“We don’t ever play against one another,” one quickly says.

“Never,” the other instantly echoes.

In fact, the two spend very little time at all doing much that doesn’t in some way involve the other.

“We don’t shower together,” Harvey says.

“Well, except after football games,” Edwards says, finishing the thought.

“We don’t sleep together.”

“But we do sleep in bunk beds.”

Yes, Edwards and Harvey have been through both the ordinary and the extraordinary together, from working out together to apple-picking with a pair of female friends.

Most frequently, however, they ensure that the mood on the football team remains upbeat by cracking jokes in the huddle and maintaining a less-than-serious attitude when appropriate.

“They’re always busting each others’ chops,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says. “They challenge each other. Both kids have very quick dry wits and that’s something you might not necessarily know about them. But if you’re around them enough you realize that they both have a quick wit and they’re not hesitant to use it.”

And as Murphy notes, more often than not it is on one another.

“Brian’s actually two-dimensional when he turns sideways, because he’s so skinny,” says Harvey, who also writes for the Harvard Lampoon—a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine. “That’s why the other teams can’t tackle him.”

“James is actually shaped kind of like a triangle,” Edwards responds. “If you look at him closely, his neck is freakishly long.”

But while the two are comfortable horsing around and playfully putting one another down, it is their dedication to one another that defines their friendship.

Although this year has been a breakout season for Edwards while Harvey has seen less action, the situation was not always so.