James Harrison isn’t one to miss tackles. Apparently, he isn’t one to mince words, either.
The outspoken Steelers linebacker referred to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as a “dictator” and “devil” in an interview with Men’s Journal magazine. And those were the nicer things he said about the commish. Harrison was fined $100,000 for illegal hits last season.
“If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it,” Harrison told the magazine. “I hate him and will never respect him.”
Harrison said if the Steelers had beaten the Packers in the Super Bowl, he would have told this to Goodell at the trophy presentation: “Why don’t you quit and do something else, like start your own league in flag football?”
With the ongoing lockout, it would be hard for the NFL or the Steelers to discipline Harrison.
“I have not yet seen the article in Men’s Journal nor have I spoken to James Harrison about his comments,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement. “We will discuss the situation at the appropriate time, when permitted once the labor situation is resolved.”
Harrison also blasted teammate Ben Roethlisberger for throwing two interceptions in the Super Bowl. (He later told ESPN that the author twisted many of his comments.)
“Hand the ball off and stop trying to act like Peyton Manning,” he said. “You ain’t that and you know it, man; you just get paid like he does.”
