What's missing is the hitting

Harrison is making progress but not a lot of contact

August 23, 2006|Globe Staff

FOXBOROUGH -- Rodney Harrison's next hurdle to clear is what has helped define him as a player over his 12-year career: bone-rattling, pad-crunching, no-holds-barred contact.

Prior to yesterday's practice, the Patriots safety had yet to take part in game-like contact drills that include tackling. Harrison initially told reporters yesterday that he had absorbed his first full-bore contact before recanting.

Until Harrison takes that step, his availability for the season opener Sept. 10 against the Bills remains a question mark.

``The contact is going to happen, and I can't worry about what's going to happen from that," said Harrison, who participated in yesterday's full-pads afternoon practice, although it wasn't clear whether he was part of contact drills. ``The doctor said I'm doing well. We'll just see what happens from there. I'm not going to make any promises, I'm just going to go out there and play hard when I get my opportunity."

Harrison's return to the practice field came after he missed the team's final three workouts leading up to last Saturday's exhibition game against the Cardinals. As he has since his first practice Aug. 7, he wore a brace over his left knee. Yesterday was his fifth overall practice.

``I'm just trying to put three to four practices back to back to back," Harrison said before the workout. ``If I'm able to play in a game, then we'll see what happens. For now, I'm not even concerned."

With Harrison's situation a bit uncertain, the Patriots opened training camp with eight-year veteran Artrell Hawkins and second-year player James Sanders as their top safeties. Eugene Wilson, who started all 18 games at safety in 2005, got in his initial work at cornerback.

But in the game against the Cardinals there was a shift at safety, with Wilson moving back to pair with Hawkins. That left Sanders as the third option.

Asked to describe his physical progress yesterday, Harrison simply said that he's ``coming along." He added that he currently had two goals: ``to practice and to make [the media] wonder what day I'll return."

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said gauging a player's return to action can be tricky.

``You have to do it at the pace that physically the players are ready to work at," he said. ``Whether it's Tedy Bruschi [last] October, or whether it was Harrison two weeks ago, or whether it was [Daniel] Graham the first day of training camp. When those players are ready is not something that we really have control over. It's the natural healing process. I don't think you want to put them back out there early; that usually causes more problems than it solves."

Harrison, 33, doesn't think conditioning will be a problem, although there's a difference between being fit and being in shape to play in a game.