Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison says a lot of ridiculous things. Just yesterday, he lashed out against the NFL rules changes regarding head-to-head contact because he's in fact out to hurt players. He also previously said that he would refuse to meet Barack Obama after winning the Super Bowl because Obama would've met with the Cardinals if they had won.
He ended up meeting Obama. Still, Harrison has threatened to retire from football Wednesday in light of the NFL's new rules, because he doesn't know if he can still be effective without trying to hurt people. He was excused from practice and meetings by Mike Tomlin thereafter.
It seemed like a typical Harrison stunt, but he's taken it pretty far. His agent has told Adam Schefter that Harrison is "very serious" about retiring, according to ProFootballTalk.
"We wouldn't joke about this," agent Chris Parise said. "This is a very serious issue. James is very concerned about how to play football. If James is going to be fined $75,000 for making a legal tackle, then how do you go play football? It's quite frustrating to James, to coach [Mike] Tomlin, to me, to everybody."
It's hard to believe that the former Defensive Player of the Year and perpetrator of two concussions on Sunday will walk away from the game. Even if he does, it seems unlikely that the Steelers will be affected much. They suffered little after losing Joey Porter a few years ago and consistently perform on defense without star players.
