Chris Harris looked at the calendar and shook his head. Football practice at Bixby High School, located in a Tulsa, Okla., suburb, was about to start before his junior year.
Harris owned remarkable skills, a big smile and growing dissatisfaction with football. He quit football once in middle school before returning at the urging of friends. This felt different. This felt like the right time to disappear for good.
“I just didn’t like playing it,” Harris said. “I would run a kick back and never get the ball again. I use to hate that. I only played to stay active. I didn’t like it. I wanted the ball. I was a basketball guy.”
Harris grew up on hoops. His mother, Lisa, coached him on his earliest youth teams, passing on her love for the sport. Harris began playing year-round basketball in the fifth grade. He traveled to tournaments and couldn’t wait for the next game. He played several against future NBA star Blake Griffin. Though undersized, Harris possessed breathtaking quickness, which made life miserable for opposing point guards when he served as a playmaker.
“Chris in basketball was always one of the fastest guys on our team,” said Parker Frazier, a minor-league pitcher who played alongside Harris on dominant AAU squads. “He had great instincts. He was always one of the best defenders. He would full-court press, staying step for step with his man all the way up the court. And he knew how to put the game in his hands at the end.”
Harris looked in the mirror and saw NBA star Chris Paul. Harris’ high school defensive coordinator saw former NFL cornerback Tito Paul.
D.J. Howell predicted stardom for Harris in college. In football. That was not going to happen if Harris left the Spartans before summer practice.
“My coach was like, ‘Dude you know you are going to college for football, so you better focus on this,’ ” Harris recalled, laughing.
Harris reluctantly agreed, triggering one of the most unlikely success stories in Broncos history. Harris enters Sunday’s playoff opener against Indianapolis armed with a five-year, $42.5 million contract that includes $24 million in guaranteed money.
Teams prefer to pay premium money for one shutdown defensive back. The Broncos ponied up for Harris and free agent Aqib Talib. They invested wisely, Pro Football Focus grading the duo as the best cornerback tandem in the NFL. And it wasn’t even close. Harris and Talib totaled 36.4 points, nearly double the 19.0 combined rating of Seattle’s Richard Sherman and Byron Maxwell.
“They are the best, no question. Both are elite, and you almost never see that,” Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders said. “They have everything you look for: talent, ability, confidence. Chris is scrappy. He annoys you as a receiver.”
Reminding him of basketball
The idea of Harris anchoring a top-five defense entering the playoffs strained reality when he was trying to discover his passion for the sport as a teenager. A critical change occurred his senior year at Bixby. He learned how to backpedal from Howell. Almost instantly, Harris no longer felt like an accidental tourist playing a sport he despised. Because, well, it reminded him of basketball.
“That’s what corner is to me, playing basketball defense. You are going to snatch rebounds, trying to steal the ball, pass breakups,” Harris said. “When I truly learned how to backpedal, things changed.”
Harris made the Tulsa World’s all-metro first-team in both sports as a senior.
Harris refused to surrender his hoops dream, but the response by suitors to a 5-foot-10 point guard was underwhelming. He received scholarship offers from Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He appreciated the interest, but he wanted to compete at a higher level. When the University Kansas extended a full ride for football, Harris reacted as if jumping a sideline route.
“I moved on it immediately,” Harris said. “I thought I had to take it.”
It was in Lawrence, Kan., a Midwest hoops heaven, where Harris intersected paths with Talib, forming a relationship that has served them well in their first year together in Denver. Talib, an upperclassman, had his eyes on the Jim Thorpe Award, given to college football’s top defensive back. Harris sought a starting job. They were paired together in drills, Talib working as a receiver, a position to this day he believes he could play in the NFL. He taunted Harris. Called him out. Called him scared. Then he beat him on a fade route.
What happened next reveals much about Harris, and why Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio trusts him in the slot, on the right side and, if necessary, at safety. Harris stepped right back into Talib’s personal space, and stayed with him, knocking him off his route, leading to an incompletion.
“I don’t remember that exactly,” Talib said, understandably not willing to concede anything. “Maybe it was during 7-on-7. I played a lot of receiver. I beat a lot of guys. I don’t know if he got me or not.”
Ego drives cornerbacks, remains a necessary survival skill. They are in a league where all factors tilt against them. Officials don’t tolerate contact, and sometimes, it appears rolled eyes draw penalty flags. In this environment, Harris excels. He darts, jumps, pops. He doesn’t look faster than receivers, but he’s alarmingly deceptive, a stop sign for drives.
“Chris does everything well,” Del Rio said.
Over the past three seasons, Harris has yielded three touchdowns. To put that in perspective, consider that Dallas’ Dez Bryant burned Philadelphia’s Bradley Fletcher for three scores in one game last month.
“Chris is just so instinctive,” Broncos general manager John Elway said. “He’s got great awareness on the football field. He’s not a blazer. He’s not one of those 4.3 guys. He’s adequate that way, but he knows how to play guys and when he has a chance to make a big play, he doesn’t miss it. And he’s so competitive. He’s a football player. Some guys are cornerbacks. He’s a football player who plays cornerback.”
“Old school” in his technique
Zero. That’s how many times receivers scored against Harris this season. He wears it as a badge, an accomplishment that made it impossible for voters not to name him to his first Pro Bowl team.
“I got targeted. And a lot of times we are in (man) coverage in the red zone. You want that challenge,” Harris said. “To not give up one, you all see how they pass in this league. I am aware of that stat from the first snap of the season.”
Harris blends intelligence — he knows the defense in the same way Peyton Manning knows the offense — and technique. Hall of Famer Rod Woodson struggled to think of anyone who plays like Harris.
