EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Damon Harrison is a very big man who likes to laugh but doesn't like to run. He's enjoying his time so far with the New York Giants, who signed the former Jets nose tackle to a five-year, $46.2 million contract in March. He used some of his new money to buy his mother her dream house in Louisiana. He gets along well with his new teammates. He wears a perpetual smile.

But on Monday, in the team's first OTA (organized team activities) practice, there was something Harrison very much did not want to do.

"First off, they were making fun of me, because I messed up on a play that I was supposed to know, and I was supposed to run a lap," Harrison said after practice. "[Jason Pierre-Paul] was trying to get everyone's attention to let them know I was supposed to run the lap. They said I did something on the field to distract everybody and nobody was paying attention."

Desperate to get out of running the lap, the 350-pound Harrison approached defensive line coach Patrick Graham and asked if he could go over the play with him. So Graham walked Harrison, Pierre-Paul and fellow starting defensive linemen Olivier Vernon and Johnathan Hankins over to the side and re-did the drill with them.

"It worked. I didn't have to run the lap," Harrison said. "But they're all still in there talking, saying I still have to run that lap. I don't want to run a lap."

The Giants' second OTA practice is Tuesday. Certainly Harrison hopes his teammates have let this go by the time they take the field again. Knowing Pierre-Paul, that seems unlikely. But while Harrison's offense came on a play he said he was supposed to know, he said there's plenty for him to learn in Steve Spagnuolo's defense.

"Yeah, because it's a different scheme," Harrison said. "Coach Spags has things that he does totally different from what I'm accustomed to. You would think you would just be sitting in the middle stopping the run, which is what I'm used to doing. But no, there are some different things."