Good God. Please watch Harrison’s hit on Colt McCoy (one of four or five videos of him cheap shotting just Browns players, including a video where he body slams a Browns fan [lol]) and tell us he isn’t dirty. I have no team allegiance on either side of this fight, but Harrison absolutely tries to injure people with the crown of his helmet. He’s infamous for it. How can anyone not see this?
You simply cannot have objective credibility if you think Harrison isn’t dirty after watching that hit again.
Tabernacle. And by that I mean EXACTLY. Sleepy’s last post almost left me in tears of anger that he could not recognize the very same thing he condemns in Vontaze Burfict. I’ve said it before, the Steelers would FULLY EMBRACE Burfict and make excuses for his play if he were on their team. They’re mostly just mad because they NO LONGER have a Ward or Harrison to dish out those same kinds of hits that they suddenly gasp now find so offensive, when their players have been doing this for years. And now the rules have changed.
Again, Burfict is a dirty player, but if he were on YOUR team in the days of ESPN’s “Jacked Up”, you’d love him, especially if you rooted for James Harrison and the Stealers, and you’d make excuses for him. You’re just mostly mad because the “bully” shoe has been put on another foot besides yours…although Shazier, Mitchell and Harrison (and JuJu) have tried to maintain the evil tradition.
Oh hai, and Antonio Brown too, while we’re at it. But NO HEAVENS FORFEND that same bully activity goes your way. Refs! Refs! Did you see that shit!?!?!?
The answer is “YES WE DID…UNLESS YOU PLAY THE EVEN MORE FAVORED AFC FRANCHISE”
In a league that contains Ndamukong Suh as well as Vontaze Burfict, at that. You’re absolutely right about the difference between “dirty” and “good hard-nosed football” being the color of the laundry. Pats fans will readily admit the same about Rodney Harrison.
Harrison may or may not be out of gas, but at the worst he gives the Steelers something else to think about, which alone gives them a serious handicap. At best, he helps bolster the Pats’ outside rush, which has been for shit this year due to massive loss of personnel.
PS: I don’t get it. How could the Steelers front office *not *have foreseen that the next thing Harrison’s agent would do would be to call Foxboro? How could they not have just come up with some excuse for putting him on IR instead (there’s a lot of that this time of year), with some fanfare later in the off-season about one of the team’s greats retiring from a grand career?
Suh has injured players many times by “accidentally” stepping on their legs. Come on, really? Once I can buy, twice is pushing it, but when it keeps happening it becomes your MO.
Here’s an old article about the history of his “stomps” (and other dirty plays):
That article is 3 years old. Since then I remember week 1 of 2016 he injured Russell Wilson by “accidentally” stepping on his leg too.
Oh, and this year he choked Ryan Mallett (that one even he couldn’t pretend was an accident). I think he’s got to be the dirtiest player in the NFL, by far.
There’s a lot of speculation on sports radio that Harrison may in fact be a trojan horse for the Stealers, sharing Patriots playbook details with Tomlin, etc.
And to further add fuel to the fire of a potential AFC Champ matchup between these two teams, Maurkice Pouncey, the Stealers center, calls out Harrison publicly and told reporters that Harrison “ruined his legacy” with the Stealers by signing with the Patriots.
WTF? If everything is on the up and up (ie, no trojan horse plan for Harrison, the Stealers just cut him because he’s old and ineffective, etc), what is Harrison supposed to do when the Patriots come calling for his services? I hate the guy, but playing in the NFL is his job, and another employer wanted him after his former fired him.
… and given that Pittsburgh knows the New England system as well as New England knows the Pittsburgh system. A game between them is won by execution, discipline, and mental toughness. Which the Steelers are, again, not showing, talking about a guy who’s not even on their team anymore instead of about their next opponent.
Now there’s talk about how Harrison engineered this, wanted out, “forced” the Steelers’ hand because he wanted to leave, and/or join NE.
Gods what a load of horseshit. Last I checked the teams waive players. A player, especially one who isn’t actually playing much and so cannot even try to affect things by phoning it in on the field, cannot force a team to release. Bryant’s recent disgruntlement and social media machinations come to mind, and he was actually playing. Somehow he’s still on the six-time-Super-Bowl-winning Steelers’ roster. Harrison’s release was entirely the Steelers‘ decision, and action. If he then finds a job with another team, good for him.
If there is another Steelers-Patsies game, I will cheer for the Steelers as I always do. But if Deebo gets to suit up, and manages to put Ben on his butt, I shall tip my Steelers hat to him, and mumble “nice going”. (If more than twice, though, I’d likely find it hard to continue the sentiment)
I suppose that’s the best way you can view it. honestly. I find it funny that current Stealer players are taking to social media to read Harrison the riot act, however. I can’t stand the guy but if he really was cut by the Stealers for the honest reason that he can’t contribute anymore (why was he ever a Bengal, again, exactly?) then so be it. WHy would ANY STealers fan complain about his new job? The Stealers CUT him. They wouldn’t do that if they thought Harrison could still contribute in a meaningful way.
Slight hijack. Are there not contractual obligations that prevent players from doing this? In the NFL, players change teams all of the time. In many industries, a contract prevents employees from divulging trade secrets. Pepsi cannot pay a Coke employee who knows the secret formula a bajillion dollars to come and work for them and spill the beans.
If this happens, you would think it would be more prevalent. What would stop the Steelers from signing some scrub from the Patriots who was on the practice squad as a “consultant”?
The signals get changed every game. They might reuse some of the same (OMAHA!) words, but what they mean will not be different, or nothing at all. Game film includes sound, and all a quality control guy would have to do is match the call with the ensuing play, and you would be able to counter every audible. It’s hard to hide the QB pointing at a specific player or a WR raising his hand when he sees who’s across from him, but most calls change after they see daylight.
If pressed, I’m sure Harrison could offer some insights into some of the reasoning behind how rushes are devised (if the offense is in THIS set, we rush X, Y, Z, and Q, if in THIS set, it’s X/Y/Z/D, unless Shady is in the backfield behind an H back, then it’s X/Y/D/Q). All that could probably be derived from the film, given enough time and personnel, but it can save a lot of manpower for other things if you have a former player. It’s why practice squad players get picked up every week by opponents - they might not have any insight into the gameplan for YOUR team, but they’ll have information on any new twists an OC/HC might be rehearsing.
I’m not so sure. If he felt like he could still play, and maybe the Stealers told him he’d get playing time under his (then) new contract, but then reneged or somehow figured out that they didn’t need him, he didn’t fit, was a liability, etc…I could see him being disgruntled.
If I were a Stealers fan (heaven forfend the very thought!), I would understand him demanding a trade if any of the above circumstances were true…despite how loyal Harrison seemed to be to the Stealers franchise.
I’ve been saying all week that I’m not upset that he signed with the Patriots. It’s a business, and for the Steelers he was no longer a good fit. T.J. Watt was as good an edge rusher as he was with the benefit of not being 39 and the ability to drop back in coverage. He thinks he can still play, and in a different scheme he might be right so good luck to him. I’m surprised he signed with the Patriots, but that’s his business.
If he does get on the field, though, it tells their opponents two things: first, the all-out pass rush is on, and second, they have to assign someone to defend the pass against the guy that Harrison can’t drop back to cover himself. If he doesn’t get to the quarterback there’s a mismatch somewhere. That’s why he couldn’t get off the bench for Pittsburgh.
No hard feelings from me. Age catches up with everyone sooner or later.