DALLAS (AP) – Cliff Harris was preparing for one of his six pro bowls with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s when Minnesota coach Bud Grant overruled the defensive signals for a game that was always more exhibition than competition.
Hold up one finger for zone, two for man to man.
“I was like, ‘Wait, I need more,'” Harris said with a chuckle. “Where are the routes that you drive? And what do we expect from first-and-10? I need more information. “
This hardworking nature in safety helped Harris down the unlikely journey from tiny Ouachita Baptist in Arkansas to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of last year’s special centenary.
Harris and receiver Drew Pearson, who will also be inducted into the Class of 2021 this year, will be the first undrafted cowboys among their 15 players in the Hall of Fame.
“Captain Crash” combined hard punches with speed and anticipation for the “Doomsday” defense of the 1970s, the heyday of America’s team. Harris is the fourth Dallas defender from that era in Canton, after Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro and Randy White.
“The offensive guys wanted to know where Cliff Harris was,” said Charlie Waters, a security colleague and presenter for Harris, at his introduction on Aug. 7. “They didn’t want to know where Lee Roy Jordan was or Randy White or Mel Renfro or me. They wanted to know, ‘This is Cliff Harris. Stay away from him. ‘”
NFL veterans went on strike for about three weeks in 1970, which gave Harris and other rookies more time with coaches before an exhibition schedule at that time was much longer, in this case six games.
Harris has a commemorative ball in the study at the 72-year-old Dallas home from the second game of his rookie season, a 28-10 win over the New York Giants. The late Cowboys coach Tom Landry had spent most of his playing career with the Giants.
Harris intercepted two passes in a game the Cowboys finished 10-0 at halftime, and now looks back on them as a career catalyst that includes two Super Bowl wins, trips to three other and three all-pro seasons included.
“He really wanted to hit her,” Harris said of Landry. “I remember he came into the locker room and was angry and said, ‘You don’t play like professionals. You play like amateurs who make money. ‘”
With the U.S. at war in Vietnam, Harris had to juggle National Guard duties during his early NFL seasons, sometimes reporting for duty during the week, and usually returning to his teammates for games.
Harris recalled having to report to Fort Polk, Louisiana, five weeks after his rookie season, the morning after a 54-13 defeat in Minnesota. He said he kept his place on a bed after a sergeant ordered him and others to clean their barracks.
“An officer came in and sat down next to me and said, ‘I know who you are and what your story is, and here is the deal. You get up and clean up, or we send you to jail and the time will be endless, ‘”said Harris. “I said, ‘Where’s the broom?'”
Waters, a third round pick, and Harris got together, starting out as rookies and being synonymous with Dallas secondary education until Harris retired after 10 seasons in 1979. That same year Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach shocked the Cowboys by resigning.
Landry was also unwilling to retire Harris and asked him to stay another year. Harris stuck to his plan and had a long career in the energy industry, beginning in an era when NFL players needed other sources of income.
Harris said there was talk of retiring for a playoff game against Atlanta a year later, but it didn’t. He completed 29 interceptions and his 16 fumble re-establishments are the second most in the club’s history.
“He had speed. He had tenacity, ”said Gil Brandt, the hiring manager who built the first Dallas dynasty with Landry and general manager Tex Schramm and who was inducted into the Hall of Fame two years ago.
“He was a competitive guy,” said Brandt. “If he was at the University of Texas or something like that, Texas A&M, he would have been a first-round or second-round draft pick.”
Brandt and the Cowboys found Harris and others like him through a scouting system that assigned scores to players in different categories. They were the first to use computers to process their scouting reports.
Harris still talks about computer printouts that he used to prepare games. He says the value Landry places on such preparation goes well with a math and physics major at an NAIA school. And that’s one of the reasons the Ouachita Baptist football stadium and small school are named Defensive Player of the Year after Harris.
“I didn’t realize I had learned as much as I did,” Harris said. “I read this book about the subconscious and the reactions you make to the information you put into your brain. That was in line with Landry’s ‘preparation beats reaction’. “
Harris even wanted to use it at the Pro Bowl.
___
More AP-NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
[ad_1]
