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Farewell, James Harrison

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Thank you for all of the amazing memories, DEEBO! :towel:

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Was he just bad this year or something?

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He has been a healthy scratch for most of the season. Oh well. He's going to be 40 in May. He should probably call it a career anyway.

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One of the all time great players of his era and one of the great stories the NFL has produced. Dude worked his ass off and defied all the odds. I wonder if somebody will give him a shot at another title run as a rotational pass rusher.

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He's 40... I don't care how many massages he gets or what kind of kale hybrid he eats, he's done.

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inb4: Pats claim him on waivers and he wrecks the Steelers in the playoffs. :smug:

 

Patriots signed OLB James Harrison, formerly of the Steelers.

Mothballed by the Steelers, 39-year-old Harrison arrives in New England having played all of 40 snaps this season. He did manage a sack in his brief time on the field. Although the Patriots are tied for 12th in sacks (38), their pass rush hasn't come close to matching that number. It's a unit that could really use some extra juice. Harrison is a zero-risk flier with upside who could obviously provide intel on a team the Patriots have a good chance of facing in the AFC Championship Game.
Related: Steelers
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Riggd league creating more storylines.

Phil Elliot where are you? lol

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Even if he doesn't play.. Think about the wealth of information he can provide New England if they meet Pittsburgh in the playoffs.

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Use him like we use Peppers, just on 3rd down most of the time. Hell, even just on 3rd downs obvious passing situation and just send him after Big Ben.

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James gave his side of the story.

 

Former Steelers linebacker James Harrison said Wednesday he asked the Steelers on three separate occasions to release him, including at the beginning of the season and after the loss to the New England Patriots 10 days ago, when it became apparent he wasn’t going to play as much as he was promised.

 

Harrison, the Steelers’ all-time sack leader and former NFL defensive player of the year, said he isn’t mad or upset the Steelers released him Saturday, calling it “a business decision.” But he added that he had to make a business decision, too, and did when he signed with the Patriots on Tuesday — a decision he admitted to making with some hesitation because of what the Patriots have represented to the Steelers.

 

“I have to assume when they say you’re going to get 25 percent of the snaps and you get 25, safe to say things didn’t go as planned,” Harrison told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday.

 

“After the first week of the season, I said to them, it’s clear you want to play your younger guys and I understand, so why don’t you release me. You go on your way and I’ll go on mine. They said, ‘No, no, no, we got a role for you.’ ”

James Harrison warms up during Patriots practice on Wednesday.

 

But that role never materialized for Harrison, except for a Week 6 game in Kansas City where he played 15 snaps and registered his only sack at a key moment late in the game to close out a victory. He played only 40 snaps all season, was inactive for six games and did not play in three others.

 

“After that, I didn’t play anymore,” Harrison said of the Kansas City game. “By then, I had stopped asking them [to release me].”

 

Harrison said the breaking point came after the 27-24 loss to the Patriots, a game in which he said he was told during the week “to be ready, that I’d get a lot of [playing] time. I didn’t get any snaps.

 

“If I didn’t play in the biggest game of the year, that told me I wouldn’t get any more snaps. So all that lip service you gave me before didn’t matter.”

 

Harrison said he went back to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin the following day and asked to be released. Harrison said Tomlin told him, “I’d have to be absolutely crazy to release you if something happened with injuries.”

 

Five days later, the day before they traveled to Houston for a Christmas Day game, the Steelers released him.

 

Harrison said Tomlin told him to “stay in shape in case we come back to you in a month.”

 

But Harrison said: “I can’t sit there on ‘ifs,’ and I’m not playing. I wasn’t upset, I’m not mad, it’s a business. But at the end of the day, I have to make a business decision.

 

“I cleared waivers, New England had called and said they wanted me to come up and we talked. At 4:30 that afternoon, I flew to Boston and there was no communication from the Steelers about anything.”

 

Harrison was asked about the public perception that he might be considered a “traitor” for signing with the Patriots, the team that has deprived the Steelers of three additional Super Bowl appearances since 2001, including last season.

