If you're one of the many souls that come to Manhattan via New Jersey, as my co-worker Jeff Bradley does, you pass through the Madison Square Garden/Penn Station area -- and now you get greeted by a 100-foot mural of a Duck at the corner of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue. It's actually an Oregon Duck, QB Joey Harrington, the most famous QB in, well, the state of Oregon.

For the paltry sum of $250,000, the Oregon athletic department is making a huge statement about its football program. So, move over Latrell and Derek and Puffy, "Joe College" has made the grandest entrance into the city since the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man trampled his way here in Ghostbusters.

The big question though is, will anyone here pay attention? New Yorkers are constantly reminding people how "the city" is the center of the world. I'm not going to argue that right now, but I can tell you one thing it is not, and that's the center of the college football world. In fact, NYC is to college football what Bristol, Conn., is to spring break, so stirring up a Heisman campaign here is an interesting decision.

In all fairness, Harrington is legit. He is smart, poised, has good feet and an accurate arm. He also leads one of the top teams in the country, not just on the Left Coast. Meet him and you'll find him to be engaging and down-to-earth and, um, really normal. He seems to be, as the school has framed him, the average college kid. Except that he can do some pretty impressive things on a football field and is also an accomplished jazz pianist. Seriously.

Joey came to the Big Apple with his dad, a high school principal; coach Mike Bellotti; and three other men I think are working on the Heisman campaign. It was a whirlwind tour for the Portland native. He flew in Sunday to Baltimore, did a radio show with Mel Kiper Sunday night and then came up to NYC afterward. In all, he probably spent 18 hours in New York. His big regret was having to leave Monday afternoon and missing out on Pedro pitching for his beloved Bosox against the Yankees.

I got the impression this wasn't a guy who had an inflated sense of himself (mural notwithstanding). "It's actually really humbling," Harrington said over lunch. He realizes this thing is as good for Oregon football as it is for Joey Harrington. Bellotti never promised him a Heisman campaign four years ago when he came into the kid's living room and made his pitch. But for the next blue-chip QB, who knows? The Ducks are big-time now.

Still, I keep asking myself, New York City? Michael Vick could've walked down Broadway wearing full his Virginia Tech uniform -- pads and all -- and probably not been recognized by 90% of the people around him. I admit I'm very skeptical. Then again, I am also writing about Harrington in June (just as are many of the other national college media outlets), so maybe the folks up at Oregon know what they're doing.

Bruce Feldman covers college football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at bruce.feldman@espnmag.com.