Going from the Bears to the Packers is more than a 200-mile trip north. To Raymont Harris it was a million-mile journey from night to day.
“When I think how blessed I am to be in the position I’m in now, it’s pretty cool,” Harris said.
The feeling overwhelms the “slight bitterness” he harbors toward the Bears for keeping the transition tag on him past the draft. With virtually no intention of bringing him back, the Bears kept other teams at bay by retaining a right of first refusal and first-round draft compensation.
“I can understand them wanting to go in a different direction at running back with Edgar Bennett and Curtis Enis,” Harris said. “But the only thing I’m slightly bitter about is they put that transition tag on me when teams were wanting to talk to me. They waited until after people were getting their teams solidified and drafted. They kept me to make me less attractive to other teams and have an ace in the hole in case they didn’t get who they wanted in the draft.”
This is business, of course. The Bears can’t be blamed for using the system to their advantage any more than players can be blamed for profiting in free agency.
But there are other things Harris has trouble understanding. Even when they had him the Bears never really seemed to want him.
As a rookie in 1994, Harris proved to be one of the most successful draft choices of the Dave Wannstedt era. Only a fourth-rounder, he started 11 games and played his best in the playoff victory over Minnesota.
The Bears then drafted Rashaan Salaam No. 1, apparently refusing to believe what Harris had just shown them.
“I thought I did good things and they drafted Rashaan and he was supposed to be faster and so much better than me. I never believed that,” Harris said. “Then Darnell Autry. There was a huge buzz about that last year.”
The Bears point out that Harris was rarely healthy enough to be dependable. His rookie season was the last time he played in all 16 games. He broke his collarbone in 1995, hurt his knee in 1996, and broke his leg and tore ankle ligaments in 1997.
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“Freak things have happened,” Harris said. “I’ve had bad luck and bad timing so far in my short career.”
Jim Dooley, a former Bears coach who has watched the team since he was a rookie player in 1952, said Harris took a more brutal pounding the last two seasons than any running back he had ever seen.
“I’d have to agree,” Harris said. “I was basically running up the middle and the defenses were driving me crazy. They were saying, `Here he comes. No. 29 right here.’ And darned if we didn’t run right there. They kind of knew where we were going.”
Direction is another thing Harris has trouble understanding.
“I don’t know what their plans are over there,” Harris said, gesturing toward Platteville. “Unfortunately, like most players I know and talk to, they don’t know what the plan is. The Bears have to do a better job of communicating the plan to the players. What are they doing? I have no idea what they’re trying to do. Curtis Conway deserves better.”
What the Bears are doing, of course, is starting over. Curtis Enis is the new Walter Payton, the cornerstone draft choice of a new era.
“The team that probably has improved themselves the most offensively is Chicago with Enis and Alonzo Mayes. Top-notch picks,” Packers General Manager Ron Wolf said.
Harris is starting over too. “I’m in a position where I’ll be appreciated,” he said.
There were four 1,000-yard rushers in the NFC Central Division last year–Detroit’s Barry Sanders, Green Bay’s Dorsey Levens, Minnesota’s Robert Smith and Harris. Now the Packers have two of them.