Harrison The Clown

UPDATE: Because I am so enjoying the fact that Steeler fans are riled up over my “Harrison the Clown” comments…which I don’t retract by the way, I wanted to point out another quote that I think has baring on this to be fair. “I just want to go out and play within the rules the way my coach has taught me”.  From the one person who’s hit looked the worst and actually deserved to be fined…New England’s Brandon Meriweather.  Notice he didn’t whine about it or for that matter say the quote below instead.

“I have to decide if I want to continue playing football“.

The words of a clown. A 75,000 dollar poorer clown. After having been fined the 75K for his helmet to helmet hit on a Browns WR last Sunday, hard hitting cry baby James Harrison has said that he needs to “sit down with Mike Tomlin and see if he can still play under the NFL rules and be effective”. Are you freaking kidding me?

The guy levels another player with an illegal hit and now doesn’t know if he can play under the rules? I hope he realizes that the rules were not instituted last week prior to Sunday’s games. They have been around for at least a year. Why is Harrison whining anyways? Because he knows the next time will likely cost him playing time.

The NFL wants to take a longer, sterner approach to dealing with helmet to helmet blatant contact and one of those options being explored is suspensions instead of fines. The problem I have is the level of subjectivity to what is constituted as blatant or incidental?  Who makes that determination and what kind of suspension should be brought about as a result?

Last night on Finsradio.net we discussed that for about 20 minutes and “Cat” had the idea that a player who hits an unprotected player maliciously should serve a suspension equivalent to the duration that other player will miss due to injury.  In other words, an eye for an eye.  On the surface that sounds like a great idea but there are still issues with the theory itself.  What if a player truly did not mean to contact the opposing player with his helmet and is still deemed to have done it maliciously?  Why suspend him?

It may make more sense to follow the above method of suspension on a 2 strikes system.  Do it once, you get a fine, do it twice, you get the suspension.

If the NFL truly wants to look into curbing the desire of some to completely knock the hell out of someone else, then they need to look within the structure of their own property and other media outlets as well.  Do you think a player is more or less likely to carve the top of his helmet into the side of a QB or WR’s head if the replay would not be televised on ESPN or NFL Network?  “The top 10 hits of the week” advertises the very violent collisions that the NFL is trying to eliminate.

It’s a catch 22 in reality, the NFL for years has billed itself as a overly physical sport where hits are replayed over and over again during live broadcasts so that viewers can hear the smashing of pads against each other.  Now, they find that the brutal mess they created is getting out of control and they want to stop it.  It’s like telling a child that you have taught to stick up for themselves to suddenly stop hitting back.

There is a problem with amount of concussive hits being taken on the field and it’s about time that the NFL attempts to do something about it, while it may be a little too late, it’s a start in the right direction.  Make no mistake though, they need to go all out and completely in to curb this type of behavior, all the while walking on a thin double edged blade.

For clowns like James Harrison, sympathy for you plight won’t likely come from the fans, so stop whining, play within the rules, and shut the hell up.

Harrison will be on the field this Sunday when his Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Miami