GQ Magazine Story Digs in to Marvin Harrison's Gangsta

Writer Jason Fagone dug in to former Indianapolis Colts receiver Marvin Harrison's past and his involvement in a 2008 shooting in an investigative report featured in this month's GQ Magazine. If you remember, back in April 2008, Harrison was in his hometown of Philadelphia, where an altercation with a local drug pusher, Dwight 'Pop' Dixon, went down in front of Harrison's bar, Playmakers. As the story goes, Harrison wouldn't let Dixon in to his bar, Dixon flexed and Harrison and his boy beat him down. Dixon pulled his car in front Harrison's car wash, which is on the same block as the bar, where Harrison was trying to get in to his car, and according to witness Robert Nixon, this is what happened next:

Marvin Harrison did not run. He stood on the sidewalk and calmly raised his wiry arms. In each hand, Nixon clearly saw, was a gun.

Nixon froze.

Nixon was across the street and thirty yards away when Harrison started shooting. Pop pop pop pop pop pop-a great staccato gust of bullets. Steadily, Nixon says, Harrison unloaded both guns in to the fat man's [Dixon's] car, stippling the red Toyota Tundra with bullet holes as the fat man ducked in his seat. Eventually, the fat man sat up and sped off, heading straight toward Nixon's position as Harrison darted in to the street and continued to shoot.

Nixon was caught in the crossfire and took a bullet to the back. Dixon was shot in the hand. Both of them filed civil lawsuits against Harrison. A 2-year-old was also caught in the crossfire, but everyone there that day survived. Charges were never filed against Harrison because of conflicting witness statements, even though there was proof that the shots came from guns owned by Harrison. The story does take a turn for the worse as Dixon was later murdered, just a block away from Harrison's bar, last year.

The story continues looking at Harrison's past and the violent crimes committed by his father and his brothers plus his influence in his former North Philadelphia neighborhood. It's like an episode out of "The Wire." Thanks to this investigative report and Dixon's murder, the FBI are now involved to see if there is a connection with the 2008 shooting.

Harrison was released by the Indianapolis Colts at the end of the 2008 season, but we believe he'll be making the headlines here again soon enough.