In the midst of an ecstatic and victorious postgame locker room Sunday night, Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh made sure to single one player out.
The Bolts had just taken the Bengals best punch before delivering one of their own late to earn a 34-27 win and get to 7-3 on Sunday Night Football.
Naturally, Harbaugh called Josh Harris to the center of the room.
The reason? The Chargers long snapper had just played in his 200th career regular-season game.
"[Harbaugh] just congratulated me on my 200th game and let me share a little bit with the team," Harris said told Chargers.com this week. "That was my first time ever getting to talk to a locker room right after the game like that.
"I'm really appreciative of him acknowledging that moment for me," Harris continued. "A lot of people had no idea that was my 200th game. And frankly, without you telling me in the weeks leading up to it, I didn't really have a counter or a tracker going.
"But it was really cool to get to share in that moment, especially with a win like that in primetime," Harris added.
The line to congratulate Harris included nearly every one of the roster, plus coaches and staff.
In the weeks leading up to Harris' milestone accomplishment, those same people raved about his ability to join such a select club.
"If anybody [on our roster] were to hit 200 games, it would be him," said Khalil Mack, who is next on the Bolts seniority list at 160 career games. "You have to understand how he comes and attacks the day and attacks his work.
"And the person he is and the character he has, it's easy to see why he's been in this league as long as he has," Mack added.
Bud Dupree, who is next in line at 129 career games, has a locker next to Harris at the Chargers practice facility.
"That's wild. A guy like Josh, man, he just comes to work every day as the same person," Dupree said. "Hard worker. What is this, Year 13 for him? He still comes in each day like it's Year 1. Great person. I learn a little more about him each day.
"I can't imagine 200 [games]," Dupree added with a laugh. "That's a lot."
Harbaugh gave a shout out to Harris in his Monday press conference.
"Huge [milestone] I don't know where that ranks, how many guys have done 200 games," Harbaugh said. "Just being consistent, consistently good.
"He's a tremendous example for all of us," Harbaugh added. "He's a coach on the field … one of our rock-solid guys in every area."
Chargers Special Teams Coordinator Ryan Ficken called 200 games "a hell of a deal" while assistant special teams coach Chris 'Beep' Gould deemed it "a monumental occasion."
They are correct.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Harris on Sunday became just the 353rd player to ever reach 200 games. That's out of the roughly 28,000 men who have played professional football.
And for context, there are 378 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Put another way, playing 200 games is a more exclusive club than actually making it to Canton.
"Just a tremendous feat," Ficken said.
The Road to 200
It's Monday afternoon at The Bolt and Harris has just finished his day-after recovery work.
He settles down at table in the team facility and gets ready to watch film from Sunday's a win, a game in which he played a dozen snaps.
First, however, he explains just how he managed to make it to 200 career games.
"There's a few different things. First and foremost, been fortunate to stay healthy," Harris said. "I've had injuries in the past but for the most part, been able to stay healthy and a lot of that comes from the nature of the position.
"But then also, taking care of your body on days off or just daily stuff and making sure you're in as good a shape as you can be," Harris continued.
"I also think it has a lot to do with the mindset," Harris added. "Playing snapper or playing a specialist role in general is very similar to golf. Just one shot at a time — good, bad or indifferent — and then get to the next play, the next shot, the next hole, whatever it is."
Harris' fellow specialists — kicker Cameron Dicker and punter JK Scott — both can attest to the long snapper's daily mentality.
"What is the average NFL career? It's like two years or something like that," Scott said. "For Josh to compete at this level for that many years, it's really impressive.
"You can attribute it to just how he does his business. He's just a tremendous worker," Scott continued. "But the thing I would say that separates Josh from other guys is that he's so light and he's so easy.
"He's like Teflon. He just lets things roll off him," Scott added. "He's always like, 'Onto the next one.' A lot of guys say that but he really lives that."
Dicker added: "He's just so level-headed. No matter what's going on, I can talk to him for things in the building, outside the building. He's a guy who has just been through it all. He's a role model for me off the field."
Harris credited his wife, Kameron, for her unwavering support through the years.
The couple has four young children. Kameron and the kids currently live in Florida for schooling purposes, but she made sure to be there at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.
"She called me a few days before," Harris said, "And was like, 'I wasn't going to be able to watch your 200th game on TV.' That made it even better."
As Harris' 200th game approached, Gould said he reflected on just how impressive a milestone it is.
"Honestly, I don't even know how to put that into words," Gould said. "I think about it sometimes … Josh has been playing in the NFL for more than half the lives of some of these rookies, you know what I mean?"
