During the days of James Harrison, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, and Martavis Bryant, the Pittsburgh Steelers were the most fined team in the NFL. And Harrison was, at one time, the NFL’s most fined player. He probably had a special chair at commissioner Roger Goodell’s office. It felt like every week he was being slapped with a fine for something or other — usually involving violent hits.
Harrison insinuated on the Barstool Sports podcast “Going Deep,” co-hosted by former Steelers guard Willie Colon, that head coach Mike Tomlin gave Harrison money for an illegal hit on Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi in 2010.
“Dude, I’m telling you, 75? And I ain’t gonna lie to you when that happened, right? The G-est thing Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that,” Harrison continued. “I ain’t gonna say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”
Something tells me it wasn’t a thank-you card in that envelope.
Steelers president Art Rooney II had this to say about the controversy.
“I am very certain nothing like this ever happened. I have no idea why James would make a comment like this but there is simply no basis for believing anything like this.”
-Steelers President Art Rooney II— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) May 14, 2020
Harrison also admitted that if he would’ve known the severity of the fine before he hit Massaquoi, he would’ve given it his all.
“Listen, on everything I love, on my daddy’s grave, I hit that man with about 50 percent of what I had, and I just hit him because I wanted him to let loose of the ball,” Harrison told Colon. “If I had knew they was gonna fine me $75,000, I would have tried to kill him.”
Harrison was abruptly released by the Steelers in 2017. Reports soon came out that Harrison made it impossible for the team to keep him due to his obnoxious behavior.
There was bad blood after his release, and three years later, it sounds like Harrison still has an ax to grind.
Goodell has a lot on his plate right now, but I’m sure an investigation is in Tomlin’s future.
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