James Harrison admits he hesitated before joining Patriots

James Harrison just wants to play, and he admitted that was a reason behind his departure from the Pittsburgh Steelers to ultimately join the New England Patriots.

Harrison admitted that he had second thoughts about joining Pittsburgh’s longtime AFC rivals, but called his release from Pittsburgh — which he had requested three different times — a “business decision.”

Harrison said he’d asked the Steelers to release him three times, including after the very first week of the season, when it became clear to him he was not going to get as many snaps as he’d been promised. The last straw was after the team’s 27-24 loss to New England, before which he’d been promised “a lot of time” before ultimately seeing no snaps.

“If I didn’t play in the biggest game of the year, that told me I wouldn’t get any more snaps. So all that lip service you gave me before didn’t matter,” Harrison told Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Harrison said he’d been told by the Steelers to keep fit in case they needed him again in a month, but wasn’t prepared to wait that long. He admitted there was “a little hesitation” about joining New England, and he spoke to former teammate turned coach Joey Porter about the move.

“I explained the situation to him and he said, ‘I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to do something when you’re making a business decision,'” Harrison said. “I made a decision based on what was best for me.”

Harrison’s explanation will likely fall on deaf ears for at least one Steeler, but he wanted to play and got an offer from a contender. It’s hard to begrudge him that.