| No. 26, 82, 86, 84 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | (1954-11-27)November 27, 1954 (age 70) Port Arthur, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 179 lb (81 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Stephen F. Austin(Port Arthur) | ||||||||
| College: | New Mexico State | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1976: 3rd round, 80th pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Duriel LaDon Harris, Jr. (born November 27, 1954) is an American former professionalfootball player who was awide receiver in theNational Football League (NFL) for theMiami Dolphins,Cleveland Browns, andDallas Cowboys. He playedcollege football for theNew Mexico State Aggies.[citation needed]
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Harris attendedStephen F. Austin High School, where he played as arunning back.
He accepted a football scholarship fromNew Mexico State University. As a sophomore, he posted 36 carries for 250 yards atrunning back. As a junior, he was moved to the "lonesome end" position in the team'swishbone offense, tallying 29 receptions for 701 yards and 7touchdowns.
As a senior, he registered 34 receptions for 607 yards and 5touchdowns, ranking fifth in the nation in kickoff returns, including a 104-yardtouchdown return against theUniversity of Tulsa.
Even though he had few opportunities to prove his true worth in the Aggies run-oriented offense, he finished his college career with 89 receptions for 1,562 yards (17.5-yard average) and 13touchdowns.
Harris was selected by theMiami Dolphins in the third round (80th overall) of the1976 NFL draft. He wore number 26 during his rookie season, starting two games at wide receiver out of 12 contests. He finished with 372 yards (third on the team) on 22 receptions and one touchdown. He also stood out as areturn specialist, posting 559 yards on 17 kickoffs and a 32.9 yards per return (led theNFL).[citation needed]
In1977, he switched his jersey number to 82. He appeared in 14 games (4 starts), finishing second on the team in with 34 receptions for 601 yards, 5 touchdowns and a 17.7 yards average per catch (led the team).[citation needed]
Throughout his first years, the Dolphins were a run-oriented team and his role in the passing offense was limited to being the team's deep threat, generally averaging over 17 yards per catch. In1979, Harris andNat Moore set a franchisewide receiver tandem with a combined 90 receptions for 1,638 yards. The next yearBruce Hardy passed him on the depth chart at receiver.[citation needed]
In1981, he regained his starting role, posting 911 yards (led the team) on 53 receptions (led the team) for the second-best total in franchise history, while playing with 2 different startingquarterbacks. Harris was involved in thehook and lateral play at the end of the first half of the 1981 AFC Division Playoff game versus theSan Diego Chargers, that became known asThe Epic in Miami. Harris received a 40-yard pass fromquarterbackDon Strock and then lateralled the ball torunning backTony Nathan, who ran the ball 25 yards for atouchdown. The Chargers eventually won the game in overtime.[1]
In1982, he established a franchise record with a 25.3-yard return average on 56 kickoffs. As a receiver he was second on the team with 22 receptions for 331 yards and one touchdown. The next year, he was passed over on the depth chart byMark Duper and suffered his worst performance up to that point in his career.[2]
During his time with the Dolphins, Harris had frequent disagreements withDon Shula and their many meetings prompted his teammates to name one of the chairs in the head coach's office "Duriel's Chair".[3]
On March 27,1984, he was traded to theCleveland Browns in exchange for a fourth round draft choice (#91-Mike Smith).[4] He left as the second-ranked receiver in Dolphins history with 266 receptions for 4,510 yards. He also took great care of thefootball, having only 2 fumbles in 8 years.
In1984, despite being the second leading receiver for theCleveland Browns (32 catches for 512 yards), Harris was waived whenMarty Schottenheimer replacedSam Rutigliano as the team's head coach after 11 games, because Schottenheimer considered that he dropped too many passes.[5] His best game came against theNew England Patriots, when he had 8 receptions for 136 yards.
On November 13,1984, he was claimed off waivers by theDallas Cowboys, who were thin atwide receiver after losingDrew Pearson andButch Johnson, while bothTony Hill andDoug Donley suffered injuries.[6] He only had one receptions for 9 yards during the season. He was cut on September 2,1985.[7]
On September 24,1985, he was signed as afree agent by theMiami Dolphins, to provide depth afterwide receiversMark Duper,Nat Moore andTommy Vigorito suffered injuries.[8] On November 9, he was released after tallying 3 receptions for 24 yards, to make room for Duper to come off theinjured reserve list.[9]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Receiving | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1976 | MIA | 12 | 2 | 22 | 372 | 16.9 | 44 | 1 |
| 1977 | MIA | 14 | 4 | 34 | 601 | 17.7 | 47 | 5 |
| 1978 | MIA | 16 | 15 | 45 | 654 | 14.5 | 63 | 3 |
| 1979 | MIA | 15 | 14 | 42 | 798 | 19.0 | 51 | 3 |
| 1980 | MIA | 12 | 3 | 33 | 583 | 17.7 | 54 | 2 |
| 1981 | MIA | 15 | 12 | 53 | 911 | 17.2 | 55 | 2 |
| 1982 | MIA | 9 | 8 | 22 | 331 | 15.0 | 45 | 1 |
| 1983 | MIA | 12 | 3 | 15 | 260 | 17.3 | 64 | 1 |
| 1984 | CLE | 11 | 11 | 32 | 512 | 16.0 | 43 | 2 |
| DAL | 5 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 9.0 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1985 | MIA | 6 | 0 | 3 | 24 | 8.0 | 11 | 0 |
| 127 | 72 | 302 | 5,055 | 16.7 | 64 | 20 | ||
| Year | Team | Games | Receiving | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1978 | MIA | 1 | 1 | 4 | 42 | 10.5 | 19 | 0 |
| 1979 | MIA | 1 | 1 | 3 | 61 | 20.3 | 33 | 1 |
| 1981 | MIA | 1 | 0 | 6 | 106 | 17.7 | 30 | 0 |
| 1982 | MIA | 4 | 3 | 6 | 94 | 15.7 | 36 | 0 |
| 1983 | MIA | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 5 | 19 | 303 | 15.9 | 36 | 1 | ||
After football, Harris worked in radio and television broadcasting. He was an actor in television, films, and theater.[citation needed]