Tommie Harris, Bears Defensive Tackle

	Tommie Harris, Bears Defensive Tackle. Todd Rosenberg/SI

As told to Andrew Lawrence

On where the Oct. 16 Monday Night comeback against Arizona ranks among the craziest games he has played

Number 1. We just kept getting things going our way, like we couldn't lose. It was good to have a game like that -- it keeps you on your feet and makes you appreciate winning.

On making his fourth-grade peewee football team

I was very overweight [155 pounds], and they told me I couldn't make the team. So I ran around the neighborhood in a plastic bag until I dropped some weight. If you don't have a sweat bag, you make your own. It was something I'd seen my father [Tommie Sr.] do. He had been in the military, and that's how he trained.

On growing up in Texas with Tommie Sr., a Pentecostal minister, and mother, Janie, a former missionary

I rebelled. I ran with the wrong crowd. I've been in juvenile detention centers, alternative schools -- everything. But I learned Christ for myself. The thing in life is maturity. Whatever you go through, whether it's relationships, financial issues -- anything -- your parents can only do so much. There comes a time when you start to realize you're embarrassing Mom and Dad.

On his superstition

I do everything in threes. I eat three blueberry pancakes for breakfast every morning. I always put three pieces of Winterfresh gum in my mouth. I do something else in threes, but I don't want you to think I'm, like, crazy.

On music

I have a record label and a studio [in Chicago] and I sing, but for now it's just a hobby. I sing every year at the Super Bowl gospel celebration. One day maybe I'll come out with an album. My dad had an album out a long time ago. Now he has a quartet, and they travel around and sing.

On his friendship with the late Reggie White

He was more than a football figure in my life. What he stood for -- he walked it more than he talked it. If you never read a Bible in your life and you saw Reggie White's lifestyle, it was the perfect illustration of how to live. He lived a godly life, and he showed that believers can still have fun. He clowned around and had a sense of humor. He wasn't all holier-than-thou. It was great being around him.

On being compared to sackmaster Warren Sapp

I've been hearing a lot of it. I've learned a lot from him, John Randle, Reggie White -- all those guys. Hopefully I can take it all and put it into one player and make something great. Right now, I'm good. I believe when the mission is accomplished, I'll be great.

HARRIS (6'3", 300 POUNDS) HAS FIVE SACKS. CHICAGO (6-0) PLAYS SAN FRANCISCO (2-4) ON SUNDAY.

Issue date: October 30, 2006