Sure enough, the Chargers have 31 players on their current roster who are 26 years old or younger. Rookie Joe Alt, for example, was only nine years old when Harris made his NFL debut.
Life as a Long Snapper
Let's get the obvious out of the way.
Harris is the first to admit that his job is unlike most of his teammates on game day.
While someone like Justin Herbert or Derwin James, Jr. is counted upon to be out there for every snap on their side of the ball, Harris ranges between seven and 12 snaps per game.
And while other players have dozens of snaps to make up for a bad play, Harris only has a a few handfuls to make sure everything runs smoothly.
"I heard somebody say one time — and I think it's pretty true — that snappers are kind of like air traffic controllers," Harris said. "They do their job and nobody really notices and everything is fine.
"But when something bad happens, it's obviously very out there and easy for even the common fan to see when you make a mistake," Harris added.
Harris said Monday that he is well-aware of the physical toll that his teammates endure on a weekly basis, and that their grueling day at the office inspires him to always be at his best.
But it's not as if Harris isn't in the trenches himself, too. The 13-year vet said that he's noticed opposing teams leaning toward more athletic players up front to try and make game-changing plays in that phase.
"Schematically, I don't think a lot has changed as far as what kind of pressures teams run," Harris said. "But I think one of the biggest things that's changed is just the position types or the body types that are being used in the rush schemes.
"Early in my career, it was mainly linebackers and maybe some DBs in there," Harris said. "Now it's pretty common to have an edge rusher or two in there in the A gap, just bigger bodies that are really athletic and strong and tall."
Then there's the technical side of it. Harris quipped that he is "not a robot" but said Scott relies on him to be pinpoint accurate as often as possible on field goals and extra points.
"I am responsible for making sure the laces, when the holder catches it, that they are somewhere between 10 [o'clock] and 2 [o'clock]," Harris said. "Ideally you want those laces at 12 o'clock when he catches it so all he has to do is put it down."
For punts, it's less about the snap and more about quickness and footwork.
"The snap itself is obviously very important," Harris said. "But then the protection is the biggest difference at the professional level versus any other level … they're running the same stunts they run on the defensive line.
"It's about getting your head up and your footwork and getting some depth to be able to pick up your blocking assignment. The biggest thing for me is just being able to recover as quickly as possible," Harris added. "You don't want to be bent over staring at that ball going all the way back to the punter because by the time you pick your head up your guy is already by you."
Gould added: "You've got be able to run, got to be able to move and maintain some athleticism. And you're taking on defensive linemen over and over again. You've got to be physically available and withstand the pressure, it's just amazing."
According to Pro Football Focus, Harris has the fewest amount of bad snaps on punts since 2022 — when he joined the Bolts — among players with at least 170 punt snaps.
Harris has been even better on field goals and extra points, with PFF noting he's had zero bad snaps out of 186 tries since arriving in Southern California.
In that timespan, Harris' overall PFF grade is an elite 90.1 mark, which ranks third among snappers with at least 300 plays since 2021.
Our No. 1 Guy
The Chargers ranked 28th in special teams DVOA in 2021. The year before that, they were dead last at No. 32.
But in the two-plus seasons since Harris has donned the powder blue, the Chargers were sixth (2022) and second (2023).
When Ficken took over as the Special Teams Coordinator in 2022, his first task was to hire Gould.
But in terms of players, he knew right away who he wanted to help change the culture in Los Angeles.
"The players, they created this foundation," Ficken said. "And Josh was No. 1. He was the first guy I went after, the first guy I wanted to go get.
"I knew what kind of person he was from afar and how he would be able to set the foundation of what we were trying to achieve," Ficken added. "He wouldn't be just a snapper. He would be a leader in which his voice will matter."
Harris spent the first 10 seasons of his career in Atlanta. He grew up in Georgia, attended Auburn and landed with the Falcons.
For decades, the South was all he knew.
"Football at this level is a business and everybody at some point in their career experiences that side of it," Harris said. "I've got nothing but love and respect for Atlanta.
"Growing up a Falcons fan and getting to play there, a lot of great memories and a lot of great people in that organization," Harris continued. "It just came time where my contract was up and I had an opportunity to come out here and we jumped on it.
"We've really enjoyed being out here with the guys, the coaching staff, Fick, Beep and the locker room is just awesome," Harris added.
Scott and Dicker might have benefitted the most from Harris over the past few seasons.
Scott punted in just one game in 2021 but had a good feeling when the two happened to make their free agency visit in 2022 on the same weekend.
"We came out here together and both signed the same weekend. We just immediately hit it off," Scott said.
Since then, Scott's elite hangtime routinely helps the Bolts flip field position and limit explosive returns.
