Steelers' Harrison: "It was a legal hit"
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelers linebacker James Harrison wants to be heard above the din of public opinion as the full impact of the NFL disciplinary machine seems headed his way.
Harrison should learn Wednesday what punishment, if any, the NFL issues for his high hit that knocked Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi from the game Sunday at Heinz Field.
"It was a legal hit,'' Harrison maintained in an interview today with the Post-Gazette, as did Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
"All you have to do is look at the tape," Harrison said.
He said he was not aiming for Massaquoi's head and actually tried to pull off of him. He believes he's being targeted because of media opinion against him.
"If I get fined it's because anybody out there who has a camera in their face or a pen in their hand is writing their opinion and it's all the same. I just happened to be one of the bigger names who hit somebody last weekend."
A handful of blows to the head in Sunday's NFL games has prompted league officials to react, promising a crackdown with fines and/or suspensions for such hits. Harrison even cited the hit by Patriots defensive back Brandon Meriweather on Baltimore tight end Todd Heap as "a nasty hit.''
"My hit was nowhere near the magnitude of that,'' Harrison said. "That was a nasty hit."
Harrison, a three-time Pro Bowl linebacker and the NFL defensive player of the year in 2008, said defenders like him can't win no matter where they hit a ballcarrier. Hit him high, the league wants to fine them; hit them low, and the offensive player risks a knee injury.
Such was the case in the 2009 season opener at Heinz Field when Harrison hit Tennessee tight end Bo Scaife so hard in the left leg that Scaife not only fumbled, but he did not return to the game. Scaife called the hit a "cheap shot.'' Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chair of the NFL competition committee that helps shape the rules, firmly said it was not an illegal hit.
"I hit him low and he ended up injuring his knee and was out for a number of games,'' Harrison said Tuesday. "I guess I'll end up having to take the fine and save someone's career."
Despite Scaife's outcry, Harrison said NFL players would prefer to be hit high than low and risk a knee injury.
"Ask any player in the NFL, they'd say that's dirty,'' Harrison said of a knee shot. "But the NFL says that's a legal play, but you can end his year if not his career. But if you hit him up high and give him a concussion or whatever, they fine you for it. Now you have to start hitting guys low, and what then?
"We've had enough rules on how to tackle a quarterback, now we have to worry about what a guy does at the last second. If he puts himself in harms way, now it's our fault."
Harrison said it's a frustrating dilemma for all defensive players.
"You can't go out and play like it's flag football,'' Harrison said. "If that's what they want to do, let's put flags on everyone.
"It's a physical contact sport; some things are going to happen. You have to evaluate things and see it for what it is and not go on the reaction of people who can't see what they're really looking at."