Harrison & Harrison

Earlier this season James Harrison of the Steelers had a crybaby hissy fit and threatened to take his ball and go home because the NFL fined him for trying to decapitate opposing players. In general, I agree with him that the NFL is full of shit when it comes to the way they police defensive players for doing their jobs, but I thought it was kind of a wuss move to threaten to quit. What does James Harrison make annually compared to the meager fines the NFL doles out in order to keep up their charade anyway? The interesting thing here, though, is that Harrison has had several more fines levied against him since then and it's starting to look like he's been targeted for discipline. As a San Diego fan, I can say it's probably getting close to time for the Steelers to cut ties with Harrison, for both of their sakes.

One move that longtime Charger fans will always go back to is when the team cut ties with Rodney Harrison, claiming that the fan favorite was a descending talent. As everybody knows, Rodney went on to enjoy several more productive years with the New England Patriots. What many people seem to have forgotten is that Harrison pretty much became a marked man after he levelled Jerry Rice in the endzone during a game. The hit looked worse than it was and was arguably legal, but from that point forward Harrison couldn't so much as breath on a receiver over the middle without drawing a penalty and/or fine. That was his bread and butter. The Chargers had very little choice but to let Harrison go. It took joining up with the lily white league darling Patriots (remember that this was before Spygate) to get Rodney out of the doghouse, and it's starting to feel like Pittsburgh's Harrison will need a similar makeover if he wants to survive in today's mushy NFL. It'll be a bitter pill for the rough and tumble Steeler fanbase to swallow, but swallow it they must if the flags and fines keep flying.