Paul Zeise: James Harrison is ungrateful and has a short memory
James Harrison is one of the greatest Steelers defensive players of all time, but he has become a mildly amusing clown act and a social media bully. He seems to have a short memory and should probably just walk away from his attacks on Mike Tomlin and the Steelers.
This is a guy who takes to Instagram to preach about family and brotherhood yet seems to forget that loyalty is the top value in any family.
The late Dan Rooney was one of the most beloved members of the Pittsburgh community. But in March 2008, he didn’t exactly distinguish himself with a decision he made related to Harrison. That was when Rooney — and Tomlin, for that matter — made the decision to stand behind Harrison after a domestic violence dispute when he should have been cut loose.
According to police reports at the time, Harrison broke down a door in his girlfriend’s home, snapped her cell phone in half as she attempted to call 911 and slapped her face with an open hand, knocking off her glasses. The charges were eventually dropped after Harrison completed anger management counseling and his girlfriend did not want to prosecute.
About a week and a half later, another Steelers player, Cedrick Wilson, was arrested in a domestic violence incident. The Steelers released Wilson almost immediately, and that prompted a series of questions about why Wilson was released and Harrison was not.
It was clear at the time to anyone paying attention that the real answer was this: “Harrison is a great player who can help us win Super Bowls; Wilson is a ham-and-egger and is easily replaced.”
That answer might have earned Rooney more respect than the one he gave:
“What Jimmy Harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it,” he said of Harrison’s initial intent with his son. “He was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. She said she didn’t want to do it.”
Rooney drew so much criticism that he had to issue a second statement later in the day to try to clarify it. It remains one of the few black marks on Rooney’s resume.
Tomlin and Rooney’s son, Art II, stuck their neck out for Harrison again in 2014 when they signed him after his first retirement. The NFL was under fire at that point after a string of high-profile domestic violence incidents. Art Rooney II was in the midst of investigating Roger Goodell’s handling of the Ray Rice case. Tomlin and the Steelers again took criticism for being “tone deaf” to the climate at the time.
The Steelers had their reasons for standing behind Harrison, no doubt, and most of them had to do with how he could help them win games. But regardless of why the Steelers stuck by Harrison, they did. And there is no James Harrison as we know him if it wasn’t for the Steelers standing behind him and giving him multiple chances throughout his career.
Harrison won a defensive player of the year award, was the Super Bowl hero with his 100-yard interception, made the Pro Bowl four times and was an All-Pro three times all after he should have been cut. He also got to play in last year’s Super Bowl for the Patriots and likely would not have had that opportunity if the Steelers hadn’t brought him off the scrap heap in 2014.
Simply put, he wouldn’t have become the Hall of Fame candidate he is if the Steelers had done the right thing in 2008 and released him.
Despite how things ended in 2017, Harrison owes his entire career to the Rooneys and Tomlin. One would think he would be grateful to them and do everything in his power to protect and defend them.
Instead, there he is on social media clowning around with Antonio Brown and making fun of Tomlin. And there he is on TV ripping Tomlin and talking about how he advised Le’Veon Bell to damage the Steelers by taking the money and faking injuries.
That’s a disgrace.
Harrison put another nonsensical message Thursday on Instagram about family and brotherhood with regards to Brown.
“My love and support for my brothers/family doesn’t stop when I disagree, argue or fight wt them. The fact that I consider you family means just the opposite, I’m there for you,” he wrote.
View this post on Instagram
@AB is my brother - that means family - and to me, a family member is not defined or measured by the deeds they do, the title they hold or the company they work for. My love and support for my brothers/family doesn’t stop when I disagree, argue or fight wt them. The fact that I consider you family means just the opposite, I'm there for you. And I’m allowed - not just allowed - I’m EXPECTED to be there for you and to give you my opinion whether you agree or disagree. And I expect you to give me yours as well. Why is AB hanging wt James Harrison? The same reason that Brett Keisel, Ike Taylor, Ryan Clark, Larry Foote, Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, DeAngelo Williams, Ryan Shazier, Vince Williams, and others do... These are my brothers, and brothers shoot the ****! #FaithFamilyFootball. In that order. #HarrisonFamilyValues
A post shared by James Harrison (@jhharrison92) on Jan 3, 2019 at 8:17am PST
That’s rich coming from Harrison given the way he has spit in the face of the family — the Rooneys and Tomlin — that gave him his career and helped make him who he is. And if he truly cared about Brown, he’d take him under his wing and tell Brown the path he is on is the wrong one, and nobody has had his back more than Tomlin, despite Brown’s endless stream of negative incidents.
Harrison’s best move now would probably be to log off and reflect on just how much the Rooneys and Tomlin have done for him.
Paul Zeise:
pzeise@post-gazette.com and Twitter @PaulZeise
