Bernardo Harris (born October 15, 1971) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. He attended Chapel Hill High School, graduating in 1990. He was recruited by

Mack Brown William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, whe ...

to play at the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1994. After not being drafted, he was signed as a free agent by the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

in 1994. At Kansas City, Harris injured his knee in the first week of training camp and was out of football. Bernardo Harris became a free agent and was signed by the Green Bay Packers in 1995, playing in eleven games his rookie season. Harris played for the Green Bay Packers for seven seasons and played on the 1996

Super Bowl XXXI Super Bowl XXXI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

and 1997

Super Bowl XXXII Super Bowl XXXII was an American football game played between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers (who were defending their Super Bowl XXXI championship) and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver B ...

teams. In 2002, Harris was signed as a free agent by the Baltimore Ravens, after a shoulder injury to Ray Lewis. In 2003, Bernardo Harris was placed on the injured reserved and subsequently retired.

Significant contributions to the NFL

While Bernardo Harris was playing for the Green Bay Packers in the January 3, 1999 playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, Harris caused a controversial fumble which would largely be recognized as the precursor to video replay in the NFL. Towards the end of the 1999 playoff game, a pass was caught by Hall of Fame wide-receiver Jerry Rice, following the catch, Bernardo Harris stripped Jerry Rice of the ball, and was recovered by the Green Bay Packers. The game appeared to be won by the Green Bay Packers. However, the call on the field was that Rice was down by contact and San Francisco retained possession. Video replay showed that Rice had fumbled the ball, however, at that time replay was not used in the NFL. The 49ers went on to defeat the Green Bay Packers on that drive, by a final score of 30-27. Due to the controversial Harris call, the NFL announced the following season that it would begin instituting video replay.

References

1971 births Living people American football middle linebackers Green Bay Packers players Baltimore Ravens players People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina Players of American football from North Carolina North Carolina Tar Heels football players Chapel Hill High School (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) alumni {{linebacker-1970s-stub