LAKE FOREST, Ill. – One day after getting ejected early in the Bears’ 41-21 loss to the Cardinals Sunday at Soldier Field, a contrite Tommie Harris apologized for letting down his team and his fans.

The veteran defensive tackle was kicked out of the game for punching Arizona guard Deuce Lutui in the face following Tim Hightower’s 13-yard run on the fourth play from scrimmage.

Tommie Harris pressured Kurt Warner into an incompletion on the second play of Sunday's loss to the Cardinals. Two plays later, Harris was ejected.

“I was embarrassed, especially for my action,” Harris said Monday at Halas Hall. “I just wanted to apologize to my fans first off, and the little kids out there that saw that action. I shouldn’t have behaved in that matter. I apologized to my teammates, and I’ll make up for it.”

Harris told Bears players and coaches that he was sorry in the locker room after the game and also apologized to Lutui later on Sunday through Cardinals star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, a close friend. 

Harris declined to specify exactly what provoked him to punch Lutui, who was lying on his back. But the Bears defensive tackle revealed that whatever Lutui did occurred on two plays, not just one.

“He did some unnecessary stuff during the game, but I still have to be able to control myself,” Harris said. “In the six years I’ve been here I’ve never done anything like that.

“He kind of pushed me to my limits and I apologize to all the fans. I feel like I hurt my team. I was very embarrassed, and hopefully I’ll make up for it the next time I get out there.”

Harris was assessed a 15-yard penalty and could be in line for a hefty fine from the NFL.

“Whenever you do something to get kicked out of a football game in a tough game like that where you need everyone, it’s not a good thing,” said coach Lovie Smith. “Tommie realizes he screwed up.

“We haven’t had problems like that in the past. We haven’t had to deal with things like this in the past. We know that you play the game between the whistles. But getting kicked [out] was a tough thing. The league will deal with it like they deal with most things that happen when you get disqualified from a football game. We’ll let them rule and we’ll go from there.”

The Bears aren’t planning to discipline Harris at this time, but that could change.

“I think right now Tommie has missed quite a bit of not helping this football team, missing an entire game,” Smith said. “We’ll let the league go in, and [determining whether he’s punished by the team] will be the next step after we see what the league does.”

After registering nine tackles and no sacks in the first five games this year, Harris was held out of a 45-10 loss to the Bengals. He returned a week later and recorded a season-high four tackles in a 30-6 win over the Browns. Harris was hoping to build on that performance against the Cardinals, but he didn't get the chance because of the ejection.

“I knew right away Tommie was sorry for his action, but still the action stood,” Smith said. “He didn’t play a football game. He didn’t help the Chicago Bears play [Sunday], and we just have to get past that. For the rest of our team to see how much it hurts when you lose a player like that, hopefully it will help us in the future too.”

Smith declined to say that Harris has worn out his welcome with the Bears.

“I’m disappointed that Tommie wasn’t able to play [Sunday],” Smith said. “He put himself in a position not to help us; no more than that. It’s like the rest of our football team. We have a lot of football left to go. 

"Can Tommie make it right? Yeah, our football team can make it right. He’s a part of that. What I want to see from Tommie and everybody else—from all of us right now—is to start doing our jobs a lot better than we’ve done.”