James Harrison was one of three defensive players fined by the NFL yesterday for what the league deemed to be…dangerous. Apparently, football isn’t dangerous anymore, as long as players are making dangerous hits. Harrison was fined $75,000 for two hits against Cleveland Browns receivers Mohamed Massaquoi and Joshua Cribbs. Harrison’s reaction to the punishment was, shall we say, unique to pro football.
“I’m going to sit down and have a serious conversation with my coach (Mike Tomlin) tomorrow and see if I can actually play by NFL rules and still be effective,” said Harrison on Tuesday as a guest on Fox Sports Radio’s “Into The Night with Tony Bruno”, according to NFL.com. “If not, I may have to give up playing football.”
After a meeting with Tomlin on Wednesday morning, Harrison was cleared from practice and meetings for the day. –FanHouse.
It seems insane to me that the NFL would start pulling money out of players’ pockets for doing their jobs, and nobody captured that sentiment better than ESPN’s Mark Schlereth, whose five-star rant against the NFL’s hypocritical stance on big hits was solid gold. Who would have thought of a man named “Stink” would have been the voice of reason here?
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James Harrison makes $13,357,280 this season, so either my math skills are rusty, or $75,000 is more like 0.05% of his annual salary. He likely takes dumps worth more than $75,000.
Yet The NFL is selling pictures of the hit for $ 19.95 Sends a good message, don’t ya think ?
WHY WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!!??!
Fuck you, James.
Mark Schlereth is absolutely right.
What a load of crap. No one is saying no hitting or don’t hit hard, just no head-to-head contact. Its been a rule for years and they are finally enforcing it. It won’t mean the end of hard hits either. We see tons of great hits that aren’t head-to-head. Its a game – it ain’t war – they’re players – not gladiators… Let it go…
Screw Harrison. Earlier in the week he said his goal is to hurt people. Then he got fined for illegal hits that hurt people and he gets all huffy and says he’s gonna take his ball and go home. He says this is how he’s been taught to tackle since pee-wee football. Then every coach he ever had was an idiot. You don’t dive headlong into people, you wrap up with your arms…and every coach he’s ever had probably told him that. It’s not a new rule, it’s a new penalty for the same old rule. Shut up and quit if you want to, you drama queen.
Well said JXC and Scott
Gay as f***. In the entire history of the NFL, how many guys have gotten paralyzed? Stingley and maybe that guy from the Jets I think who learned to walk again? 2 guys?! Snowboarding is riskier for heaven’s sake.
Look, concussions are a risk, certainly. But there are lots of jobs with lots of long-term risks and few of them are as well remunerated as NFL football player.
The pussification of the NFL continues apace; if the Browns have a problem with Harrison jacking up their teammates, then they should target the f*** out of him.
Turning the NFL into the Nancy Fairy League is not a wise thing.
so all of the sudden it is the browns fault when an opponent is headhunting their players? yeah, sound logic…
The obvious point here is that the NFL, instead of banning hits, should make a big PR play and up the players medical benefits.
Continue playing the same way, we’re giving you the ultimate medical package.
Feel good story of the year.
Harrison is a pussy. Mebbe he and the other Akron James can talk about quitting on their teams.
Officials blew the call under “defensless receiver” rule already in place.
He can suck my COCK.
“should make a big PR play and up the players medical benefits”
The NFL is actually planning to take away their long-term medical benefits. But hey, at least no more hard hits!
fuck you cleveland/cincinatti pussies. harrison drinks your milkshake. i hope he doesnt quit so he can continue to KO your frail asses.
“defenseless receiver” ?? Really? So even though Massaquoi caught the ball, turned , looked directly at Harrison and dropped HIS HEAD into Harrison when Harrison was already airborne, he’s defenseless? Watch the tape again and get a clue, douche bag. And to the tool that wrote the article, get your facts straight, he wasn’t fined for the hit on Cribbs. The “repeat offender” refers to the fine he received in game one when he body slammed Young.
I love James Harrison and The Pittsburgh Steelers are my team. But James has it all wrong! I don’t know of any person who has played the game was taught to lead with the head. We were shown to wrap up the one with the ball. That is put a shoulder into him while at the same time use the arms and hands to bring the player down. Nowhere did my coach say to come off the ground and slam into the player using the head. Hell, you can give yourself a concussion. James said he was contemplating retirement. Ha!Ha! Ha! Puleez! We all know bullshit when we see or smell it! Don’t try to bullshit us, James! Go back to practice and shut the “F”up! Ask Troy(Polumalu)how he does it. Now there’s a REAL PLAYER!!!
So… Schlereth complains about his inability to bend his knee after 20+ surgeries and then rails against rules to protect players.
I’m guessing his Wonderlic score rivals Vince Young’s.