As I sat down to write my weekly column in the waking hours of Cliff Harris’ most recent suspension, I really, really struggled with what I felt needed to be said.
On the one hand, like most of you, my initial reaction was frustration and maybe even a little anger. We’ve watched an undeniable fan favorite and downright gifted football player slip from Chip Kelly’s@@CE@@ good graces. But it felt like he was slowly — and I do mean slowly — making his way back to where he needed to be.
All that went away with another arrival in my inbox that read, “Ducks suspend Cliff Harris,” and a Twitter feed that followed suit almost immediately. I’ll have more on that in a minute.
Once I was able to put football thoughts aside and stopped wondering how Oregon will fare without the former All-American@@http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2010/12/oregon_football_another_honor.html@@, I started to reflect back on my first interaction with “Kash.”
It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since the first time I interviewed Cliff. For those who don’t remember, or weren’t around just yet, I discovered that when Harris first introduced himself to his Oregon teammates, all he had to say was, “My name’s Cliff Harris, and I’m here to lock shit down.”
Yeah, that one.
From there on out, Cliff was a quote machine. He gave the media some real gems over the course of last year’s 12-0 season, mostly because he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and had some intelligent perspective on certain aspects of Oregon football. But before long, Harris knew people were baiting him into the next great sound bite, and eventually he stopped speaking to the media.
And that’s unfortunate. In my time with the Emerald, no one has ever exuded more confidence in an interview than Cliff Harris. That’s just the way it is. Call it tacky or fanatic of me, but I came away from that interview feeling a lot better about the story I was going to write and about myself as a journalist in general.
This is the point where I started to stumble over my thoughts for today’s column. I’m in no position to knock Harris for another costly and stupid decision off the field like so many have online, but I also can’t sit here and sing his praises. His teammates have stuck by him through both of these traffic citations, and you’ll never hear a single one of them say a bad word about the guy. But at some point — and I think by now we know that day has come and gone — all of these things start to add up.
Nobody wants to see Cliff go, and I couldn’t say with any certainty that will happen now, or ever. But I do know that Chip Kelly is a man who demands respect from everyone within his program: players, coaches, managers — everybody.
I’m sure it was never Harris’ intention to disrespect Kelly or his teammates, but that’s exactly what he’s done.
By disregarding the law (again), Harris will be away from everything Oregon football for the immediate future. What that means in the long-run remains to be seen and probably won’t be clarified anytime soon as Kelly won’t answer those questions.
He’ll remain as aloof as ever and remind us that Oregon will host Washington State on Saturday with the players they have available. And that’s where the notion of respect and trust come back into play in such a major way.
Remember that Harris hasn’t been on Oregon’s two-deep all season despite being named a preseason first-team All-American, and it has nothing to do with physical ability.
Over the last few weeks, as the Ducks have dealt with so many key injuries, Kelly has preached that his confidence in players comes from a demonstrated ability. This refers to practice much more so than games because the Ducks only have a dozen of those each year, but they have hundreds of isolated practices.
For whatever reason, Harris wasn’t where he needed to be in practice. Or at least that’s the feeling, given his lack of playing time and no starts through six games. He was still the same ol’ Cliff when he got near the ball — a human highlight reel.
However, those plays we’ve come to love could soon be a thing of the past. I hate to say it, but how many more chances will Harris be given? Part of me says that’s it, that’s all. The other part desperately wants him to figure out life away from football.
If there’s one thing I can take from that interview last year, it’s that nobody is going to stop Cliff Harris except Cliff Harris. I bet if you asked any of his teammates, they’d tell you he’s going to bounce back.
For his sake, I truly hope that’s the case.