HOUSTON – He has made a habit of making receivers feel they’re in the wrong place at the worst time, but before this season ever started, Rodney Harrison felt out of his element. The safety, released by the San Diego Chargers after nine years of distinguished service, was in Oakland in March, visiting with the defending AFC champion Raiders, when the New England Patriots contacted him to request a visit. Harrison, deeming it divine intervention, excused himself from the Black Hole, took a red-eye east and spent most of the flight praying for guidance.

He should have asked for some long pants, too. One of the NFL’s toughest men thought of turning back while shivering in the 30-degree weather, until the Patriots’ pitch warmed him up.

“They really wined and dined me,” Harrison recalled, grinning.

Sure they did.

They took him to the Ground Round.

The modest grill-and-bar chain.

“But you know, I liked that,” Harrison said. “It was straightforward, no B.S. It’s not about that. It wasn’t Ruth’s Chris or some fancy steak restaurant. Just the Ground Round. Now it’s my favorite restaurant.”

It should be all of New England’s.

“I don’t know where this team would be without Rodney Harrison,” quarterback Tom Brady said.

Maybe these Patriots, without arguably their most consistent and intimidating defensive player, don’t go to Houston to play for their second championship in three years.

The Ground Round wasn’t all that sold Harrison, of course. There are Ground Rounds in other states, too.

The square coach had something to do with it also.

Harrison fell immediately for Bill Belichick, and his assurance that he truly wanted him, despite the Patriots’ glut at safety at the time, and despite the Chargers’ reservations about Harrison’s play (with a torn groin) the previous season.

“He’s a straight shooter, and that’s the thing that really made me sign,” said Harrison, who shoots straight himself, as reporters asking silly questions this week will find. “I believed in Belichick. Obviously, he believed in me. And we were able to work everything out, the details.”

The primary detail was a six-year contract worth roughly $14 million, to play for a team that had considered its 2002 record of 9-7 a disappointment.

“For me, 9-7 looked pretty good,” said Harrison, who had played in only one playoff game since going to the Super Bowl as a rookie reserve in 1994.

Harrison, whose hard hits over the years had “earned” him close to $300,000 in league fines, had already done enough cutting loose in training camp to make observers wonder how well he would fit in, let along fill the released Lawyer Milloy’s leadership void.

Harrison’s new teammates hadn’t been thrilled with his practice shots to Kevin Faulk and Troy Brown. Brown even threw the ball at Harrison after the safety poked him in the eye.

Then the Patriots lost their opener 31-0 to the Buffalo Bills.

It was Harrison, however, who took a lead in getting teammates over their anger about Milloy. It was Harrison who became a team captain. It was Harrison who made play after play to help the Patriots win 16 of their last 17. In two wins against the division-rival Dolphins, Harrison had 22 tackles, a sack, a recovered fumble and a forced fumble that may have been the biggest play in the Dec. 7 win – unblocked by tight end Randy McMichael, Harrison hit quarterback Jay Fiedler from the blind side, thwarting Miami’s only real threat.

It was Harrison, who had been dumped by a Charger team looking to improve team speed. San Diego had also traded future Hall of Famer, and close Harrison friend, Junior Seau, the man Harrison says “showed me the meaning of professionalism and how to do things the right way.”

What did Harrison think when the Chargers told him to hit the highway?

“I expected it,” said Harrison, 31. “I didn’t get too low, because I never allow anyone to break my confidence. I knew that I could still play football. It wasn’t even a question to me. I knew that I was hurt. … But it was disappointing. After nine years of service, you go out and play hurt, and then everybody thinks you’re washed up because you’re out there playing at 70 percent.”

Harrison’s chances of getting to the NFL at all were once far less than that. The youngest of three children raised by divorced mother Barbara Harrison in an Illinois suburb, Rodney learned quickly to obey her assorted, unbendable rules. He learned lots of stuff quickly. When he was 3, he earned the nickname “Duty,” because he always tried to do everything.

As tough as she could be, Barbara doted on Rodney. He earned a basketball scholarship to Marian Catholic in Chicago, but it didn’t come with transportation. So she took him every day in the broken-down red Chevy Chevette, and when it stalled, they got out and pushed.

“But I got him there,” Barbara said by phone Friday, while working at one of the family’s two beauty salons in Chicago.

Rodney has gotten her many things since getting drafted in the fifth round out of Western Illinois, including a new home in Olympia Fields, Ill., and those two shops, Sportin’ Image I and II.

It doesn’t take long, while conversing with Barbara, to realize her son is also a Spittin’ Image. Rodney is unapologetic for his aggressive approach, which rankled McMichael, among countless others, again this season. His football philosophy, one modeled in part after idol Ronnie Lott? “You’ve just got to go out there, prepare, do what you’re doing, do it 100 miles per hour and hit somebody in the mouth. It’s not hard. Football is easy. You’ve got to have a lot of heart, you’ve got to have a lot of passion, you’ve got to love to play it.”

That is an attitude this mother can love. Asked if her son’s reputation bothers her, she said: “No, no, not at all. The people that started the NFL, these are guys who like to see hard hits. That’s what people pay to see. He’s never an illegal hitter, just a hard hitter. As long as my son is in good shape, I don’t worry about it. When you are playing football, bring it or stay home.”

Barbara won’t be staying home now. She’s flying out to Houston, one of the 16 for whom Rodney purchased tickets. A 17th he won’t have to pay for. That’s the son due early next month, to his college sweetheart and wife Ericka. Rodney has also helped raise Ericka’s 10-year-old daughter, Michele.

As of Friday, Harrison hadn’t spoken recently to a player who helped raise him in the NFL. Seau.

“But you know, I heard from another mutual friend that he told me hello, he wants me to focus on the game,” Harrison said. “I understand Junior’s with me. And I’m really disappointed that it wasn’t him.”

Then he laughed.

“Because if it was him, how could it be me?”

It is him, nine years after he was a small part of a team on which Seau starred. (The Chargers lost 49-26 to the San Francisco 49ers.) Harrison calls the losing seasons “pretty tough,” and the opportunity to return to the Super Bowl “a tremendous blessing,” especially because “everybody thought I was washed up.” He thinks he is actually a better player now, and credits that to Belichick. After the AFC Championship Game, they hugged, as Belichick reminded him: “One more.”

Harrison’s reply? “Yes, sir.”

“He has so much respect for Mr. Belichick,” Barbara said. “I have so much faith and respect for that man, and I’ve never really met him. To me, Mr. Belichick is a genius. He’s a coaching genius.”

“I didn’t think he was as smart as he was,” Harrison said. “I knew he was smart. But he and his coaching staff are really, really well-prepared, and they have helped me become more prepared, and see things that I haven’t even really taken notice of.”

Even if he too has noticed that Belichick isn’t exactly a cut-up.

“Yeah, but who cares?” Harrison said. “Who cares? You don’t have to go to dinner with him. He’s a football coach, and that’s what it’s about.”

Don’t be surprised if the football coach and his star safety do go to dinner, to celebrate. The Ground Round better make room for two.

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AP-NY-01-25-04 2158EST