it's going to take time."

Sunday, Harrington's very first pass was intercepted. He was attempting to hit Charles Rogers over the middle, and 49ers cornerback Ahmed Plummer stepped inside of the rookie wide receiver at the Detroit 27. Harrington never saw him. Six plays later, the 49ers had a touchdown.

"We've run that play 6,000 times and I've never, ever seen that happen, ever," Harrington said, another lesson learned the hard way. "I have never seen the corner in that position before."

His second interception came late in the third quarter. The Lions, once down 17-0, had closed to 17-10, and were going on fourth-and two from the 49ers 35. Again, Harrington was throwing to the rookie Rogers, and this time the pass was overthrown, sailing perhaps in the swirling wind, and picked off by strong safety Tony Parrish at the 13.

Parrish returned to the Detroit 38, and three plays later, 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia scored from the 1 and the 49ers were back in control.

"It was one of those balls I probably should have put a little more zip on," Harrington said. "It definitely held up in the wind up there, more than I expected. The guy just came over and made a good play on it."

Since beginning the season with a win over Arizona, the Lions have lost at Green Bay, at home to Minnesota, at Denver and now at San Francisco. Those are four likely playoff teams - the 49ers getting a much-needed win for Dennis Erickson, the former Oregon State coach, on Sunday - and the past two have been games the Lions might have won if not, in part, for their own mistakes, some by Harrington, others by his teammates.

Sunday, they twice had not one but two holding calls on the same play.

On the Lions' second possession, Harrington hit Rogers for a first down pass, only to have it negated by offensive pass interference on receiver Bill Schroeder.

On their third possession, Rogers had first-down yardage but dropped the ball.

On Detroit's fourth possession, Harrington's third-down pass hit an official.

Late in the game, the Lions down 24-17 after Harrington's most impressive drive - the Lions went 60 yards in eight plays, Harrington hitting 5-of-5 for 64 yards - the Lions got hit with a holding penalty on second-and-four, and then Az-Zahir Hakim couldn't come down with a high but catchable ball on second-and-long, and that was the Lions' last, best chance to force overtime.

"A wise man once told me that winning comes in three stages," Harrington had told the throng of reporters earlier, referring to his father, John, standing in the back of the interview room. "The first step is getting there, getting close, getting yourself in the games. And we have been there the last three weeks. The second step is getting that big win. We had a chance to break through the last two weeks; we had a chance to get those big wins on the road but it didn't quite happen.

"The third step is walking into the game knowing that you're going to win. We're not walking in with that attitude. We have hit that first step. We have put ourselves in games on the road against good teams and we've played very well at times. That's what I'm going to take out of it. We're making steps."