Earlier today, news broke out that James Harrison did an interview with Men's Journal and had some not-so-nice things to say about Roger Goodell and his fellow teammates. He specifically called out Ben Roethlisberger for throwing two interceptions in the Super Bowl and for trying to act like Peyton Manning, when he's clearly not. He called Rashard Mendenhall a "fumble machine" and had some unkind words for the Patriots, particularly Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi, but those comments are fine.
Let's just accept the fact that running his mouth off was a dumb idea and move on to what this means for Harrison and the Steelers.
Will Goodell suspend Harrison?
Well, Harrison is hardly alone in thinking that Goodell is a tyrant and a petulant child that likes to suspend anyone when he gets a boo-boo face. Harrison is just the first person to say something as blunt as, "If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn't do it." He also called Goodell a "devil" and used some other choice adjectives to describe him.
But, the thing is, if everyone thinks Goodell is a dictator, the best course of action would not be to arbitrarily suspend Harrison for calling him out on it. That would just perpetuate the image and Goodell is smart enough and logical enough to avoid stooping to Harrison's level.
Also, I've heard rumors that the Steelers might suspend Harrison for at least one game. That's not a huge punishment, but it's at least something and should keep the NFL from levying any fines or suspensions.
Will the Steelers release James Harrison?
I don't think they will. I actually think that one of the reasons Harrison ran his mouth so much is that the coaches and owners aren't allowed to talk to him because of the Lockout. It could be that he thought that, by the time everyone reported back to camp, this whole thing would have blown over and Tomlin and the Rooneys would have more important matters to attend to than yelling at him for being stupid.
But, ultimately, he's too good at what he does and he's too important to the team to cut him. If Nick Eason said what Harrison said, they'd cut him in a heart beat. The Hines Ward situation is similar, but at least there are courts of law and actual, structured league policies to govern those kinds of things.
On top of that, as I've stated repeatedly, the Steelers don't run a squeaky clean organization. They run a winning organization and having Harrison on the team gives them a better chance of winning football games. We all just need to accept that and move on.
They didn't cut him when he possibly assaulted his girlfriend in 2008, they didn't cut him last season when he was heavily fined and lashed out against Goodell, and they didn't cut him when he threatened to retire during the 2010 season.
The Steelers have consistently taken a "wait and see" approach with Harrison and he has been consistently productive every time they've looked the other way. The alleged incident I linked to up there happened in March 2008 and Harrison won the Defensive Player of the Year award that season, so maybe he'll be awesome this year (if the Lockout ever ends).
But, this is different. He didn't just bad mouth Goodell and those dirty, stinking Patriots, he also bad mouthed his teammates. So, should they cut him?
Here's the thing: We don't know the context of the interview. Harrison's a competitive guy that just wants to play football. He hasn't had any OTAs or mini-camps to keep him busy and, for the past five months, there's been no 2011 season to focus on. He's just had that one game bouncing around in his head all offseason. Given that mindset -- and knowing Harrison -- the interviewer probably didn't have to prod him too hard to get him rolling on different issues.
I wasn't there, I don't have any idea, but my thinking is that Men's Journal had something in mind for the piece before they interviewed him and it would have been a natural tendency to push Harrison in that direction. Then he got rolling and said a lot of stupid things.
The other thing is that I just wrote, "knowing Harrison" a couple of paragraphs ago. He seems like a salty, abrasive dude, but I haven't met him, I've never spoken with him, and I don't know him. The guys that do know him -- and have spent their entire careers in the same locker room with him -- are Roethlisberger and Mendenhall and they're the ones that really matter.
Mendenhall and Roethlisberger have both stated publicly that they are fine with Harrison's comments and Roethlisberger mentioned that Harrison called him the morning that the article was published to the web and explained the situation. Mendenhall Tweeted that, "I dont have a problem with what [Harrison] said because I know him."
First of all, they're saying all of this because they're better teammates than Harrison. Second of all, they're trying to diffuse the situation. Finally, they understand that this situation will only stop being an issue (football-wise) once they all sit down together and talk it out in the locker room. Roethlisberger and Mendenhall know Harrison. The Rooneys know Harrison and they've been through a lot with him in the past three years and change.
The major issue at hand is whether or not Harrison and his comments will cause problems in the locker room and/or divide the locker room into offense vs. defense. If Harrison's comments end up doing this, then it makes sense to release him. It doesn't look as though this will be an issue, but, as I said, the Steelers will adopt a "wait and see" approach. If he causes issues, then they will cut him.
I've also never been in an NFL locker room. From what I can gather from TV, it's a bunch of massive, naked, sweaty men yelling at each other. Chances are that there have been worse things said in the Steelers locker room than what Harrison said in the interview. Case and point: Harrison's team nickname is Silverback, because he reminds his teammates of a gorilla. This is not intended to defend Harrison. He said some foolish, offensive, and inflammatory things and that was not wise. But, the things he said, once put in perspective of the fact that his teammates nicknamed a large, black man after a primate, seem less intense.
Ultimately, Roethlisberger, Mendenhall, and the Rooneys will realize that they are not in the business of being nice guys. They are in the business of winning football games. James Harrison improves their chances of winning more games. Once everyone accepts that, the sooner this issue will go away.
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