Thread: Harris Felt Disrespected....................

Say what you want about it being business and all but this is a shitty way to treat another team leader. Something is afoot when all of a sudden players like Kruetz and Harris who played a large part in the Bears success last year are being stiffed after giving the team monetary consideration ie; a home town discount, when they signed deals. Who's next?

We go out and pay ridiculous amounts to castoffs from other teams like Taylor, Manu, RWill and Meriweather yet none of these guys has lived up to their paychecks and none of them were asked to give us a discount. Chris Harris agrees to return in trade for a $2.1 mil discount, gives the team an All-Pro performance and helps us to the NFCC Game and this is how he's taken care of?

Edit: For comparison purposes Meriweather's $3.5 mil one year deal is $1.2 mil more than Chris Harris get for both the 2010 and 2011 seasons. I'd feel disrespected too if I were him.

Just WTF is up at Halas Hall anyway? They have a huge cap excess and don't seem willing to spend it on Forte or some Oline help.......why? Somethings not right here.

Harris flap runs deep

2011 already has become a year of player dissent at Halas Hall

8:14 p.m. CDT, October 17, 2011


Thanks to Twitter we have learned what Bears safety Chris Harris thinks about everything from the death penalty to abortion.

America knows Harris loves his wife, his alma mater, Cam Newton and Bible verses from the Book of Jeremiah. Harris routinely provides compelling social commentary and dispenses self-help wisdom, tweeting with the frequency of a Guillen.

Typically Harris keeps sharp opinions on team issues to himself but, last week, hinted at a difference in accountability for Bears players who play offense and defense.

He didn't invoke the name of Frank Omiyale but that was the first one that came to my mind. Omiyale hasn't been inactive the past two seasons despite being arguably the worst offensive lineman in the NFL whereas Harris lost his job after one bad game against the Lions.

So a day after the Bears' 39-10 win over the Vikings in which Harris was inactive, I asked if he had tweeted his way out of favor and, potentially, out of town if his agent can find a trade partner.

"I don't think my tweets had anything to do with it but I don't know,'' Harris said Monday over the phone. "None of this is personal. Just business. I have the utmost respect for the Bears. Maybe there's a team out there who might want me. Not saying the Bears don't. They are just going a different direction. No hard feelings.''

There is nothing hard about the Bears' next move either. If Harris means as little to the Bears as their actions imply, just cut him.

Allowing Harris to seek a trade — as Jerry Angelo did — merely approved a fool's errand. Why would any team give up even a seventh-round draft pick for a player the Bears devalued by mysteriously omitting from Sunday's 46-man game-day roster? Especially one who has only 10 games left on his contract.

A team looking for stability in the secondary might consider a 2010 All-Pro safety a good fit. But any team paying attention realizes the Bears no longer consider Harris part of their future so eventually he will be available without having to surrender a late-round pick.

If the Bears have so much confidence in young safeties Chris Conte and Major Wright and depth at the position, prove it. Move on sooner rather than later. As one of Harris' 35,000 Twitter followers might suggest, #FreeChris.

Harris' continued presence in Chicago only will serve as a reminder of how wide the gap between players and management has grown. From the weekly sniping over Matt Forte's contract extension that isn't coming to Lance Briggs' preseason money grab to Harris' latest request for a trade, 2011 already has become a year of player dissent at Halas Hall. Not even a 29-point victory could quell it. Skepticism runs so rampant that it came as no surprise last week when a Bears player privately questioned Angelo for not addressing the offensive line.

Now, the longer Harris stays the more he will remind everybody just how indecisive the Bears remain at the bugaboo position for Lovie Smith.

Two days before Harris was scheduled to return from a hamstring injury to play the Lions, Smith said this: "We need him. We've missed him back there.'' Two days after Harris looked rustier than an '89 Corolla giving up big plays against the Lions, Smith benched the safety he missed so much.

And you thought Marion Barber's flip was the hardest one to explain this season.

"They felt like they needed to shake some things up,'' Harris said. "It is a contract year for me and if they are moving on then why not play Chris and Major?''

Starting Conte and Wright is fine. Thinking Craig Steltz and Brandon Meriweather provided better insurance than Harris against injury or ineffectiveness isn't.

Smith reiterated Monday how comfortable he felt about making Harris inactive. He introduced the idea that Harris' hamstring contributed to the decision, even if Harris dismissed that notion.

Pressed after Sunday night's win why practice-squad player Anthony Walters was in uniform but not Harris, Smith cited special-teams needs. That didn't explain choosing Meriweather over Harris. On the day Meriweather signed, special teams coordinator Dave Toub said Meriweather didn't play special teams. So what gave him the nod over Harris? Follow the money.

The Bears signed Meriweather for $3.25 million. So far, the only people happy about that investment are the folks at NFL Charities who benefit from the fines Meriweather has incurred leading with his helmet.

Harris possesses less athleticism but uses his head for more constructive purposes. A player with his smarts and savvy still has value in a Bears secondary lacking both. A sudden fall from grace says more about the Bears than it does Harris.

dhaugh@tribune.com

Twitter @DavidHaugh

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Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
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Boy I'll say the flap runs deep and based on this Chris Harris may get his wish to join another team without having to be traded. There's so much scuttlebutt in here in really deserves it's own thread.

