ORLANDO, Fla. -- When Joey Harrington stops to think about it, the details are fuzzy. The day, the time and the place are all somewhat of a blur. His best guess? That he was around the age of 4 the first time a football was put in his hands.

At the time, his dad was a high school football coach in Oregon. And one day, Harrington recalls, his dad gave him a football in hopes of keeping Joey occupied.

	Joey Harrington has led the Ducks to back-to-back Pac-10 championships.

Now, some 17 years later, the trick still works. And just like it did back in the 80s, the pigskin couldn't look more at home than it does in the folded arms of Harrington.

Call him what you will -- Joey Heisman, Joe College, Billboard Boy, whatever -- just don't forget the tag with which every other centers on: Joe Football.

For all the hype this season, from the billboard in Midtown Manhattan to the magazine covers to the television spots, there's only once place where Harrington can go to escape, one place where he can be entirely himself: the football field. And if one isn't available, wrapping his hands around a football will do just fine.

"It's something that's been in my life and been in my blood forever," said Harrington, the Oregon senior quarterback and one of four finalists for the 2001 Heisman Trophy. "With a football in my hand -- that's when I feel comfortable."

Just last week, during a taping of a commercial for the Fiesta Bowl, Harrington was given a ball to hold onto as a prop. Between takes, while a 15-member crew worked feverishly on lighting, camera position, fog machines and confetti cannons, Harrington sat in his own world with the football. He tossed the ball into the air, he spinned it on his index finger like a basketball and -- most impressively -- flipped the ball from the palm to the back of his hand with the flick of a wrist. It was like combining juggling, yo-yo tossing and football. So impressed was the television producer that she asked Harrington to perform the trick for the TV spot.

"Uhhhhh, OK," Harrington said. "But if I drop it, don't get mad at me."

The lights, the camera, the hype, the hoopla, it has all become eerily normal for Harrington, arguably the most hyped of the four Heisman finalists. He doesn't really mind the added attention and notoriety; he just doesn't quite understand it. After all, all the promoting in the world wouldn’t have meant a thing if he didn't back it up between the white lines.

And how embarrassing would it have been for the Heisman ceremony to take place in New York, just a few miles away from that Manhattan billboard, without Harrington in attendance.

	“	I don't think there was a player in the country that had more pressure on him going into the season than Joey. A lot of people made remarks about the billboard, but it put him in a position to be noticed. And we all knew it would be decided on the field. ”
		— Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said

"I don't think there was a player in the country that had more pressure on him going into the season than Joey," Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said. "A lot of people made remarks about the billboard, but it put him in a position to be noticed. And we all knew it would be decided on the field."

Though his numbers weren't especially mind-boggling, with Harrington passing for 2,414 yards and 23 touchdowns, he was the overwhelming leader of an Oregon team that is 10-1 and has won its second straight Pac-10 championship. He was 26-3 in his career as a starter.

Nine of those victories came during fourth-quarter comebacks. Just this season, Harrington rallied the Ducks to come-from-behind victories over Wisconsin, USC and UCLA. Against the Trojans, he orchestrated a Favre-like, 61-yard drive in 44 seconds, setting up the game-winning field goal in a 24-22 victory.

It's all nice and impressive and has earned Harrington a trip back to the Big Apple. But now that the regular season is over and Harrington has had some time to reflect, he realizes a few things are missing from his career at Oregon.

Since his first week on campus, Harrington spoke with his freshman teammates about bringing a national championship to Eugene. It hasn't happen. They also talked about what it would be like to play in the Rose Bowl. That hasn't happen either.

"Who would have ever thought that we would win back-to-back Pac-10 championships and not get to go to the Rose Bowl?" Harrington said.

Last year, a late-season loss to Oregon State, in a game that Harrington threw five interceptions and fumbled, sent Washington, and not the Ducks, to Pasadena. This year, with the Rose Bowl hosting the national championship game, Oregon blew a two-touchdown lead against Stanford midway through the season, costing the Ducks their chance at a title shot and another possible trip to Pasadena.

"I'm happy with all we achieved. I did everything I could," he said. "Against Stanford, we blew it. We had mistakes in every area of the game. If we would have taken care of business, both of those dreams would have come true -- we'd be playing in the Rose Bowl for the national championship. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

"At Oregon, what we have is truly special. I'm honestly going to miss it. A lot of people say that, but I mean it," he said. "When you play in the NFL, it's different. It's a profession. It's a job. I mean, people have wives."

That they do. But with it, they also have footballs. Lots of them. And where there are footballs, Joey Harrington feels right at home.

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn.com.