James Harrison stirred controversy with his comments about Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, but his words ring true.
If I’m Mike Tomlin, I’m not sure who angers me more: James Harrison or Sean Payton. Harrison portrayed Tomlin as an NFL rules-breaker this week. He went on former Steelers teammate Willie Colon’s “Going Deep” podcast and said Tomlin gave him “an envelope” after his brutal hit on Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi in a game in 2010, a hit that resulted in a $75,000 fine for Harrison. He didn’t say there was money in Tomlin’s little gift, but that certainly was the implication. It is against NFL rules for a team or coach to pay a player’s fine.
Payton, the New Orleans Saints coach, took Harrison’s comments and ran with them when asked during a radio interview on Baltimore’s WJZ about what Tomlin allegedly did. He brought up his team’s scandal in 2011 — “Bountygate” — which was a systematic system that paid Saints players to take out or injure opposing players. Payton was suspended by the NFL for the entire 2012 season and pointed out how he still isn’t over losing $6 million in salary over “a sham.”
If I’m Tomlin, I’m more furious with Payton. To even remotely suggest that Harrison’s hit on Massaquoi could have been a part of “Bountygate II” is reprehensible. It’s none of Payton’s business, anyway.
Art Rooney II knows a potentially serious situation when he sees one. The Steelers almost never react to what someone says or does, preferring to allow a controversy to quickly die a natural death. But Rooney felt the need to immediately issue a statement Thursday night defending Tomlin, saying, “I am very certain nothing like this ever happened.”
Harrison spoke up again
Friday on social media.
“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!”
I believe Harrison. Twice, actually.
I don’t, for one second, think Tomlin ever has orchestrated a bounty system with the Steelers. He has too much respect for the game. Sure, his critics will point to his sideline fiasco in Baltimore in a game on Thanksgiving night in 2013 and say that showed no respect. But Tomlin was deeply embarrassed by interfering with Ravens return man Jacoby Jones. I have never seen him so contrite or apologetic after he was fined $100,000. I also believe he’ll never put himself in such a shameful situation again.
But I do believe what Harrison said about getting an envelope from Tomlin. Everyone in the Steelers organization was furious about Harrison’s fine for what they believed was a legal hit. They also felt like Harrison was being targeted by the NFL office at a time it was trying to eliminate head shots from the game. It’s not much of a reach to suggest Tomlin helped Harrison pay what he and the organization believed was an unfair fine. I’m guessing that sort of thing has happened frequently in the NFL despite the rules against it.
I’m just not sure why Harrison brought it up now, something that happened nearly a decade ago. He didn’t do Tomlin or the Steelers any favors.
Normally, I would think that was Harrison’s intent. He clearly had a grudge against Tomlin during the 2017 season — his final one with the Steelers — when he felt Tomlin misled him about playing time. He said he asked to be released every week after it became clear the team was going with young outside linebackers Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt. Tomlin wanted Harrison for insurance in case of an injury and refused to cut him. Harrison became such a disruptive force — sleeping in meetings and leaving games when he wasn’t on the active roster, among other boorish behavior — that Tomlin had little choice but to release him with two games left. Tomlin probably waited so long not just because of that insurance thing, but because he didn’t want to embarrass Harrison, who had been one of the team’s hardest workers and had helped him win Super Bowl XLIII against the Arizona Cardinals with a 100yard interception return for a touchdown.
Wouldn’t you know Harrison signed quickly with the New
England Patriots and ended up going to the Super Bowl that season?
Harrison, who still is a conditioning fanatic and was shown on social media last week pushing a sled with a weight of nearly 2,000 pounds, has not been kind to Tomlin since then. Do you remember him and Antonio Brown mocking Tomlin on social media as Tomlin was doing his final news conference after the 2018 season, a few days after Brown had quit on the team? They were despicable.
But, if you listen to Colon’s podcast, Harrison didn’t come across as the least bit malicious with his envelope comment. It happened late in the interview, almost as an afterthought. It didn’t seem as if Harrison had planned to make Tomlin’s life miserable by sharing the story or that he was trying to make himself more attractive as a future NFL analyst by starting a controversy. It was as if he, in his mind, was praising Tomlin. That’s the big reason I believe he wasn’t lying.
I’m not sure if the NFL office will bother to look into something that supposedly happened so long ago, before the real “Bountygate.”
Anyway, the league has much more important issues these days trying to produce a season on schedule.
This certainly won’t have any impact on Harrison’s legacy in Pittsburgh. If anything, he might score a few points with Tomlin’s many detractors. Harrison always will be remembered here as a Super Bowl hero. That was clear when he returned for the Los Angeles Chargers game in 2018 and was honored as a member of the Steelers 2008 Super Bowl team, the team that beat the Cardinals. He received a rousing ovation when he was introduced.
The roar from the crowd might be even louder when Harrison returns again.