 

Harrison admitted there was “a little hesitation” at first and even called Steelers linebacker coach and former teammate Joey Porter to ask him what he thought.

 

“I explained the situation to him and he said, ‘I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to do something when you’re making a business decision,’ “ Harrison said. “I made a decision based on what was best for me.”

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2017/12/27/james-harrison-patriots-steelers-release-mike-tomlin-bill-belichick-afc-nfl/stories/201712270172

The man is 40 and just wants to get on the field his probably final season. He was promised playing time before they knew that Watt was going to be phenomenal out of the box. He said he never would have signed if he had known he wouldn't get the 25% he was promised--nothing more. He's done a lot for the Steelers, even came back after they released him twice. Then when he wanted the team to do right by him, they strung him along and and wasted his season when he could've been playing snaps elsewhere. So maybe he started acting out to try and get released after having asked multiple times.

 

They did him wrong and now they're letting the immature kids spout off to save face for the organization's poor handling of the situation. The Steelers aren't the biggest fanbase simply because the steel mills shut down and they were good in the '70s. The world has changed a lot and inciting tribalism is at the top of the list of ways to gain money, power, and support. They are tickled that "Steelers nation" is out there burning his jersey. We're all further entrenched in our homerific love of our team and now we gotta buy more jerseys.

 

To me, this speaks to what I said in the shoutbox as well: "Ben and Harrison are men and frustrated with Tomlin's frontrunner pussy childish team. Players are proving it by spouting off to the media.

 

Empty tin rattles loudest, real men keep drama in house, grown adults know a bit more about empathy and seeing things from another perspective. Bunch of children with a clueless HC along for the ride in cool shades."

 

One of Dupree's complaints was that Harrison didn't show him anything. Then in the same breath he said Harrison came in at 4:30am to workout and "what was he supposed to get from that, some people aren't morning people" lmfao. As this article states, Harrison lead by quiet example, he's never been outspoken and some people just aren't super social. The exact temperament Steeler fans slobber over Lambert for having. The guy that hardly has anything to do with the team and keeps the fuck to himself.

 

Harrison is one of the GOATs and he got there through relentless work ethic. He showed them how to get there by personifying quiet, hard work. You don't get to tell a mentor the way you want to learn, you stfu and follow his way and absorb it. Dupree wants to bitch but he wasn't willing to put in the work and show up on Harrison's time--really fucking early .

 

“He doesn’t really have to talk to the young guys if he doesn’t choose to, but that’s not him, he doesn’t take it that way. He’s actually helping them," Porter said recently. "He had those guys come with him to Arizona to train. I mean he extended the hand for them to get better, all they had to do was be receptive to taking it.”

 

Tomlin is liked by the new crew because he is like one of them. But he is clueless in any other aspect. Ben, Polamalu, Harrison--3 Steeler GOATs--all got tired of the culture.

 

Here's an article from Polamalu's exit that I know I've shared previously.

Edited by Zack_of_Steel

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Yeah I'm pretty much completely on Harrison's side on this one. Seems like the Steelers strung him along and refused to let him go play somewhere- which is a business decision, maybe, but don't keep on telling the guy you're going to play him and knowingly lie to him about that.

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If he does retire this year the Steelers have definitely wasted his last year in the league, and I don;t blame him for going to New England out of spite. Watching veteran players leave is hard for fans though, especially when they are hall-of-fame caliber. I would liken it to watching Ed Reed leave, but I was glad to see that whiny, self-centered douche leave.

 

There very well could be 4 new HC's in the AFCN in the next 2 years. That would be pretty wild considering the tenure of the Bengals, Steelers, and Ravens coaches. I dont see Harbaugh or Tomlin leaving unfortunately. I mean I am glad Tomlin is staying, just upset Harbaugh is not leaving.

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I would find it wild if Harrison produced at all in the playoffs... let alone against the Steelers. He's 40 man...

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Not even a year ago he was our best LB. He didn't start starting until he was almost 30.

 

" On January 8, 2017, he recorded ten combined tackles, sacked Matt Moore 1½ times, and forced a fumble in a 30–12 AFC Wildcard victory over the Miami Dolphins."

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