Shelby Harris insults city of Seattle while discussing purgatory of Seahawks

When Seattle traded Russell Wilson they got Shelby Harris back in return.
Shelby Harris as a member of the Seattle Seahawks
Shelby Harris as a member of the Seattle Seahawks / Steph Chambers/GettyImages
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In March of 2022, the Seattle Seahawks changed their franchise. They released linebacker Bobby Wagner on March 8 (though Wagner returned for one season a year later) and on the same day, Seattle traded Russell Wilson. Moving on from the team's franchise quarterback was a huge risk, of course, but Seattle wanted to rebuild the roster and the draft picks Seattle got back in the trade would hopefully help do that.

Those picks have turned into players such as Devon Witherspoon, Boye Mafe, and Charles Cross, among others. Each of those guys is now a foundational piece that should lead the franchise to long-term future success. But Seattle got a few veteran players back in the Wilson trade as well.

One of the players was defensive lineman Shelby Harris. Harris might have endeared himself to 12s after the Seahawks' first game of 2022 when Seattle defeated Wilson and his new team, the Denver Broncos, and Harris admitted to never being in a stadium as loud as Lumen Field. This should have made 12s proud.

Shelby Harris trashes the city of Seattle and the Seahawks organization

But Harris has made some recent comments that might make 12s slightly turn on him. Harris appeared on an episode of the podcast Dumb Jocks, and while he stayed away from directly insulting former head coach Pete Carroll or any specific player, Harris managed to disrespect the franchise and the city of Seattle.

Harris only played one season with Seattle and he wasn't awful. He started 15 games and had 2 sacks and 5 tackles for loss. Still, Harris was probably not as productive as Seattle hoped. The year before coming to the Seahawks, Harris had 6 sacks and 11 quarterback hits with the Broncos.

Harris seemed settled in Denver and was excited about the team trading for Wilson. The defensive lineman thought getting Wilson would mean the team was going to be playoff-bound. No one knew at the time, however, that with Wilson, Denver would be much worse. Now, Wilson is no longer with Denver, and Harris plays for the Cleveland Browns.

About Seattle, Harris said on the podcast, "Seattle’s a very depressing city." Active, not past, tense. Sure, Seattle has its issues, as every large city does, but few big cities are surrounded by the kind of natural beauty the Seattle area has, and the city itself is quirky enough to make it extremely interesting.

Harris was even more harsh about the Seahawks franchise saying the team was "purgatory" more than once. He said, "(The Broncos players were) all ‘Yeah! Yeah, we got a quarterback, yeah! And then I look down on my phone, and then (Broncos GM) George Paton is calling me...I’m like bro, it’s no way...I’m about to get traded. Instantly my heart sank...I’m thinking like ‘(Expletive), I’m getting traded to the purgatory. We’re about to be trash in Seattle."

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That is not exactly the kind of mentality a team wants from a player they just added. Harris doubled down on this as well, saying, "(Denver was) finally going to be good, I worked my ass off here five years, they’re going to be good, and they ship me somewhere, and as I said, I’m going to be in purgatory...I tried to put on a smile for his family, trying to make it better for them, because I’m not excited at all. Not one bit of me at all was excited to go to Seattle."

Few 12s will now be excited about having Harris on the team. Seattle does not play the Browns this year, but one might wonder what kind of reception Harris would receive if the team did.

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