{"id":297021,"date":"2025-10-12T10:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/297021\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T10:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:18:16","slug":"jaguars-anton-harrison-honors-grandmothers-legacy-through-football-and-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/297021\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaguars\u2019 Anton Harrison honors grandmother\u2019s legacy through football and food"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 For Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> right tackle Anton Harrison, every snap and every block is fueled by the woman who inspired him most \u2014 his grandmother, Virgie Mae Wiley.<\/p>\n

Harrison said growing up, he was always close with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family, we\u2019re a small, tight-knit family,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cGrowing up in D.C., everybody stayed in D.C., so we were always together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said after school, he and his little brother made the same walk straight to their grandma\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always in the kitchen with her,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cShe got me eating things I never thought I would eat before \u2014 like beef liver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memories from inside that kitchen still make him smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my little brother, we used to always be at her house, and she had nicknames for us,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughs when he thinks about it because he said he didn\u2019t even like the candy, but he\u2019d eat it anyway just to share the moment.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Harrison got older that he understood what his grandmother was really fighting \u2014 breast cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s when it really hit, like, \u2018this is real,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI kind of started to understand it more, and it\u2019s 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\u2019s why I love her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiley battled cancer for most of Harrison\u2019s life before passing during his sophomore year at Oklahoma. Now, he plays for her \u2014 every practice, every game, every tough moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne 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,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI leaned on her growing up. I was always with her, so I kind of want to do it for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each season, the NFL partners with the American Cancer Society for the Crucial Catch campaign \u2014 helping detect cancer early and save lives. Harrison proudly represents the cause during My Cause My Cleats, in his grandmother\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Harrison said he wants to continue her legacy through the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, I want to do something with food \u2014 get in the kitchen, try to give back to the community,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cJust 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, that kitchen love has turned into viral fame \u2014 and a way to carry Grandma Virgie\u2019s spirit forward. But there is one meal that reminds him of his grandmother the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeef liver, gravy, onions, rice and peas,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cA lot of people, growing up, you hear beef liver and you\u2019re like, \u2018ew, what is that?\u2019 My grandmother, every time she made it or picked it up, she\u2019d call us and be like, \u2018I got it cooking,\u2019 and we\u2019d be over there quick. That\u2019s one thing I\u2019m going to perfect soon. If I do have a cookbook or a restaurant, that\u2019s going to be the signature dish right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A meal, a memory and a legacy that lives on \u2014 through every rep, every plate and every bit of love she left behind.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 For Jacksonville Jaguars right tackle Anton Harrison, every snap and every block is fueled by…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":297022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,35876,15927,151534,3188,723,7310,8017,8013,151535,1232,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-297021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-american-cancer-society","10":"tag-anton-harrison","11":"tag-crucial-catch","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","16":"tag-jaguars","17":"tag-my-cause-my-cleats","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115360688470043131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}