James Harrison, linebacker of my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, has officially gone off the deep end.

In an article in the latest issue of Men’s Journal, Harrison took harsh, gratuitous shots at not only commissioner/warden Roger Goodell, but at HIS OWN TEAMMATES.  I’m not going to go into details of what he said (everybody in the media already has), but I’m going to point out a couple of things here.

First of all, I agree with Harrison that Goodell is a bit of a phony.  I mean the commish goes on and on about player safety, then turns around and pushes an 18-game season?  Really?  This guy is also trying to put the color pink in the shield by eliminating hard hits.  I have always maintained that the NFL might as well put skirts on quarterbacks, now it can spread the love to running backs and receivers.

And as much as Goodell has been coming down on defenders, how about offensive players who block defenders below the knees?  How about running backs and receivers who deliver stiff-arms to the head and block head-first?  Until Goodell delivers the same sort of punishment on offensive players, he will be nothing more than a fraud.

And how about being more consistent in how he fines players?  A lot of players (Steelers and others) said “God bless Harrison” for calling out the commish.

I just think Harrison went about it the wrong way.  You don’t have to like your boss, but you don’t have to say publicly that you hate him/her, nor say “If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it.”  And you also do not refer to your boss with a derogatory gay term IN PRINT.

Really, James?

I have a bigger problem with Harrison going after teammates.  Look, I screamed at my TV when Ben Roethlisberger threw those two killer interceptions in the Super Bowl (one of which was returned for a touchdown), and groaned when Rashard Mendenhall lost that big fumble when we were driving in the second half to possibly take the lead on Green Bay.

But let’s be real here: it’s not like Harrison lit up the stat sheet in the Super Bowl.  Dude had only one sack, and that was because Aaron Rodgers ran into him.

Bottom line: there is a right way and a wrong way to express yourself.  Harrison had a right to speak his mind, but was derogatory and childish in doing so.

You are an alleged adult James.  It’s time to act like one.

Categories: NFL, sports story