Where do we even begin with this one? For starters, James Harrison is an idiot — but we already knew that. This is the same guy who constantly cries about the NFL’s rules and even pretended he was going to retire rather than try to play without illegally hitting someone.
Maybe all that built up frustration is what caused the Steelers linebacker to call Roger Goodell “stupid”, a “dictator,” a “devil,” a “crook,” and a gay slur in a recent interview with Men’s Journal. Perhaps the rules are why he was so angry he called Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison “clowns” while bashing the Patriots for stealing signals. And maybe — just maybe — that is why he decided to call Brian Cushing “juiced out of his mind.”
The more likely scenario is that the guy is just a headcase. However, there is still such a thing as crossing the line. If the aforementioned trash talk doesn’t constitute crossing the line in your eyes, Harrison ripping on his own current teammates probably will. Despite having won a Super Bowl and appeared in another with the people he was bashing, Harrison did that as well.
“Hey, at least throw a pick on their side of the field instead of asking the D to bail you out again,” Harrison said when asked about Ben Roethlisberger’s performance in Super Bowl XLV. “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.” He then turned his attention to Rashard Mendenhall and called him a “fumble machine.”
Naturally, Harrison has backtracked now that the article has gone viral. He claims his words were taken out of context, and Big Ben and Mendenhall have supposedly forgiven him despite the fact that Rashard posted his 2010 rushing stats on Twitter to show that he only fumbled twice in the regular season. He had two fumbles in the postseason, but if you want to rag on Mendenhall for anything it should be his obnoxious and insensitive remarks on Twitter, not his ball security.
Whether he is forgiven in the locker room or not, I don’t see how Harrison can be viewed as a good teammate after letting loose like that. The best excuse he could use at this point is that he was hammered, but then again they say a drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts so I’m not sure how much that would help him. There’s just no need to ever trash your teammates like that — especially when you play for an organization that has had a ton of success during your tenure. Apparently some people just can’t help it.