“He’s one of the few cornerbacks who still backpedals,” said Woodson, who worked with Harris during training camp. “He lines up (square) to the receiver. Most guys are in open stance with their back to sideline. Chris is old school.”
At Kansas, Harris started 41-of-50 games, finished with 290 tackles and served as a captain his senior year. Then came the draft. And his cellphone never rang.
Harris viewed the slight as motivation. He signed with the Broncos as a free agent for $2,000. In the NFL, big eyes and weak hearts can lose.
Harris never wavered.
“I think it’s about the mentality,” Elway said. “A lot of times you get in those first couple practices, especially those young guys, you see them, they get intimidated by all of a sudden being here and they’re on the field with the Denver Broncos. And Chris was not a guy who looked out of place out there. He went out there, and he took advantage of it. Sometimes, you look at film and you see all the different things on tape, but can’t really see what they’re about in practice, how they practice, the mentality that they go at, and I think that’s the thing that really jumped out on us.”
Harris admits he misses basketball. He no longer plays since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee a year ago. The scar provides a reminder of another hurdle.
“The playoffs are still a monkey on my back. That’s when I got hurt (against San Diego). It was a tough situation,” Harris said. “It pushed me to get back. To finish.”
Harris completed his rehab in eight months, returning faster than anyone expected. He couldn’t wait to play football again, a delicious irony for someone who nearly walked away from the game.
Troy E. Renck: trenck@denverpost.com or
Top tandems in Broncos history
The Broncos have had their share of quality cornerbacks — from Hall of Famer Willie Brown to likely Hall of Famer Champ Bailey. But picking the best duo at cornerback is tricky business. Ring of Famer Billy Thompson, for example, was a fine cornerback before he became a safety, but Thompson never had a terrific tag-team partner. It’s a tough debate, but reporter Patrick Saunders picks the top five tandems at cornerback in Broncos history:
1. Louis Wright and Steve Foley, 1977
Many believe Wright, with his flypaper man-to-man coverage, belongs in the Hall of Fame. The hard-nosed Foley remains the Broncos’ all-time leader with 44 interceptions. Together, they provided juice for the famed Orange Crush defense that led Denver to its first Super Bowl.
2. Louis Wright and Mike Harden, 1986
Wright, a five-time Pro Bowl selection, helped lead the Broncos to another Super Bowl in his final season. Harden, a tough, solid cornerback, made six interceptions and 64 unassisted tackles.
3. Ray Crockett and Darrien Gordon, 1997 and 1998
Neither was a star, but together they were good enough to help lead the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl titles. Over those two seasons, Gordon intercepted eight passes, Crockett seven. Gordon had two interceptions in the 1998 AFC title game vs. the Jets and two more in the 34-19 win over Atlanta in Super Bowl XXXIII.
4. Champ Bailey and Darrent Williams, 2006
Bailey intercepted 10 passes and was credited with 30 passes defended. Williams, in his second year, blossomed under Bailey’s tutelage, intercepting four passes and making 89 tackles, fifth-most among the Broncos. Williams was murdered in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2007, in a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver.
5. Chris Harris and Aqib Talib, 2014
This marked the first time that two Denver cornerbacks made the Pro Bowl in the same season. Harris is one of only six undrafted cornerbacks in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl with his original team. Since entering the NFL in 2008, Talib has made 27 interceptions, six of which he has returned for touchdowns.
Top NFL cornerback tandems
Denver Post reporter Patrick Saunders gives his list of the top NFL cornerback duos of all time:
1. Michael Haynes and Lester Hayes, Raiders, 1983-86
With 14 Pro Bowls between them, the brash, in-your-face pair ranks as the best ever. In their four years together, Hayes and Haynes combined for 22 interceptions with two returned for TDs. Their peak was the Raiders’ 38-9 victory over the Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. Haynes is in the Hall of Fame. Hayes was a second-team member of the 1980’s all-decade team.
2. Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield, Browns, 1984-88
Dixon and Minnifield were selected by as the No. 2 “best cornerback tandem of all time.” They were the heart and soul of Cleveland’s defenses in the mid-1980s, and they put the growl in the Dawg Pound. They appeared in three consecutive Pro Bowls together from 1986-1988, but to Cleveland’s everlasting regret, they couldn’t beat John Elway in the playoffs.
3. Dick “Night Train” Lane and Dick LeBeau, Lions, 1961-65
Both cornerbacks are in the Hall of Fame and in the early ’60s they gave the Lions’ defense real teeth. Lane, one of the most ferocious tacklers in NFL history, played his final six seasons in Detroit (1960-65), recording 21 interceptions. LeBeau had 62 interceptions in his 14 seasons with Detroit.
4. Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright, 49ers, 1984-85
During his prime, Wright was an excellent cover cornerback, and he intercepted passes in Super Bowl XVI and Super Bowl XIX. Lott became a full-time safety in 1986 and was soon renowned for his thunderous hits. But first, he was a terrific cornerback. In 1984, both Lott and Wright made the Pro Bowl and led San Francisco to victory in Super Bowl XIX over the Dolphins.
5. Deion Sanders and Eric Davis, 49ers, 1994
Sanders was so good that pairing him with almost anyone makes for a dynamic duo, but his prime-time season arguably came in 1994, his only season with San Francisco. He intercepted six passes and returned three for touchdowns. Davis was a monster in the 1994 NFC championship game vs. Dallas, returning an interception 44 yards for a touchdown and later forcing Michael Irvin to fumble.