The punter credited Harris for his career resurgence.
"He has been a Godsend for me with the whole keeping it light thing," Scott said. "He doesn't just do that for himself, he does that for all of us.
"He's a really good leader for me and Cameron and helps me keep a good perspective and keep things really light. He's a huge encouragement," Scott added. "His value, in my opinion, is way beyond just his position. He's added value for me, for Cameron and is the leader of our whole special teams."
Dicker, meanwhile, joined the Chargers on the fly in the middle of the 2022 season. All he's done since is make 73 of 79 field goals (93.6 percent), with 12 of them coming from 50-plus.
"Just an awesome guy. He's made my job very easy," Dicker said. "It's fun to have somebody like him around, just a guy everyone on the team can count on."
That's evident by the Friday special teams meetings the Chargers have during the season.
But it's not led by Ficken or Gould. It's a players-only meeting, and you can guess who runs it.
"He's up there in the front of the room with the clicker," Ficken said. "And he's not just talking about punt. He's talking about the other phases, taking notes from like throughout the course of the week in terms of coaching points.
"He knows football and I think that's what makes him so valuable, too," Ficken added. "He understands the game and he understands what you're trying to accomplish. He's really like another coach out there."
Gould added: "One of the reasons we're able to have success because you can lean on him to lead guys, talk to guys individually. And when it comes to situational football, he's on it and knows exactly what to do. He's been through all that stuff so he can lead those guys on the field."
The Dad of the Group
As we sit at the table for 20-plus minutes, Harris' iPad is right next to him.
He sees it and lets out a laugh when he tells the following story.
"iPads were around but they weren't being used like they are now where we all have this iPad dedicated to work and film. Everything's right here," Harris said. "I remember having to watch tape in the defensive staff room on a computer with a projector, which was great. I still kind of like doing that sometimes.
"But the film quality itself wasn't great, you know? It was really grainy and so as a young snapper, you couldn't really see where the laces were when the holder is putting it down," Harris added with a laugh. "Now everything is in HD and you can see little detail, which is great. You can pick up on things that you used to not be able to pick up on and be able to catch details that may have gone unseen in years past."
This is Harris subtle way of acknowledging that he's the, errr, elder statesman on the team.
Dicker, who is 24, put it more bluntly.
"He's old," Dicker said with a smile.
"But it's like an older brother, I would say. When we're out of the building, we'll go get dinner once every week or two," Dicker said. "And then when we're in [the locker room], he's like a brother and it's just a fun relationship. It's great to have someone like him I can look up to and hopefully get to where he is one day."
Nick Niemann, one of the Chargers top special teams players, offered his own assessment.
"He's kind of like the dad in the room just helping everyone out," Niemann said.
"He'll laugh at himself a little bit, too," Niemann added. "I think he might be 35. He's either 34 or 35. He's fun to joke with and he takes it well."
Harris, for the record, is 35 and doesn't mind the ribbing from his younger teammates.
"I'll take that! If you'd have told me that 13 years ago … I would have taken that right then and there," Harris said. "I was the young guy in the group for a long time but things change quickly."
Not Done Yet
Moments after his postgame speech Sunday night, Harris joked with teammates that he was already plotting out his next 200 games.
While that might be a longshot — kicker Morten Andersen holds the NFL record at 382 career games — Harris certainly made it clear that he still has plenty of gas in the tank.
"Obviously, I'd love to win a Super Bowl. No question about that," Harris said. "But the thing I love the most about this game is just the emotions that it brings out in you.
"The feeling that you have after a win and then also the feelings you have after a loss, those are really hard to replace in any other job," Harris added. "I've always kind of said when I stop feeling that way after a win or stop feeling that way after a loss, then maybe it's time to figure something else out. But I don't see that happening any anytime soon."
Harris is on track to hit 207 games at the end of the season.
If he hypothetically plays two more years, he would be at 241 career games, a feat fewer than 100 players have hit.
"There's only 32 long snappers in the whole world," Scott said. "So, for him to be at the top for so long, he just does his job at such an elite level. The way he does his job, I've never seen it. He's truly remarkable at what he does."
Harris said this week that he doesn't really have a number or end goal in mind.
With the Chargers currently sitting at 7-3 and squarely in the AFC playoff mix, his focus is instead on helping the Bolts get into the postseason and seeing what kind of run they can possibly make.
"To put on that jersey and that helmet on Sunday afternoons, there's nothing like it," Harris said. "This was a dream — a pipe dream as a kid — that I never really thought could ever happen.
"To have this opportunity," Harris added, "I just want to keep living it and keep giving it my best shot every chance I get."
