Harrington plays it right against his former team

Joey Harrington’s face was splashed across the video boards while Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” played -- a jab at the quarterback’s piano playing.

Harrington got the last laugh.

He threw three touchdown passes Thursday to help the Miami Dolphins erase a 10-point deficit and roll to a 27-10 victory over the Detroit Lions, who drafted him third overall in 2002 and gave up on him this year.

Harrington said the song meant to mock him was clever, not a cheap shot.

“I’m proud of who I am and what I do,” he said. “If anybody wants to sit down and play a little bit, I’ll be happy to take them on.”

Harrington did find it interesting that he was the only Miami offensive player the public-address announcer introduced before the game.

“It was for all those people that wanted to boo me,” he said. “And, they did.”

Not for long.

By the third quarter, with the Lions trailing, 17-10, after another poor possession by their offense, Harrington said his linemen told him they didn’t need silent counts because they could hear him from the shotgun.

That’s because the fans stopped booing Harrington and directed their frustration at team President Matt Millen with the loudest “Fire Mil-len!” chants of the season. Detroit is an NFL-worst 23-68 since Millen took control of the franchise in 2001.

“Matt’s not down here playing football, we are,” Lions linebacker Boss Bailey bristled. “If they want to chant ‘Fire Millen,’ they should be chanting to fire the whole damn team. All Matt does is bring in players, and every year we talk about how much talent we have. So it should be on us. This isn’t about Matt.”

Miami (5-6) has won four straight -- doubling Harrington’s longest winning streak in any of his four seasons in Detroit. The Lions (2-9) dropped their third in a row in a game that ended much differently from the way it began.

Detroit went ahead, 10-0, on its first two drives and held the Dolphins to six yards on their first possession.

Harrington’s second touchdown pass put Miami ahead with 1:55 left in the first half and his third made it 24-10 late in the third. The aisles were packed with people heading home when the Dolphins were leading, 27-10, early in the fourth quarter, and the stands were nearly empty when the game ended.