James Harrison is, believe it or not, talking about retiring after receiving a $75,000 fine for his hit on Mohamed Massaquoi:
Hours after the league fined him $75,000 for his concussion-causing hit on Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, Harrison appeared on Fox Sports Radio’s “Into The Night with Tony Bruno” and told guest host Jody McDonald that his first stop Wednesday morning will be in Tomlin’s office.
“I’m going to sit down and have a serious conversation with my coach tomorrow and see if I can actually play by NFL rules and still be effective,” Harrison said. “If not, I may have to give up playing football.”
This should be the talk of the town on Wednesday, but it sounds like Harrison is just smarting over the fine and the negative attention, and I frankly doubt we’ll hear much more about this. This sounds like the kind of thing I'd say and not mean if someone got angry at me for doing what I thought was my job. I wouldn't call the papers to say it, but then again I'm not someone who has a mic in his face all the time. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin isn't overly worried about this either:
"I didn’t see those comments, but I know James," Tomlin said. "James says a lot of things he doesn’t necessarily mean. He’s a tough talker, like a lot of guys that play the game at this level. If you want to get to know James, catch him on a Tuesday when he’s walking through the building with his son. He’s a big softie."