Every Steelers offseason is turning into a daytime soap opera and this one is certainly no exception. Just days after Hines Ward’s DUI arrest, LB James Harrison is saying all kinds of crazy things in a feature article for Men’s Journal. The juiciest quotes are going to appear in the print edition, but here are some of the crazier ones we know so far:
On being branded as a thug:
“My rep is James Harrison, mean son of a bitch who loves hitting the hell out of people,” he says. “But up until last year, there was no word of me being dirty — till Roger Goodell, who’s a crook and a puppet, said I was the dirtiest player in the league. If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it. I hate him and will never respect him.”
On the 2004 season:
“I should have another ring. We were the best team in football in 2004, but the Patriots, who we beat during the regular season, stole our signals and picked up 90 percent of our blitzes [in the AFC title game]. They got busted for it later, but, hey, they’re Goodell’s boys, so he slapped ‘em $500,000 and burned the tapes. Was he going to rescind their Super Bowls? Man, hell no!”
On the two interceptions thrown by Ben Roethlisberger in last year’s Super Bowl:
“Hey, at least throw a pick on their side of the field instead of asking the D to bail you out again. Or hand the ball off and stop trying to act like Peyton Manning. You ain’t that and you know it, man; you just get paid like he does.”
There has been a ton of reaction to this from people all over the football world, including bored journalists with nothing else to talk about who will surely blow this way out of proportion.
After hearing the quotes and Harrison’s reaction to them, my only thought is this: James Harrison is exactly who we thought he was.
On the field, Harrison is a maniac. He’s a gladiator who walks (and sometimes crosses) the line of clean play. He takes no crap from anybody and freely speaks his mind. Harrison hits like a Mack truck and was the artist behind, in my opinion, the greatest single play in NFL history.
Off the field, Harrison is a guy who has been let down by people over and over and over again. The youngest of 14 kids, he was one of the first black players ever at his high school and dealt with racial slurs throughout his prep career. He lost all of his prestigious football scholarships and ended up at Kent State. He was cut a handful of times and told he was too short and too stupid to play in the NFL. After a stint in the XFL, he carried his NFL equipment in his old XFL bag until it fell apart. He wanted to remember the hard times.
Now that he is one of the very best and most physical football players in the game, he is paying everybody back. I firmly believe that. It is evident in his football style and his background. Every time he makes a big hit, it’s a #%@ you to everybody who told him he wouldn’t be there. The league, other coaches, people back home. Everybody. He’s saying look at me now.
James Harrison does not care about anybody else.
James Harrison is a carbon copy of Jack Lambert, a guy Steeler fans hold up as a God among men. Lambert physically threatened an entire Steelers locker room and said he would beat them up if they didn’t start playing better. He said quarterbacks should wear dresses. He famously destroyed Cowboys kicker Cliff Harris long after the play. We love Jack Lambert because he was a miserable prick.
Harrison is the exact same player. He doesn’t really care about anybody but himself. This mentality is part of what makes him a great player. He hates the league, the opposition and even some of the guys in his own dressing room. So did Lambert.
Harrison carries a persona on the field and it isn’t a facade at all. Like Lambert, it is the type of person he truly is. In Pittsburgh, these are the types of linebackers we’re naturally drawn too. Big, physical, brash, chip-on-the-shoulder, screw everybody else. That is the mold of a Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker.
Like Lambert, is Harrison a little crazy too? Yes. But let’s not let one magazine article run him out of town.
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