James Harrison Apologizes For Roger Goodell, Ben Roethlisberger Remarks

After covering his eyes and firing round after round of verbal bullets at teammates and Roger Goodell, as well as posing with very real guns, Harrison issued a long apology, tweeted by Josina Anderson of Showtime’s Inside the NFL.

After calling Roger Goodell a word used for hate speech against homosexuals and saying, “If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it. I hate him and will never respect him,” in a recent article in Men’s Journal, Harrison said this about his choice of words:

Bill Parise, Harrison’s Pittsburgh-based agent, did his best to act agent-y and downplay the severity of the comments Wednesday.

No one will ever accuse of Harrison of lacking bravado. It’s Roger Goodell’s bravado, especially once the lockout is over and the commish has to decide whether or not to keep those fines coming, that everyone’s waiting to see.

The NFL lockout is still going on which means there’s not a whole lot of football news out there. This has caused certain stories, like James Harrison’s Men’s Journal interview, to receive a longer run in the news cycle than it normally may have.

The Harrison story continues on Thursday as the writer from the Men’s Journal interview, Paul Solotaroff, joined ESPN Radio and indicated that Harrison had more to say about Roethlisberger than was put into the story.

Bettis suggests that if Harrison had issues with either player, he should have talked to them out of earshot of the press. He’s right, of course - it’s terrible form to call out one’s teammates the way Harrison did.

It doesn’t sound like Harrison’s relationship with either player will be an issue. Harrison told Roethlisberger that the writer of the Men’s Journal piece “twisted” his words, and Roethlisberger evidently believed him. Mendenhall, meanwhile, dismissed Harrison’s comments, saying, “I know him.“ But that doesn’t mean Harrison was right to express opinions in the press that might divide the Steelers’ locker room.

The comments to Goodell were harsh but we’ve heard him say similar things about Goodell before. It was the comments on Roethlisberger that really made me scratch my head.

Harrison was previously booked to do ESPN’s SportsCenter on Wednesday night but later canceled that appearance. It seemed as if someone advised him against going on the show in order to kill the story now rather than letting it linger.

An ESPN producer wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning that Harrison would be a guest on ESPN’s SportsCenter Wednesday night but later tweeted that Harrison called and “backed out of the interview.”

The producer also noted that Harrison told him the interview was done back in April or May.

Criticizing and insulting Goodell is one thing. Depending on the rules in the next CBA, Harrison could be fined or suspended for his words but ultimately life will go on.

But criticizing your own teammates is different. It affects the chemistry on the team and could affect their play on the field. That’s why, in Harrison’s interview, I think his comments about QB Ben Roethlisberger are the most damning.

“My rep is James Harrison, mean son of a bitch who loves hitting the hell out of people,” Harrison told the magazine. “But up until last year, there was no word of me being dirty - till Roger Goodell, who’s a crook and a puppet, said I was the dirtiest player in the league. If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it. I hate him and will never respect him.”

The magazine feature is accompanied by Harrison posing shirtless with two of his personal handguns -- indentified as a FN Five-Seven pistol and a Smith & Wesson 460V revolver for the gun enthusiasts among us -- to accompany the James Harrison: Confessions of an NFL Hitman headline.