James Harrison has put the Pittsburgh Steelers in a tough spot.
The former linebacker on Thursday raised a whole bunch of eyebrows when he said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin “handed (him) an envelope” after Harrison was fined $75,000 for a hit in 2010.
Harrison received the fine for a crushing hit on Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi during a game at Heinz Field nearly 10 years ago. During an appearance this week on Barstool Sports’ “Going Deep” podcast, Harrison defended his actions before dropping the tidbit about Tomlin.
“Listen, on everything I love, on my daddy’s grave, I hit that man with about 50 percent of what I had, and I just hit him because I wanted him to let loose of the ball,” Harrison said on the podcast. “If I had knew they was gonna fine me $75,000, I would have tried to kill him.”
Well, all right. As for Tomlin?
“Dude, I’m telling, you, 75? And I ain’t gonna lie to you, when that happened, the G-est thing Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that. I ain’t gonna say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”
It doesn’t feel like there’s much of a reason for Harrison to lie about that, and it sure sounds like he likes Tomlin. That being said, the Steelers quickly denied their former employee’s claims.
“I am very certain nothing like this ever happened,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement. “I have no idea why James would make a comment like this but there is simply no basis for believing anything like this.”
The NFL declined to comment, per ESPN.
