Super Bowl 50 Champ, Denver Broncos CB Chris Harris Returns Home, Talks Life After Super Bowl

Super Bowl 50 champ and Denver Broncos cornerback Chris Harris was in Tulsa on Friday and News on 6 sports journalist Porsha Richardson got a chance to catch up with him and talk about life after winning Super Bowl 50.

The Bixby native was supporting the Out of Africa Healthy Brains Strategy event, a charity function to help raise awareness for Alzheimer’s among minorities, and expressed that he was happy to be home.

“It just feels good to be home, be able to hang out with my family, be able to see all the familiar faces, that you haven’t seen in a while and it’s just so much love when you come home,” said Harris.

On February 7, the Broncos beat MVP Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in the biggest football game of the season, but Harris says he still receives the same love when he returns home.

“I think it’s kind of the same,” laughed Harris. “I think everyone’s even more excited, still celebrating. It’s kind of still fresh. It’s only a couple weeks ago that we won it, so it’s still fresh and it’s just a crazy feeling.”

That feeling may be fresh, but Harris is already looking ahead to next season.

“When you win a championship, it kind of makes you hungrier. Me being 26, kind of makes you [feel like] you don’t want anybody to take this from you,” added Harris. “I’m kind of eager to already start back training and start back working because you don’t want anybody to take this Super Bowl championship away from you. We’re the champs now, so we want to defend it.”

The humble champ also says that he wants to earn more accolades, continue to help out in the community and make an impact on the lives of others.

But where does his inspiration come from?

Part of it comes from a scrapbook his wife made for him.  

“She made a book of all my newspaper articles from when I was in high school all the way up to NFL,” said Harris. “I just go back and read those and read what the coaches say about me, read what my teammates say about me, so it’s just amazing where I came from. Really, it kind of shows everybody that you can be undrafted to an All-Pro to a Pro-Bowl.”

As for what he’s looking forward to the most about being back, it’s the food.

“Just being able to get those home cooked meals with the family is something that you miss,” smiled Harris. “I’ve been in Denver and you don’t really get the same type of food as you get in Oklahoma.”

Denver will return most, if not all, of their "No Fly Zone" defense, but Broncos mainstay Peyton Manning is expected to retire. If he does, Harris says Brock Osweiler stepped up when Peyton was injured and is expected to return. During Manning’s injury, Osweiler led Denver to two of the biggest victories of the season against New England and Cincinnati. Both wins helped the Broncos secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“I think Brock will be back. I’m excited to play with him,” said Harris. “I think he did a great job filling in for when Peyton was hurt. Mostly, everybody on the defense will be back so I’m excited to continue to play with those guys. Like I said, a lot of us are young. We’re a young defense so we’re going to continue to get better [and] do whatever we can to help stay in the number one rankings on defense and then also to be able to repeat.”