James Harrison suspended
The Steelers are fighting for playoff position in the final 3 games of the season, and that fight just got a bit tougher. The NFL has suspended linebacker James Harrison for 1 game for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Cleveland Browns’ quarterback Colt McCoy.
The Steelers face the San Francisco 49ers in their next game. It’s probably the toughest game left on the Steelers schedule, so they could definitely use Harrison. But I guess that point is now moot.
Harrison’s agent Bill Parise has already appealed the suspension.
“We will ask for an expedited hearing because we’re dealing with a suspension,” Parise said.
Ummmmm, good luck with that.
Frankly, I don’t think he has any chance of winning his appeal. The tape clearly shows that Harrison struck a head-to-head blow. It can be debated whether the hit was intentional, but because it’s Harrison, the league is not likely to back down.
Harrison was fined a total of six times during the 2009 and 2010 seasons for four illegal hits against quarterbacks and twice for unnecessary roughness. Because of that history, the NFL probably felt that a suspension might send a louder message than the fines did.
Even Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t support Harrison on this one.
“He hit him, he hit him illegally, he has to suffer the consequences,” Tomlin said.
Because he’ll be suspended for the game, Harrison won’t get paid for it. So effectively, the league did fine him.
This obviously makes the next game a little tougher than we thought it would be. However, I still think the Steelers have a good chance of beating the 49ers and improving their record to 11-3.
Go Steelers!!!
Isn’t Harrison allowed to strike McCoy in the head if McCoy is advancing the ball as a runner? The fact that Colt tossed the ball a moment before the collision should be irrelevant.
1Another chance for Roger GOD-dell to go after a Steeler. Once McCoy left that pocket, he should be considered a RB, they dont get the same preferential treatment as QB’s. Harrison uses his body like a missile and this is where he gets in trouble. He should NOT be suspended. If it was anyone else,there would be no suspension. Even noted Steeler hater Chris Collinsworth said the league should stay out of this one.
2Roger Goodel has way too much power to even be fining players what ever he wants when ever he wants much less picking on certain players! Like any person in a high position they need a secondary person to at least question his actions.. Roger Goodell is screwing up this game we all love so much. Sooner or later they will be playing flag football. The players themselves know it is a full contact sport. That’s why they get paid the big bucks, that is why we pay so much to go and see a game live, that is why like every other full contact sport they wear protective gear… Roger Goodell straight up sucks!
3Technically speaking, the helmet to helmet rules are still in place even out of the pocket (unless he crosses the line of scrimmage). Of course, the split second timing of this play should have been a mitigating factor (i.e. they can’t seriously expect Harrison to stop at that point). I expect their position would be that Harrison should have hit him lower regardless of what McCoy was doing.
Overall I do not have an issue of Harrison being fined for this play (as opposed to some of the previous ones). I don’t believe it warranted a suspension and I can only guess that they were looking to eventually suspend someone and Harrison makes an easy target since the fined him so much in the past.
Now if the REALLY wanted to do something about player safety they can mandate that players wear concussion resistant helmets and better mouthguards – which would protect players whether it is a legal or illegal hit.
But Nooooooooo…that makes too much sense
4I think that the biggest issue was that it was James Harrison. If it had been anyone else, there probably would have only been a fine. But I think Roger Goodell sees guys like James Harrison and Ndamukong Suh as repeat offenders. He views them like convicted felons who are out on parole. He’s going to use even the slightest offense to send them back to jail.
Frankly, I expected a fine, but not a suspension. After all, it was clearly a helmet-to-helmet hit. I don’t think anyone has any questions about that. The only question is what should have been done about it. The options for the NFL were: a) Do nothing. b) Fine him. or c) Suspend him.
Because it was Harrison, they went with “c”. I believe any other player in the league (except Suh) would have gotten option A or option B.
5There needs to be a counsel setup, as the players suggested during the lockout, that involves more than Roger Goodell when these decisions are made. But, anyone that thought 92 was going to get off with a slap on the wrist was kidding themselves. Roger has been waiting patiently for 92 to mess up, and he did.
6Mark,
7I wonder if anyone actually believes that Harrison’s appeal is going to be granted? Frankly, I think that if it had been almost any other player in the league, that hit would have gotten a fine. But since it was Harrison, it drew a suspension, and Roger Goodell is probably laughing at his appeal request.