Steelers Legendary LB James Harrison Absolutely Blasts NFL For Nick Chubb's Injury

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been known for their incredible defenses since the Steel Curtain of the 1970s. Each iteration seems to have a new and more powerful tackler than the generation that came before it. But sometimes those hard hits lead to major injuries and this has people wondering who is to blame. One former Steelers player said the blame goes back on the league. 

If you were to read a list of the best Steelers defensive players from the past, it sounds like a who's who from the NFL: Jack Lambert, Joe Greene, James Farrior, Troy Polamalu, Greg Lloyd, and so on. It is truly impossible to name them all. These players lent their stories to the players that take the field today and carry on those proud traditions, like Alex Highsmith, T.J. Watt, and Minkah Fitzpatrick. Of all the players that have worn black and gold, there is one name that always comes up in regard to the toughest tacklers, James Harrison.    

Harrison is well known for his hard hits, he even once tackled a Cleveland Browns fan that ran onto the field. He made it well known that his goal was to hurt the person he tackled - not in such a way that they would be seriously injured, but enough that they would think twice about catching a pass in his vicinity. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate depends on your perspective, but Harrison was playing during the time that the NFL was seeking to make the game safer and doling out a lot of fines. While an exact total is hard to calculate, he was fined about $225k during his career. He was fined $125k in just 2010 for illegal hits. 

He was often one who toed the line between legal and illegal hits. If you ask Steelers fans, what he did was fine, but the opposition (and the NFL) hated him for it. Harrison was frequently called "dirty" and criticized for his method of playing the game. He spent 15 seasons in the NFL, the majority of them in Pittsburgh. He helped them win two Super Bowls and he was a five-time Pro Bowler and 2008 Defensive Player of the Year. He was an undrafted free agent who had to claw his way to the top, so it is no surprise that he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

Recently Harrison was asked about an injury that occurred during the Steelers Week 2 matchup against the Browns. Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick tackled running back Nick Chubb during the game. Tragically, Chubb's knee was badly injured during the tackle. This has created a hotly contested debate over the tackle, was it a "dirty" hit or was it just a terrible fluke?

Steelers' James Harrison Is Pointing A Finger Right At The NFL

Harrison recently appeared as a guest on the TMZ Sports Show where he was asked if he felt the hit was a clean one. While both players ended up injured on the play, Fitzpatrick later left the game with a chest injury, Chubb clearly got the worst of it. 

"No. You're trying to get him down. Period. He's not a little guy, he don't run light. He's trying to get him down by any means necessary and injuries are a part of the game," reminded Harrison.

For his part, Fitzpatrick offered a statement saying that anyone who thinks his hit was dirty clearly hasn't tried to tackle someone like Chubb before. He said that defenders are left with a small window on the body where they can hit someone. They can't go up high because of the risk of head injury. Fitzpatrick said the game forces you to make decisions in milliseconds and he made the best decision he could. 

Fitzpatrick was attempting to keep Chubb from crossing the goal line and another player came in and landed on Chubb's back. He said that he regrets that Chubb was injured, but wouldn't do anything differently. Harrison agrees that Fitzpatrick had limited options based on NFL rules. 

"You've made it to where if a guy goes in there and comes in high and hits him in the head, now he's getting fined. So you've got guys shooting low now and that's just what you done made the game into."

The interviewer commented that the way the referees blow whistles now has many fans feeling like any hit that causes an injury to a player was a dirty hit whether it was or not. Harrison comments again that football is dangerous, there is an inherent risk to playing. That a flag comes out or a player gets hurt and everyone screams "dirty hit."  

"You try and make the game safer, that's cool, but you're also making it a lot more difficult for guys to play it and to be able to do it safely because you take away me being able to hit a target area. So now I have to hit the midsection, you're not trying to hit a dude in the midsection that's almost 60, 70, 80, sometimes 100 pounds heavier than you."

Harrison adds that while trying to protect offensive players, particularly quarterbacks, the NFL has created a more dangerous game for the defenders. Hitting some of these players in the midsection is akin to running head-first into a brick wall. That creates a dangerous situation. This leaves the defenders with few safe and legal options, so they make the best decision they can, in a very small window of time. 

"You're not going to put yourself at risk of injury. You risk hitting him wrong and God forbid you mess up your neck or something worse happens. So you're going to go to the legs and that's just part of the game."

When asked if the new rules would have made it harder for him to play if he was still in the league, Harrison said no, but it would make it more dangerous. His job is to tackle someone and when the target area that is left is the legs, that's where he would go. Having a 270-pound defender slam into the legs of a 200-pound offensive player could create a lot of bad knee injuries. 

What did you think about Fitzpatrick's tackle? What did you think about Harrison's style of play when he was in the NFL? Click to comment below.

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