May 16, 2020 4 min read

James Harrison just can’t stand not being in the news. At least that’s how it appears.

Every few months since he stopped playing football, Harrison goes on TV or a radio show and makes a random statement or claim, always about the Steelers and typically about Mike Tomlin.

So, he was at it again last week.

Harrison told Barstool Sports’ podcast, “Going Deep” that Tomlin handed him an envelope after a hit on the Cleveland Browns’ Mohomed Massaquoi that drew a fine of $75,000 in 2010.

“I ain’t gonna lie to you, when that happened, right? The G-est thing Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that,” Harrison said. “I ain’t gonna say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”

We can make the assumption that Tomlin wasn’t giving Harrison a birthday card, though Harrison makes no outright claims of a payout. Harrison was fined six times for $150,000 when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell began cracking down on helmet-to-helmet hits starting in 2010. He also was suspended for a game in 2011 for what the league deemed an illegal hit.

Harrison’s claims could be problematic for Tomlin. It’s illegal for coaches or teams to pay the fines or otherwise give money under the table to players.

That became the basis of “Bountygate,” which wound up seeing several big fines handed out and several players and coaches, including head coach Sean Payton, suspended by the league for the 2012 season for giving players additional money for big hits or knocking opposing players out of games.

The Steelers issued a statement by president Art Rooney II denying any such thing happened.

“I am very certain nothing like this ever happened. I have no idea why James would make a comment like this but there is simply no basis for believing anything like this,” Rooney said.

Making claims like this has become the norm for Harrison, who continues to work the media circuit, sometimes paid, other times not. And big claims like this keep him in the public eye.

• That didn’t stop Payton from responding to these charges. The Saints’ head coach was asked about Harrison’s claims while doing a radio appearance.

“If people are waiting for the league to investigate that, they shouldn’t hold their breath,” Payton said on a Baltimore radio station. “I would be shocked. That’ll be something that’s tucked away or under the rug at Park Avenue. They’ll look into it briefly.”

Payton is right only because exactly what kind of smoking gun would there be 10 years after the fact?

It’s unlikely a league investigation would turn up anything. After all, while Harrison is bitter toward Tomlin -claiming he lied to him in his final season with the Steelers regarding promises of playing time – he hates the NFL, and Goodell even more.

And the league can’t force him to make any kind of statement on the record. What’s it going to do, fine him? Tell him he can’t play any longer? Harrison would likely tell any NFL investigator to take a flying leap.

So, it’s his word against that of the Steelers and Tomlin, unless the coach made a big display of handing Harrison the envelope and proclaimed what was in there. And that’s highly unlikely if this did happen.

• One group of players who will get lost in the shuffle this year by NFL teams are undrafted rookie free agents.

They already went undrafted. Now, they’re not getting any kind of offseason, either.

That’s when they would get an opportunity to begin showing the coaching staff they deserve a spot on the roster.

A subset of that is rookies who weren’t signed in the days following the draft. Think Devlin Hodges and Terence Garvin.

Those two were offered tryouts by the Steelers and not only did enough to win a spot on the training camp roster in the offseason, thet found their way onto the 53-man roster.

For Hodges, that meant making six starts for the Steelers at quarterback in 2019. Garvin carved out a five-year career as a linebacker in the NFL despite not being drafted and then going unsigned in the aftermath of the draft.

The Steelers have a long history of undrafted players not only making their roster but also developing into valuable starters. Think Donnie Shell, James Harrison, Willie Parker and the recently retired Ramon Foster.

None were selected in the draft but had lengthy careers.

That will be tough for a rookie to do in 2020.