SAN FRANCISCO–Jerry Angelo said that Tommie Harris is being evaluated for next season and the future beyond just like every player on the roster.
The defensive tackle caught the general manager off guard when he punched Arizona’s Deuce Lutui on the fourth play of the game Sunday and was ejected. It was another bizarre chapter in the recent history of Harris, who was suspended for a game last season and was benched earlier this season by coach Lovie Smith.
“All the guys are being evaluated for next year, OK,” Angelo said. “And you know what I am talking about. I am not going to make him out to be a target. He’s got to play and do the things we know he can do that he has shown in spurts. It’s not that he can’t do it. We want to see the consistency.”
Harris earned a $6.67 million roster bonus this season and the has a $2.5 million roster bonus for 2010 that is due in June. He hasn’t played to the level the Bears want to see, although Angelo said he has shown enough glimpses to leave the organization hopeful he will out it together again.
“It is old news [the ejection] and I don’t want to labor it, he said what he said, he’s apologetic,” Angelo said prior to tonight’s game. “It’s certainly not in his character to do something like that. It wasn’t in college, it wasn’t here. We’ve never had any examples of that by him. That really came out of left field for everyone, in terms of what he did, the timing of when he did it, it’s a bad incident. The league will I am sure fine him.”
The Bears believe that Harris will be motivated to have one of his better performances tonight against the 49ers. They say he was solid two weeks ago against Cleveland.
“Everything you want to see from him physically speaking, he shows,” Angelo said. “It’s putting it together, packaging it into four quarters and then game in and game out and playing to that Pro Bowl level again.”