It looks like Terrelle Pryor is going to be making that face for while. He’s finally been allowed into the NFL … but not really.

From a breaking report currently destroying Twitter, by way of the Associated Press:

Former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was declared eligible for Monday’s NFL supplemental draft but must sit out the first five games after he signs a contract.

The NFL announced Thursday he was eligible, along with five other players. Pryor gave up his final season with the Buckeyes following an NCAA investigation into the football team’s memorabilia-for-cash scandal. He would’ve had to sit out five games at Ohio State if he had chosen to return to school.

The league informed clubs that Pryor “made decisions that undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL draft.” Among those, the league said, was his failure to cooperate with the NCAA and hiring of an agent in violation of NCAA rules.

Is it weird to anybody else that the NFL can suspend somebody who doesn’t play in the NFL?

“God bless and thanks for support!” Pryor wrote on his Twitter page. “Time to have a little fun!!” At no point does Pryor point out that Brandon Marshall was only suspended for one game on a domestic violence charge, but he’s got to sit five because he sold and traded things. He doesn’t mention how deep the various college football scandals are starting to run, and that if everyone who got a perk or a wad of cash or a free gift when they were supposed to be a pro bono athlete had to sit five games we’d see more action in a lockout.

He doesn’t mention how great of an idea it would be for the Cleveland Cavaliers to draft him and forever sign him away from a sports organization that would punish him for not being punished enough in college.

Now that the NFL is back in full swing, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison has, as expected, increased his PR efforts in regard to his recent interview with Men’s Journal, a magazine that I once had in my bathroom because I received four free issues.

In the interview, Harrison called Goodell “stupid” and a “devil” among other things, regarding Harrison being fined more for his brutal hits last season than other hard-hitting defenders. And despite the fact that those words were printed in a magazine and all over the Internet, Harrison still expects us to believe that he didn’t mean them like that. Now he’s apologizing to Goodell, despite not actually talking to Goodell in person, and we should believe that he’s sorry, because why not? Oh I know why – because he’s full of sh*t.

“The interview that I did and the comments that I made about Roger Goodell were inappropriate, at the least,” Harrison said. “They were way out of line, and I was speaking out of anger and frustration at the time. Any comments that I made that offended anyone, I apologize.” (Via ESPN)

Hold on, I have Goodell’s response right here: *fart noise*

As for the comments he made about Ben Roethlisberger not being as good as Peyton Manning for what he’s paid, and Rashard Mendenhall being a fumble machine, those were taken out of context.

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According to Drew Brees, the NFL Lockout is almost over. According to Chad Ochocinco, it’s far from over. Either way, while the NFLPA* and team owners met into the late hours last night, James Harrison’s big mouth continues to be the top NFL news because that’s all we’ve got. Well, except for Hines Ward’s DUI, and he must be absolutely loving Harrison right now.

Harrison recently sat down for an interview with Paul Solotaroff of Men’s Journal, which I once read on an airplane, and he sounded off about everything from his hatred of Roger Goodell to his problems with his own teammates. And if you haven’t already read the article, Harrison really sounded off. Most notably, he called out Ben Roethlisberger for some mistakes in the Super Bowl and pointed out that he’s not Peyton Manning, he labeled Rashard Mendenhall as a “fumble machine”, he said that Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing is “juiced out of his mind”, and he called Roger Goodell many things, including (allegedly) a f*ggot. Harrison also defended his reputation, most notably as a thug, but… hey, did I mention that banner pic is the lead image from the article?

And with all of that on paper, published and available on magazine racks, Harrison claims he was misquoted and Solotaroff, the guy who says he has notebooks full of other quotes and hours of digital interviews, agrees.

“We talked about 11 o’clock yesterday morning,” Solotaroff said on Thursday. “Look, James is the guy who’s got to live with Ben for the next three years. . . . So as I told James, ‘Listen, whatever you’ve got to say to mend fences is perfectly fine with me.’” (Via Pro Football Talk)

That’s the quote that really should stop the story. Solotaroff is an admittedly big fan of Harrison, which moves this article from “insightful interview” to “sloppy knob polish” and renders it irrelevant, as far as journalistic integrity. Essentially, Solotaroff told Harrison that he can say whatever he wants and he’ll manipulate and fix it after the fact. As I learned in one of the few journalism classes I stayed awake during, that’s not kosher.

