James Harrison is attempting to put any talk about another possibly Bountygate scandal to rest.
The former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker ignited controversy after telling the Going Deep podcast that head coach Mike Tomlin had “handed me an envelope” after Harrison had delivered a hit on Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi in 2010 that would result in a $75,000 fine.
Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement that he was “very certain nothing like this ever happened,” and now Harrison himself has weighed in on Instagram.
He posted a lengthy statement in which he denied there was anything like the original Bountygate — in which the New Orleans Saints were found to have a system that rewarded players for injury-causing hits — going on, and then turned his attention to how the league profited from hits like his on Massaquoi:
Wow y’all really comparing what I said to BOUNTYGATE?!? Mike T. Has NEVER paid me for hurting someone or TRYING to hurt someone or put a bounty on ANYBODY! If you knew the full story of what happened back then you’d know that BS fine for a Legal Play wasn’t even penalized during the game. The league was getting pressure because the first concussion lawsuits were starting and they had to look like they cared about player safety all of a sudden. Before that they had been SELLING a photo of THAT SAME PLAY FOR $55 on the NFL website with other videos of the NFL’S GREATEST HITS that the league Profited On back then. When the league had to start pretending like they cared about player safety they took all those things down off their website and they started fining guys ridiculous amounts for the same plays they used to profit off of. EVERYBODY knew it – even these same media people and all the fans that were sending money to me and the team to cover the fine. AGAIN AT NO TIME did Mike T. EVER suggest anybody hurt anybody or that they’d be rewarded for anything like that. GTFOH with that BS!!!
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