While Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears fans are bickering after some words were said last week, Lambeau Field legend Al Harris silently joined their Wisconsin rivals.
Harris, a Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame member, was announced as the new Bears defensive backs coach and defensive pass-game coordinator.
He will work together with Ben Johnson who just last week fanned the flame of the rivalry between the two neighboring cities by saying that he loves beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.
Harris played seven seasons with the Packers, which was his most productive years in his professional career. During this time, he won one second-team All-Pro (2007) and two Pro Bowls (2007, 2008).
The 50-year-old coach retired in 2013 and got endeared to Green Bay fans even more after expressing desire to retire as part of the team. He played briefly for the Miami Dolphins and St. Louis Rams after leaving Packers in 2010.
“Just over my career I had an awesome time, but the better part of my years were in Green Bay, (so) it was just important to me to retire as a Packer,” he said back in 2013.
“Being that I played four games in Miami, was on the 2011 St. Louis Rams team, played five years in Philadelphia, a year in Tampa, I think that I’ll always be remembered a Packer. I feel like a Packer.”
Al Harris’ coaching career
Harris has a storied professional career, having played 194 games, 128 of them as a starter. He posted a total of 424 tackles, four sacks, 21 interceptions, with three touchdowns.
He is now slowly moving up and stacking up his coaching CV, which started with the Dolphins in 2012 when he served as a coaching intern under coach Joe Philbin.
Andy Reid, his former head coach with his second NFL team Philadelphia Eagles, then hired him as an assistant defensive backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. It was his longest coaching tenure so far at six years.
It ended abruptly after getting fired in 2018 but he moved to college football by working as defensive assistant at Florida Atlantic University.
His last gig in the NFL before Bears was with the Dallas Cowboys where he worked as a secondary coach.