But what is relevant is that Harrison has a big mouth and he said a bunch of things that he can’t take back. Cushing has since said he would pray for Harrison, whatever that means, and it has been reported that Roethlisberger and Mendenhall will take Harrison at his word (translated: they’ll share some “What the f*ck”s in private). Goodell, though, is a different story. While he has his hands full trying to make sure that Harrison and the rest of the players have a job this season, I can’t imagine that he’s going to look to favorably upon a guy that he has never looked favorably upon.

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Funny or Die has a knack for cramming as many celebrities as possible into three minute video, and today they’ve outdone themselves — watch in amazement has Ray Liotta, Kevin Costner, Dennis Haysbert, the Were-llama from Twilight and half of professional football bring you a Lockout-flavored sequel to the greatest baseball movie of all time, Field of Dreams. I’m guessing Haysbert is here because when the Funny or Die guys showed up at James Earl Jones’ apartment he attacked them with an insecticide sprayer and told them to go back to the sixties.

Watch the video below, but I have to warn you: the football players are all better actors than Taylor Lautner.

It’s weird, I know this is supposed to be a joke, but it still looks like a better movie than that remake of Footloose.

I love Kevin Costner at the end. He gives as little a sh** as possible, and he’s a good sport, but his voice and the look on his face say “I can’t believe you guys are making fun of this”. Lautner just stands there smirking, thinking about how awesome of a Crash Davis Robert Pattinson would be.

I just got back from the airport, and this is the post I keep behind the glass that reads IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK OPEN, so here we are.

There is absolutely nothing going on today in sports. Nothing…unless you count the women’s NCAA tournament, which I don’t. And let’s not make this a big gender debate, either. I just don’t watch it. A lot of people don’t watch the NHL, either, but you never not call the NHL a sport. Cumbersome grammar aside, I think I made my point: Nothing happening. Except this photo edit of Roger Goodell’s face on some porn star’s body. I dare you to call this anything but news.

I envision Roger Goodell as a forceful lover. That Catholic upbringing can have a stifling effect on bedroom creativity. Plus there’s the whole ginger thing. Problems at work. Facing a big potential pay cut this fall. These all seem like ingredients for violent coitus. Not that I’m thinking about getting intimate with the NFL commissioner or anything. It just seemed more interesting than talking about the Knicks.

I’m sure there’s some sports news and gossip out there someplace, and we’ll find it. You can spend the next 60 minutes washing your eyeballs out. Thanks as always for reading With Leather.

UPDATE: NFLPA Decertified. More at SI.com.

Unless a third extension is issued, the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with its players will expire at 5 pm ET midnight tonight, triggering a near-certain decertification of the players’ union and antitrust lawsuit against the league from the sport’s biggest stars. The league seems intent on preventing that, now more than ever, and reportedly have charged their commissioner, Roger Goodell with some power to act unilaterally if he sees fit.

One NFL source said that on a conference call with owners Thursday, commissioner Roger Goodell was given the freedom to move drastically, if need be, to make a deal with players. There were indications Goodell would present a last, best offer to the players this morning, one that might have a significant concession about financial transparency in the 32 NFL teams’ audited financial statements, which is the sticking point with players in these talks.

–SI.com.

So what does that mean? I doubt it means, “show them the books,” which seems to be the only concession the NFL could make to keep this negotiation going. The momentum seems to be on the side of the players, and Goodell’s two-minute drill here probably won’t be enough to keep the NFL out of court. As Lt. Frank Drebin would say, it’s 4th and 15 and Goodell is looking at a full-court press. He’ll have to stay out of the penalty box to have the time to go to his bullpen and get that golden goal. By the way, I faked every orgasm.