Arena League star satisfied with that

Damian Harrell doesn't run the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds. Or 4.4. Or even 4.5.

"I ran one about six years ago," he said. "It wasn't that good. Maybe 4.6, 4.7."

Harrell isn't the next Mr. Olympia either.

"He's not a kid who's earning a living pumping weights, so he's not the strongest guy around," said Mike Hohensee, a former Gophers quarterback and Harrell's head coach with the Arena Football League's Chicago Rush.

Harrell isn't even a kid anymore.

"He'll be 33 in September," said his agent, Paul Sheehy. "For NFL teams looking at guys in alternative leagues, 27 usually is an age that comes with a red flag."

Now that we've determined what Harrell doesn't have, here's one thing the 6-3, 182-pounder does:

"It's true," Hohensee said. "Damian has made more circus catches than anybody I've ever seen at any level."

Heading into Saturday night's game against the Crush, Harrell needed two touchdown catches to surpass the AFL career record of 303. Harrell also had 916 catches for 12,227 yards in nine seasons, leaving him just 75 catches and 1,136 receiving yards from owning the AFL's other two major career receiving records.

Here's another number that may surprise you: three.

That's how many NFL tryouts Harrell has had in his career. The Packers worked him out in 1999. The Jets soon after that, and then the Redskins in 2005. None of the one-day auditions led to so much as one NFL training camp appearance, although Washington was interested but couldn't convince Harrell that he was better off leaving AFL stardom to become an aging NFL longshot.

"Getting the opportunity to go to a training camp is the one thing I always wanted early in my career," Harrell said. "I would have loved to have put in a few weeks of film for NFL teams to get a good, long look at what I can do."

Harrell has been healthy the past seven seasons. But he no longer considers the NFL a priority.

"People find it hard to believe, but the NFL is the furthest thing from my mind," Harrell said. "I'm very happy in the AFL. I've found my niche. This game was made for me."

It helps that Harrell is the second-highest paid player in the AFL. His total compensation last year was about $158,000. Or as Sheehy put it, "Damian is a very big fish in this pond."

Rick Spielman, the Vikings vice president of football operations, has an open mind when it comes to AFL players. He was with the Bears when they signed quarterback Clint Dolezel (now in his 12th AFL season). He was in Miami when the Dolphins signed receivers Bobby Sippio (now with the Chiefs) and Chris Jackson (third in AFL career touchdown catches). And he was with the Vikings in 2006 when they signed AFL pass-rushing standout Khreem Smith.

Spielman has yet to unearth an AFL-turned-NFL standout such as Mike Furrey (Lions), Rashied Davis (Bears) or former Gopher Greg White (Buccaneers). But he's always looking.

"We've followed him a little bit as the Arena League is getting going here," Spielman said. "We'll continue to evaluate that."

Let's just say it's unlikely that a soon-to-be 33-year-old AFL receiver will be in Mankato this summer.

"We have a specific age we're looking at," Spielman said. "A guy who is 33 years old in the Arena League, there's not a lot of upside when he comes here."

Spielman is probably right. Signing an older AFL receiver is probably a crazy idea.

Then again ...

No, not really.