Rodney Harrison: Mike Tomlin's Comments 'Absolutely, Utterly Ridiculous'

Rodney Harrison, like Tedy Bruschi, is having a hard time digesting Mike Tomlin’s complaints.

Tomlin was upset immediately following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 28-21 loss to the New England Patriots last Thursday night at Gillette Stadium because his team had headset issues early in the game. The Steelers head coach since has accepted the NFL’s review, which found New England innocent of any wrongdoing, but his postgame comments still irked Harrison.

“I think it was absolutely, utterly ridiculous that Tomlin would come out after the game — how about trying to fix your defense? How about making sure that you cover the best tight end on the planet?” said Harrison, a former Patriots safety and current NBC Sports NFL analyst, of the headset controversy Tuesday on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria.” “Keeping things simple when you know you have a bunch of inexperienced guys on the defensive side of the ball — how about that?”

Harrison is a bit biased, having played six seasons under Bill Belichick with the Patriots from 2003 through 2008. Perhaps that’s what makes other teams’ excuse-making after losses to New England seem so egregious to the two-time Super Bowl champion. Or perhaps it’s common sense.

Either way, opponents are skeptical of the Pats. And that’s unfortunate, in Harrison’s mind.

“Just like I said before, whenever you lose to the Patriots and Belichick, you can’t say, ‘You know what? You got your asses kicked, flat out.’ You always have to say, ‘You know what, maybe they did something. Maybe they sabotaged the playbook. Maybe they sabotaged the headphones,’ ” Harrison said. “It’s always something, but once again, as the record shows, (Belichick is) smarter than you.

“His players are better, and no matter how many guys like (former Patriots) Christian Fauria, Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi and all the rest of those guys retire, they continue to win. They continue to show up in AFC Championships, they continue to win their division and everyone hates that.”

The Buffalo Bills certainly fall under the “everyone” umbrella, as Rex Ryan’s bunch already is talking plenty of smack leading up to their Week 2 showdown with the defending Super Bowl champions.