A disrupter hungry like a shark
Two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris came back strong last week in the season opener.
Harris was at his disruptive best despite not having played in a regular-season game since Dec. 3, 2006, when he was sidelined with a torn hamstring.
The highlight? With a surge so sudden that officials couldn't tell he was offsides, Harris interrupted a center-quarterback exchange that resulted in the Chargers losing a fumbled snap 1 yard from the Bears' end zone.
"He was in the backfield, wreaking havoc all over the field, running around, having fun," said linebacker Brian Urlacher. "Just back to his old self. He was getting off the ball, sometimes a little bit early, but if they don't call it, it doesn't count (as a penalty). He's an explosive player, man. He came back full speed, it looked like to me."
Like a hungry shark in a feeding frenzy, Harris is eager for more this afternoon in the home opener. Informed, inaccurately, that the Chiefs had an imposing offensive line, Harris scoffed.
"What are you talking about?" he said. "I look forward to playing those guys. I don't care about whose line it is. I play football. I missed it for about seven months. I have a chance to go back out there, so I really don't care who's in front of me. I'm just going to have fun and party like a rock star."
Harris had 5 tackles against the Chargers and played more snaps than most observers expected after participating in just seven plays in the preseason. Just like last season, when he burst out of the gate with 5 sacks in the first four games, Harris is off to an impressive start.
The forced hibernation last winter and then into the spring and for much of the summer appears to have piqued his competitiveness.
"I think he played with a little bit more emotion because he was gone for a while," Urlacher said. "He hadn't played in a long time, and he was fired up to be out there."
Harris was already considered the key to the Bears' defensive line, and his contributions will be more important now that nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek, who started next to Harris in the opener and when they played at Oklahoma, is out for the season with a ruptured ACL in his left knee.
Harris was disheartened by Dvoracek's injury, but he's encouraged by his own return to health.
"(I'm) a little sore," he said earlier in the week, "but it's natural soreness, nothing (really) painful. I'm pretty optimistic about the season. We lost one game, but we have 15 more we can go after."
The Tommie Harris file
Age: 24 Hometown: Killeen, Texas
Position: Defensive tackle
Size: 6-foot-3, 295 pounds
College: Oklahoma
NFL experience: Fourth year
Highlights: Two-time Pro Bowler was first defensive tackle selected to consecutive Pro Bowls as a member of the Bears since Steve McMichael (1987-88). Drafted in first-round (14th overall) by Bears in 2004. Signed through 2008.