JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For Jacksonville Jaguars right tackle Anton Harrison, every snap and every block is fueled by the woman who inspired him most — his grandmother, Virgie Mae Wiley.
Harrison said growing up, he was always close with his family.
“My family, we’re a small, tight-knit family,” Harrison said. “Growing up in D.C., everybody stayed in D.C., so we were always together.”
He said after school, he and his little brother made the same walk straight to their grandma’s house.
“I was always in the kitchen with her,” Harrison said. “She got me eating things I never thought I would eat before — like beef liver.”
Memories from inside that kitchen still make him smile.
“Me and my little brother, we used to always be at her house, and she had nicknames for us,” Harrison said. “I was Shrek and my little brother was Mouse. She used to always sit in her chair, have her bowl of candy she got from the corner store. Me and my brother, the first thing we did when we went over there was grab some of that candy.”
He laughs when he thinks about it because he said he didn’t even like the candy, but he’d eat it anyway just to share the moment.
It wasn’t until Harrison got older that he understood what his grandmother was really fighting — breast cancer.
“So that’s when it really hit, like, ‘this is real,’” he said. “I kind of started to understand it more, and it’s really just like how she raised my mother and my aunts and how they raised me and my brothers, and it all just trickled down the family tree. That’s why I love her.”
Wiley battled cancer for most of Harrison’s life before passing during his sophomore year at Oklahoma. Now, he plays for her — every practice, every game, every tough moment.
“One of the main driving factors of why I do what I do, and I do it at a high level no matter how hard it is, is because she went through that,” Harrison said. “I leaned on her growing up. I was always with her, so I kind of want to do it for her.”
Each season, the NFL partners with the American Cancer Society for the Crucial Catch campaign — helping detect cancer early and save lives. Harrison proudly represents the cause during My Cause My Cleats, in his grandmother’s name.
Harrison said he wants to continue her legacy through the kitchen.
“Really, I want to do something with food — get in the kitchen, try to give back to the community,” Harrison said. “Just to keep her legacy going in my eyes. She taught me basically a lot of the things I know in the kitchen, so I want to keep that going.”
These days, that kitchen love has turned into viral fame — and a way to carry Grandma Virgie’s spirit forward. But there is one meal that reminds him of his grandmother the most.
“Beef liver, gravy, onions, rice and peas,” Harrison said. “A lot of people, growing up, you hear beef liver and you’re like, ‘ew, what is that?’ My grandmother, every time she made it or picked it up, she’d call us and be like, ‘I got it cooking,’ and we’d be over there quick. That’s one thing I’m going to perfect soon. If I do have a cookbook or a restaurant, that’s going to be the signature dish right there.”
A meal, a memory and a legacy that lives on — through every rep, every plate and every bit of love she left behind.