Dec 30, 2017 5 min read

What do you suppose will do more harm to James Harrison’s legacy, being a bad teammate, forcing his release and signing with the New England Patriots or breaking down his girlfriend’s door, hitting her in the face and being charged with simple assault and criminal mischief?

He admitted to slapping 29-year old Beth Tibbot during an argument in March, 2008, and apologized. A few weeks later, after Harrison had completed anger management counseling, Tibbot chose to drop the charges.

I don’t seem to recall the outrage rising to the level that his defection to the Patriots seemed to reach.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide what that says about us as humans or as media members or Steelers fans.

Harrison’s teammates went out of their way to tell him not to let the door hit him in the butt on the way out, which would seem to indicate that he wasn’t a very good teammate.

I don’t recall any teammates shunning him for hitting a woman. In fact, Harrison’s boss, the late Dan Rooney, seemed to give him a pass because the argument that led to the assault was about whether their son should be baptized. Or something.

Harrison is one of the Steelers’ best defensive players ever. He deserves to be mentioned with all of the great ones from the Steel Curtain, but nobody should be sad to see him go.

And don’t think for a minute that coach Bill Belichick brought him to New England for any reason other than his belief that Harrison can help him win another Super Bowl.

Belichick could change his mind tomorrow and release him, but when he signed Harrison he was doing what he always does – looking for a way to get an edge. Nobody does it better.

Kind of like videotaping his opponent’s defensive signals or deflating slippery footballs.

• If a college football player is enough of a prospect that it makes sense for him to skip his team’s last game, then he is/was good enough to play in the NFL this season. It’s ridiculous and un-American that the NFL’s monopoly can prevent a kid from earning a living playing football.

• You have to love Army and Navy football. Army beat San Diego State 42-35 in the Armed Forces bowl. After scoring a touchdown to pull to within 35-34, with less than a minute to go, Army went for a two-point conversion and took a 36-35 lead. Army intercepted a lateral on the last play of the game and took it in for a touchdown.

Not many teams have the guts to go for the win in the last minute, but nobody was surprised when Army did.

Virginia returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and then lost to Navy 49-7 in the Military Bowl.

Navy didn’t attempt a pass.

Forty-nine points without completing a pass.

Navy won the time of possession 42 minutes to 18.

Two quarterbacks combined for seven rushing touchdowns.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if a top-tier college football program tried to do what Army and Navy have done. How would defensive coordinators used to stopping pass-happy offenses adjust? How much of Army and Navy’s success is a result of what seems to be an epidemic of bad tackling?

• Why would anybody be surprised when a four-team playoff with teams selected by a committee doesn’t produce an undisputed champion?

• It was nice of Le’ Veon Bell to give each of his offensive linemen a $36,000 watch. It might have been nicer to give each one of them, say, a $5,000 watch, and pay for a college education for a few kids who won’t ever play in the NFL.

Chris Long is a defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles. He said he always thought it would be pretty cool to play for free, so he donated his first six game checks to fund scholarships for kids in his hometown of Charlottesville, Va. He donated his last 10 checks to a foundation set up to give scholarships to kids in the three cities where he has played – Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston.

• When the Steelers play their first playoff game, it will have been four weeks since they played a team that had any real chance of beating them, and it will be three weeks since their best offensive players have seen any action. Byes are nice but there is a downside.

• Harrison is the Steelers’ all-time leader in sacks, but let’s keep in mind that in the pass-happy NFL Harrison has had a lot more opportunities to rush the quarterback. Four-hundred passes a year used to be a lot for a quarterback. Now 600 isn’t uncommon.

• In 2015 Tom Brady completed 444 passes that were thrown either behind the line of scrimmage or less than 10 yards downfield. Terry Bradshaw only attempted 400 or more passes in a season twice. Dan Fouts of “Air Coryell” fame, only attempted more than 400 passes four times in 14 years.

It’s a different game.