The steepest from the four fines the previous Steelers linebacker James Harrison incurred in 2010 stemmed from the vicious helmet-to-helmet hit he sent on Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, knocking him out with a concussion. The strike went with no penalty on the sector, but the N.F.L., intent on meting out stiffer discipline for violations of participant security, docked Harrison $75,000 — at the very least some of which, Harrison claimed on the podcast Thursday, was offset by his coach, Mike Tomlin.
Harrison, showing on Barstool Sports activities’s “Likely Deep” podcast, informed his former Pittsburgh teammate Willie Colon that Tomlin — who nevertheless coaches the Steelers — slipped him an envelope soon once the high-quality was levied.
“Dude, I’m telling you — 75,” Harrison explained, referencing the quantity of the fine. “And I ain’t gonna lie to you: When that took place, ideal, the G-est matter Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that. I ain’t gonna say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”
Harrison recounted the Tale unprompted, soon after Colon questioned him regarding the heftiest high-quality he absorbed across his fifteen N.File.L. seasons.
“Hear, on anything I like, on my daddy’s grave, I hit that person with about max 50 p.c of what I had,” Harrison explained of Massaquoi. “And I just strike him due to the fact I desired him to let free with the ball. If I had knew they was gonna wonderful me $seventy five,000, I would've tried to eliminate him.”
Harrison’s high-quality was later decreased to $fifty,000. While Harrison didn't explicitly say just what the envelope contained, the mere insinuation that Tomlin compensated him in almost any way evoked comparison for the so-called Bountygate scandal, in which The brand new Orleans Saints’ coaching employees was resolute above a three-year time period to get supplied payouts wholesale authentic jerseys to defensive players who hurt opponents, In line with a league investigation. The Saints’ mentor, Sean Payton, didn't pay players himself, but the league suspended him for the yr, in part, for not stopping the process after he was produced aware of it.
It can be unclear if the league will discuss the make a difference with Harrison and Tomlin; a spokesman for that N.File.L. declined to touch upon Friday. League principles stipulate that teams and its members are prohibited from having to pay a player’s great.
In a press release, Steelers President Art Rooney II mentioned he was good that Harrison’s allegations are untrue. “I'm extremely particular practically nothing such as this ever took place,” Rooney claimed. “I do not know why James would make a remark similar to this, but there's simply no basis for believing anything at all such as this.”
Harrison on Friday posted an announcement to his Instagram account that seemingly walked again his earlier comment. “Mike T. Hasn't compensated me for hurting anyone or TRYING to hurt a person or set a bounty on ANYBODY!” it read.
Harrison, together with the Hall of Fame protection Troy Polamalu, was the snarling facial area of your Steelers’ protection during the 2000s, after they won two Super Bowls. The league’s defensive player on the calendar year in 2008, Harrison produced a status for administering violent hits that teetered about the boundaries of legality. Following the hit on Massaquoi in 2010, Harrison and Tomlin argued that it was cleanse and didn’t benefit a fantastic. Tomlin, at enough time, also stated he favored tougher penalties and rule modifications to enhance player security.
A member from the N.File.L.’s Level of competition committee, Payton, along with the Saints’ Corporation, have had a combative romance with the league since Bountygate, and it has only deepened, following the egregious non-get in touch with that possible denied New Orleans a Super Bowl berth adhering to the 2018 time. For the duration of a radio job interview on Thursday, Payton all but challenged N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell to research the Steelers, declaring he might be “shocked” If your league did and that individuals “shouldn’t maintain their breath” awaiting it to do so.
“I feel what passed off with us back again in 2011 in so many ways was a sham, and nevertheless there wasn’t a lot we could do with it,” Payton reported on one zero five.seven FM in Baltimore. “The gamers were being vindicated, but from a league or coaching standpoint, there isn't a union, there is absolutely no representation.”
He included, “That’ll be something which’s tucked away or beneath the rug at Park Avenue. They’ll explore it briefly. Listen, don’t get me commenced on that. I dropped $6 million in salary, and Actually it absolutely was something which I’ll in no way truly get over simply because I know how it had been managed and how it had been run and The explanations at the rear of it. That’s just the truth.”