As the pair emerged from the shabby trailer housing the opponents’ locker room below the grandstands at Holy Cross’ Fitton Field after the Crimson’s season-opening win on Sept. 20, what little concern remained over the graduation of former standout wide receiver Carl Morris ’03 melted away in the late afternoon sunlight.

Junior wide receiver Brian Edwards, previously an unheralded underclassman buried near the bottom of the depth charts, had just burst onto the scene with seven catches for 152 yards and one score, dispelling concerns about Harvard’s potential lack of offense.

He stood outside, freshly-donned shirt and tie rapidly soaking up the sweat and water left after his breakout performance, searching for words to describe his feat.

For Edwards, no words would come. But for junior wide receiver James Harvey, Edwards’ roommate and best friend, the praise—half-serious, half-joking—began to flow thick and fast.

“It really was his coming out party,” Harvey says. “All the guys on the team knew how talented Brian was and that all he needed was a chance to prove himself.”

And as Edwards stood there, bashfully smiling while attempting to fly under the radar, there could be no doubt that he had done just that, with more than a little help from his friend.

But though the two now seem to be inexorably linked to one another, no one could have predicted that they would wind up best friends following their first encounter on a Harvard recruiting trip they both took prior to their freshman seasons.

“I just saw this scrawny kid and thought ‘he can’t be here for football,’” Harvey says. “‘He’s got to be here for another sport.’”

“I actually thought he was kind of a jerk,” Edwards fires right back.

But first impressions and Edwards’ eyebrow ring soon disappeared, and in their place a fast friendship quickly took root.

“It was really good to have someone you knew right before you even got there, not really knowing anybody,” Edwards says.

Working along side one another in drills, laboring away with little hope of seeing significant time on the playing field before sophomore year at least, the duo provided one another with the support and encouragement needed to continue on.

Not to mention excellent Halo partners.

After squaring off against one another dozens of times and establishing that they were, in fact, equally proficient at the space-based combat game, the two decided to pair up in multi-player modes and haven’t done otherwise since.

Even the suggestion that they compete against one another to see who is better is almost a personal affront.