While many Pittsburgh Steelers players come to mind when thinking about mean, physical football in the Steel City, James Harrison is one of the first people that you think of, especially with the modern-era Steelers. Harrison needs no introduction, as his story, strength, and toughness are known all across the football landscape. Recently, he interviewed with Cameron Heyward on his podcast, Not Just Football, where they talked about many aspects of Harrison's game. In the middle of the conversation, they brought up the league as a whole, and, like Harrison does, he did not hold back on his thoughts about the league.
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Steelers' Cam Heyward (97) and James Harrison (92) celebrate a sack during a game in 2016 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Specifically, Heyward asked Harrison about how he thought the games were being officiated, especially with how they look at roughing the passer penalties. Harrison had no hesitation in his critical answer.
"Everything has gotten softer. I believe Michael Irvin was talking about it with receivers having to go across the middle and not having to worry about getting that hit, and they can concentrate on that ball. Going across the middle back in the [day], that was considered a man's area. You had receivers that were like, 'I don't go across the middle,' but now, you're better off being a receiver nowadays than you are being a DB [defensive back] because even if you hit somebody and it's a good, clean hit, if it's not 100% seen and pure, then it's going to be a flag coming out. Even if it's a clean hit and he lays down and rolls on the ground, it's like, 'Oh, well he's hurt, so it had to be dirty' and here comes a flag."
The debate about what is and isn't a personal foul has been going on for years now, with players getting flagged for making clean hits, or even making minimal contact with a quarterback, while other players who constantly make dirty plays are allowed to stay in the league, like Vontaze Burfict was for so long. With how trigger-happy the refs are for big hits, it's amazing that guys like TJ Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick are as dominant as they are without having a "dirty player" moniker attached to them.
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Steelers' TJ Watt gets a strip sack on Buffalo Bills quarterback, Josh Allen.
The Steelers had a couple controversial plays over the middle in 2023, but luckily, the flag didn't get thrown either time, although it does get thrown regularly. Cole Holcomb separated Davante Adams from the ball against the Las Vegas Raiders and a flag was thrown, but it got picked up and no penalty was called. Against the Baltimore Ravens, Zay Flowers dropped a pass, but Watt still punched like he was going for the ball.
Harrison continued on, talking about his experience with a representative from the NFL, who tried to explain to him how to make a good, clean hit. Harrison would later walk out on the meeting for how the NFL had gotten so protective of the ball-carrier.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, James Harrison (92) brings down former New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady (12) during a game in Pittsburgh, PA.
"I'll give you an inside glimpse. So, they had me go to the NFL. They're going over old hits; they're going back 4-5 years... we go through the process, and they saw me hit a dude, and as I hit the dude, he's crouching down, so we end up hitting helmet to helmet. They're like, 'That's your fault, you could've went lower.' I said, 'Is it really my fault or is it that something else is going on because the dude got hurt?' 'No, you can't make contact with the helmet.' I said, 'So no matter what, it's on the responsibility of the defender to not make helmet contact?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'So, at any point that my head contacts their head, I'm going to get fined?' 'Yes.'"
That has been another big debate in the NFL landscape. Ball-carriers are taught to lead with their shoulder and drive like that, but oftentimes, players end up leading with their head into a defender. While there's the obvious safety concerns about a helmet-to-helmet hit, there's also the argument that there's nothing that the defender can do in certain cases, but in Harrison's case, they told him that no matter what the offensive player does, the defensive player will get fined if helmet-to-helmet contact is made.
What do you think about James Harrison's comments on the NFL? Do you agree with him? Let us know in the comments.
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