It's not surprising that there's dissension in the ranks. Just look at what this past summer brought. Zero help for the Oline. An unpopular, arrogant, self-centered, unproductive WR was brought in and made the #1 WR without so much as having broken a sweat in a Bears jersey. A popular TE and a favorite target of Jay Cutler was told that he no longer fit into the teams plans and was traded to make way for the unpopular unproductive WR who gets more money than all the other receivers combined with the exception of Hester. The anchor of the Oline and a team captain isn't re-signed. The team plays hardball with its star RB while sitting on top a veritable fortune in cap excess and a headhunting bad boy that even Belicheck couldn't tame is signed for $2.0 mil more then our captain of the secondary who also gets stonewalled about an extension.

Whew!!!!!! And I didn't even mention the Briggs debacle.

I can see this part of Harris' point very clearly. Frank Omiyale the worst OT in football suits up while Harris sits inactive told by his coach that it's because of needing Meriweather for ST play when Meriweather doesn't even play ST an we have to bring up Anthony Walters from the PS to have someone who will. How fvcked up is that?

Whatever last nights win signifies means little in the face of an organization as screwed up as this one. There's no clear mission here other than to hope we pull out some wins. The organization, not the players, act as if they really don't know whether or not they even want to have a successful season because the GM and HC are responsible for the majority of the dissension. They claim to want to win but their actions indicate just the opposite.

What do you guys see? Am I nuts or is this just one fvcked up crazy way to try and build a winning football team?

Here's my opinion: too much is being made about this, because Harris was still sore, and the vikings were the best team to test the rookies against.

We have to wait until the end of the season for that to happen. If we make the playoffs again, there's really no reason to fire anybody (except OMG). Even if we're a 9-7, 10-6 one and done playoff team, it shows that for our talent level, we can really get the most out of our talent. However, that would only say something good about our coaching staff, not the evaluators. If, however, Martz and Cutler can maintain some kind of yin-yang they've had this past game, with protection and quick passes, then our NEED for o-line talent is dropped from "pick one every round" to just drafting a guy and signing a guy (but please, make sure this time they're BOTH really talented, not filler material), and we could work on WR or the defense. This IS the NFL and strange things are known to happen; Martz and Cutler working harmoniously to fix the woes of this offense isn't beyond that realm of possibility

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Here's my opinion: too much is being made about this, because Harris was still sore, and the vikings were the best team to test the rookies against.

You may have a point there Henry. I hadn't thought of that but what bothers me is how Lovie handled it with Harris. Lovie says it was due to Harris' hammy but Harris says that's not true. Lovie says they kept Meriweather activated because of a ST need but he doesn't play ST so they bring Walters up from the PS to play ST. What isn't being said it what you theorize here. If that was the case why not just explain it that way to Harris?

The idea that Lovie never has been a fan of Harris and was waiting for an excuse to bench him makes more sense given these circumstances if Harris isn't in the long term plans. If he is why not just say Chris rest that hammy for another week here. We aren't worried about the Vikes passing game anyway and I want to see what Conte and Wright can do. This is a good game to give them a shot without the risk we'd have with a better passing team. If it's presented that way I think Harris takes it like the trooper he is but it doesn't look like it went down that way.

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

We have to wait until the end of the season for that to happen. If we make the playoffs again, there's really no reason to fire anybody (except OMG). e'sEven if we're a 9-7, 10-6 one and done playoff team, it shows that for our talent level, we can really get the most out of our talent. However, that would only say something good about our coaching staff, not the evaluators. If, however, Martz and Cutler can maintain some kind of yin-yang they've had this past game, with protection and quick passes, then our NEED for o-line talent is dropped from "pick one every round" to just drafting a guy and signing a guy (but please, make sure this time they're BOTH really talented, not filler material), and we could work on WR or the defense. This IS the NFL and strange things are known to happen; Martz and Cutler working harmoniously to fix the woes of this offense isn't beyond that realm of possibility

If 9-7 or 10-6 is the worst we come out this year and we actually finish up strong the discontent will settle down IMO. But that still leaves us with two problems that need fixing. No matter what happens between now and the end of the season Martz needs to go. That article I posted from Melissa Isaacson hits the nail on the head.

Martz's way has failed so why do we need him? His contract is up after this yearand he's never been the right guy for the Bears offense anyway. Tice can run a better offense for us than Martz and I really think that's the direction we'll go next year. The other guy who needs to go is Angelo. He was never much good anyway and somehow he's let things get out of control. No one on the team can figure out what his game is and it's making players and fans uncomfortable and lacking in trust that he knows what to do to improve the team.

Even though 9-7 may be barely acceptable there's no reason we should have slipped backward this year if he'd done his job well. Even his players are questioning his moves, or rather the lack of them. All I can do is emphasize what everyone else is saying as well. What was needed this past offseason was very very clear yet he did almost nothing to address it. To me that's inexcusable. Maybe the best thing that could happen in his case is for George McCaskey to privately suggest to him that it's time for him to step down from his GM role and be given some other title and duties for the remainder of his contract. Right now he's hurting the team more than he's helping.

I agree that there is too much being made of this and now egos are at play. Harris played FS much of last year and did an admirable job. This year he's hurt and playing SS a position he should be good at. They can only dress so many so I think Harris is overreacting in that regard. But to Merriweather a guy who can't start, makes too many mistakes (and fines) and can't play ST? If Harris is healthy Merriweather should be inactive.

And where is ROD on all this. Lovie's doghouse aside this is Rod's baby. Unless there's a package deal Harri's value is worth squat for picks.