Writers of Pro Football Prospectus 2008

printable version

Extra Points

Articles from around the Web

Need Help with KUBIAK or Premium?

blog advertising is good for you


28 Feb 2011

Bears Waive Tommie Harris

The Bears have waived former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris. Harris has struggled to recover from a series of injuries a couple of years ago, and was actually a healthy scratch for one game this year.

The team also parted ways with Hunter Hillenmeyer and Kevin Shaffer.

Posted by: Bill Barnwell on 28 Feb 2011

12 comments, Last at 05 Mar 2011, 5:13am by tuluse

Comments

1
by dbt :: Mon, 02/28/2011 - 3:50pm

Hillenmeyer is probably due to retire after the serious concussion he had during the preseason. Shaffer couldn't crack the starting lineup even with this terrible o-line and deserved his walking papers.

Tommie... not sure what else to say. Remember when Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson were two future HOF DTs for the Bears just a few years ago? Sigh....

2
by justanothersteve :: Mon, 02/28/2011 - 4:32pm

Don't think Johnson was that great. But (as a Packers fan) I thought Harris was the most difficult to replace defender on the Bears during the mid-00's. The defense wasn't close to as dominant without him.

3
by The Ninjalectual :: Mon, 02/28/2011 - 6:55pm

AND as the fastest DT in Madden, he was great there too!

4
by dbt :: Mon, 02/28/2011 - 6:59pm

Yeah I'm exaggerating somewhat on Tank Johnson but he was a huge part of that 2005-2006 run.

5
by tuluse :: Mon, 02/28/2011 - 7:17pm

Tommie harris was nigh on unblockable in 2006. He looked like a stronger warren sapp. Unfortunately, knee injuries diid him in.

6
by Jimmy :: Mon, 02/28/2011 - 7:43pm

The thing that pisses me off more than anything else about this is that Harris was one of the most dominant defensive players I have ever seen (any one else remember the game against Seattle in '06). His career got ruined by a leg whip by Marc Columbo and now he is to some (ignorant) internet posters just a figure of fun. He had the fastest first step I have ever seen from a DT and great anticipation from pre snap reads. I adored pre-injury Tommie and he is now very unlikely to return. All because of a bush league play by a guy the Bears released due to a bizarre injury on seriously substandard pitch while Soldier Field was being rebuilt.

7
by TomC :: Tue, 03/01/2011 - 12:13am

As a Bears fan, I'm OK with this move, but if they were going to do it, I wish so much they would have done it at this time last year. Then they could have kept Alex Brown and let Idonije play under tackle where he belongs. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with how the DL played in general and with Idonije's play at DE, but I think they would have been even more dominant with Brown across from Peppers and Idonije in the middle.

Or they could have spent the money on some O-linemen.

8
by tuluse :: Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:52pm

Were their any free agent offensive linemen worth going after?

9
by Dean :: Wed, 03/02/2011 - 10:06am

Last year? No.

10
by Meyer1 (not verified) :: Thu, 03/03/2011 - 10:44am

Favorite play was in the 07, first game on the road against the Chargers. They drove down to the Bears 1 yard line, and on a something and goal, he had the best jump I had ever seen (so he may have been .000001 offsides)

But he broke up the center QB exchange, and forced the fumble. Just amazing.

I also remember sports radio at this time saying he was always trash talking berrian wanting to go head to head in a 20 yard dash. Consensus was that he would have won that race.

11
by TomC :: Sat, 03/05/2011 - 1:02am

Did people see the ad he took out in the Tribune? Very classy move.

12
by tuluse :: Sat, 03/05/2011 - 5:13am

That's really cool. I'll always wish Tommie the best in any future endeavors.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options