"How can I continue to play this game the way that I've been taught to play this game since I was 10 years old? And now you're telling me that everything that they've taught me from that time on, for the last 20-plus years, is not the way you're supposed to play the game anymore. If that's the case I can't play by those rules."
So... how about we start looking at this from a realistic and reasonable standpoint? "Everything that they've taught me?" To my understanding, the NFL isn't instituting any rule to change the way you blitz the quarterback. To change the way you play zone defense. To change the way you read a run play versus a pass play. To change the way you disguise your coverages and confuse the QB. James Harrison, the only thing you are no longer allowed to do is put the lives of other players in danger. Is it so much to ask?
As a defensive player, Harrison doesn't receive bone crushing hits very often. His job is to dish them out. And guess what? He still can. He wasn't fined for his tackle on Josh Cribbs, which was helmet-to-helmet and shook him up quite a bit. That was legal. Poor Harrison -- you have to retire because you're no longer able to blindside receivers that you have a hundred pounds on going over the middle of the field trying to catch a football? How will you ever make it in the NFL? It's not like you were the best defensive player in the Super Bowl two years ago or anything.
We all knew that James Harrison wasn't retiring. He and his agent -- who told reporters his client was "seriously considering" retirement -- were trying to make a point to the NFL. And points like this one, as well as Channing Crowder's boneheaded point, are the things that are making the NFL seem like a bunch of ill-mannered, barbaric lunatics. Look, I'm not saying the NFL has acted in the right or in the wrong with these sudden changes. But as a player, have some pride. What are you saying about yourself if you believe you can't play the game of football at a high level without making dirty helmet-to-helmet hits? Rodney Harrison may have been the best safety of his generation, or at least among the best. He only made two pro-bowls, because he was considered a dirty player. The true greats can adjust their game and win regardless of the circumstances. I could rant about this all day, but I guess I'm just trying to point out that James Harrison is just a misguided ego on a team that would have a great chance of competing for the AFC Championship if he'd shut up and play the game the way it's meant to be played.
James Harrison is retarted. The Massaquoi hit was illegal before the rule change. You haven't been able to go helmet to helmet with a defensless reciever for like 50 years. So, basically he's complaining about a rule change that applies to the Dunta Robinson hit, not his own.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree... I mean I don't agree if the NFL is really going to suspend guys for "devastating" but still CLEAN hits. But helmet-to-helmet has always been illegal, it's just never been enforced too strictly. Well, guys are getting concussions and are in danger of paralysis every time there's a helmet-to-helmet collision on a defenseless receiver. Harrison's just a dumbass anyway. You're really going to miss Wednesday practice in a week you're preparing for a pretty good Dolphins team? To make a statement saying you don't want to play anymore because an already illegal hit is now punishable with suspension? Child, please.
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