Pro athletes\u2019 romantic partners usually enter the imagination at three points: through media coverage of power couples (Russell and Ciara; Tom and Gisele, Travis and Taylor), fictionalizations like the early aughts dramedy \u201cThe Game,\u201d or reality fare like the Real Housewives\u2019 franchise, which maximizes drama more than it grants insight into cast members\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
Ask Jassi Harris (formerly Rideaux), wife of the New England Patriots\u2019 linebacker Darius Harris, though, and she\u2019ll tell you there is a real life to being a housewife to a football player, especially one who\u2019s had an injury-marred season as his team heads to the Super Bowl. If you immediately recognize her name before her husband\u2019s, it\u2019s a bit of a nod to what she means. Yes, she\u2019s that Jassi Harris,\u00a0 \u201cReal Housewives of Potomac\u201d cast member, and her husband, rather than being among the players introduced with the Patriots\u2019 starting lineup, won\u2019t even be in uniform for Sunday\u2019s game, having been placed on practice squad injured reserve in November after playing on the AFC champions\u2019 active roster the previous three weeks.<\/p>\n
NFL life is grueling, especially so for players who aren\u2019t guaranteed roster spots or big contracts. There\u2019s always life after to think about, with the caveat that after could be tomorrow or next week. Being a life partner to such a man, while not forsaking your own entrepreneurial or philanthropic interests, demands a unique fortitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve watched him over the past few years get up every morning at 5 AM, and not come home until after 5 [pm] and just be passionate about the sports, also doing things outside of work,\u201d Harris said. \u201cAnd to have an injury\u2026because someone accidentally tripped you, now you’re hurt, now you have to stay at home and not do what you’re passionate about. You know, it’ll be hard for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris is relaying this truth over Zoom from the passenger seat in a chauffeured SUV, navigating the 45-minute drive from San Jose, where many of this year\u2019s off-field Super Bowl events are being held, and Santa Clara, where the actual game will be played at Levi\u2019s Stadium on Saturday. The distance has brought logistical challenges. Harris has multiple events to attend\u2013Media Day, the NFL Honors awards, and hosting the NFL Wives Association Super Bowl Lounge, which means multiple wardrobe, hair, and makeup changes, which means she\u2019s traveling with a team.<\/p>\n
If it sounds like being a WAG\u2013an acronym for wives and girlfriends of pro athletes\u2013comes with privileges, it does. Harris admits with a huge smile, for example, that for their wedding last year, she wore three custom-designed dresses.<\/p>\n
But, she says, there\u2019s purpose in the glamour of it all. It\u2019s all about setting up for life after. She and Harris live with the awareness that life after is coming. The average NFL career is only 3.5 years long, and Darius Harris, 30, has already been in the league twice that long. He has three Super Bowl rings from his years with the Kansas City Chiefs, with whom he signed as an undrafted free agent in 2019, but Spotrac, which tracks players’ contracts, pegs his career earnings at $3.8 million. It\u2019s better than, say, a writer\u2019s salary, but not the eight or nine-figure generational wealth that many imagine when they think of professional athletes.<\/p>\n
And so, even though Harris won\u2019t play, Harris and her beau see the Super Bowl for the opportunities it might bring in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, my husband may go into business with someone that he met at Super Bowl,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s not just about the parties. It’s about being a part of the NFL in ways that go far beyond the NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris, she says, has talked about continuing his education after his playing days. The pair established the Triple F Foundation (Faith, Family, Football), which worked with Boys & Girls Clubs to provide mentorship and free football camps for youth. Harris owns an eponymous brand of hair extensions, but even being on the retail side of that business wasn\u2019t enough. Instead, she says, she took advantage of the opportunity to travel overseas and establish source relationships that allowed her to move into manufacturing and distribution. It\u2019s a rare move for a Black woman entrepreneur in a beauty industry segment that relies heavily on Black dollars.<\/p>\n
Even the multiple wedding dresses had a point beyond getting great pics for socials. Her wedding planner (Shamica Sweat), stylist (Dor Ameir), and dress designer (Hozae Atelier), are all Black entrepreneurs; when the wedding made the website of People and Essence, so did their names.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also am very passionate about putting people in position to have a spotlight,\u201d she said. \u201cit’s not just about me wanting to showcase four different dresses, it’s about my whole team being able to have this opportunity with me. I was their muse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro athletes\u2019 romantic partners usually enter the imagination at three points: through media coverage of power couples (Russell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-462683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}