CHICAGO (WBBM) - Saying nothing is bigger than the team, Bears head coach Lovie Smith suspended three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris for the rest of the week including Sunday's game at Detroit for breaking an unspecified team rule.
"I'm disappointed in what happened today and what happened this week, having to deal with this," said Lovie Smith. "This isn't a lifetime sentence or anything like that. Tommie will continue to get his rehab, getting ready to help the football team later on in the year. Next week, hopefully Monday he'll be ready and we'll go from there."
WBBM's Tom Thayer, with our Josh Liss, analyzes the Tommie Harris suspension and looks ahead to Sunday's game vs. the Detroit Lions.
After vowing to play despite missing the entire week of practice last week with a sore knee, Harris was a game day inactive against the Eagles. In the first three games of the season, Harris struggled. He's clearly not mentally or physically right to play football.
Harris has alluded to being distracted for a variety of reasons. During training camp he told WBBM that he's disappointed with what he calls only "spurts of dominance" in his first four NFL seasons. He insisted he was out to consistently prove to himself and to everyone that he's the best defensive tackle in football.
Lovie Smith is not easily riled up. Whatever Harris has done or is not doing to be a football player is significant enough to push the Bears head coach to punish the player he's often referred to as the most dominant lineman in the NFL.
Harris agreed to a four-year contract extension in the off-season that made him the highest paid interior defensive lineman in the NFL. Harris pocketed $10.0 million dollars in up front money.
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