Alabama RB Najee Harris Says He Doesn't Regret Returning for Senior Season

Alabama running back Najee Harris knows he may have hurt his NFL career by returning to college for his senior season. 

Age, he says, plays a big factor when teams are looking at drafting a tailback, and there's a difference between a rookie who's 22 years old versus one who's 23, however minor it may seem.

Even with his sport on the cusp of cancelation following the Big Ten and Pac-12 deciding to push their seasons to the spring, Harris told reporters he hasn't once second-guessed returning to Tuscaloosa. 

"When I make a decision, I stand firm on it," Harris said. "I don't have no regrets on it. I want to come back with my team and just grind it out through another year. We didn't know what was gonna happen now but now I feel like we have a really good team. No matter what, I'm so happy that I came back. I don't regret nothing."

It's partly because of that decision Harris says he feels a responsibility to speak up on behalf of his teammates and the sport.

As of Friday, the Southeastern Conference is going ahead with plans to play a normal season. That's great news for Harris, but it's only part of what would make this a successful year in college football. 

The other part—the part that required speaking up—is ensuring players remain safe and healthy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Which is why he signed onto the #WeWantToPlay movement in early August: 

"I am a pretty closed-in guy, but it's just so much, like, uncertainty going around. Now I'm not in a position to be quiet. I have to speak up for others who can't speak. 

"Us athletes want to play to create value for ourselves. We're kind of iffy about the season, [but] age and time still moves on. We can't take that back. We probably could run back the season but we can't take back age and time."

Harris is now advocating for universal health and safety guidelines across the NCAA, a guarantee of eligibility for players who opt-out of the season, and most importantly, the establishment of a college football players association.  

In the meantime, Harris is preparing for the upcoming season as best he can and not looking back on past decisions or contemplating skipping the 2020 campaign. 

The tailback who rushed for 1,224 yards and 13 touchdowns last year says sitting out because of the COVID-19 pandemic "has never crossed my mind."

Should the SEC attempt to play a season in the spring rather than the fall—as the Big Ten is exploring—Harris says he'll worry about it then.