Per PFT: Steelers wanted Harrison to take 30% paycut with chance to earn back money

[BigRob]

Still pissed at the Steelers? They offered him a 30% paycut with incentives for performance to earn back the lost money.


The Steelers opted to move on from veteran linebacker James Harrison (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/665/james-harrison) on Saturday after talks aimed at reducing his 2013 cap number reached impasse.

Per a league source, the Steelers offered a reduction of roughly 30 percent in Harrison’s base salary of $6.57 million, with an opportunity to earn the money back via incentives. (The specific terms of the incentives aren’t known.)

Harrison balked, confident he’ll get more money elsewhere.

But will he? Aging pass rushers are plentiful this year, from John Abraham (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/849/john-abraham) to Dwight Freeney (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1517/dwight-freeney) to Osi Umenyiora (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/975/osi-umenyiora) to, potentially, Elvis Dumervil (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/3941/elvis-dumervil).

The current thinking is that Harrison made the decision without his agent gauging the market elsewhere. Which means that Harrison could be in for a rude awakening, soon.


www.profootballtalk.com

[squidkid]

F' harrison.
i would have only offered him 30% of his salary with incentives to earn 75%............tops

[Terrible Towlie]

Im glad the Steelers didn't give in on this one. I know he's been injured, but at 35-36 years old it's only going to get harder for him to keep his body healthy.

[BradshawsHairdresser]

Still pissed at the Steelers? They offered him a 30% paycut with incentives for performance to earn back the lost money.



www.profootballtalk.com (http://www.profootballtalk.com)

Wow. That's a far better offer than I expected the Steelers to make him.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

who is pissed?

pretty calm reaction from what I can see. Most understand this is a rational business decision.

[BradshawsHairdresser]

The Steelers opted to move on from veteran linebacker James Harrison (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/665/james-harrison) on Saturday after talks aimed at reducing his 2013 cap number reached impasse.

Per a league source, the Steelers offered a reduction of roughly 30 percent in Harrison’s base salary of $6.57 million, with an opportunity to earn the money back via incentives. (The specific terms of the incentives aren’t known.)

Harrison balked, confident he’ll get more money elsewhere.

But will he? Aging pass rushers are plentiful this year, from John Abraham (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/849/john-abraham) to Dwight Freeney (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1517/dwight-freeney) to Osi Umenyiora (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/975/osi-umenyiora) to, potentially, Elvis Dumervil (http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/3941/elvis-dumervil).



None of those guys are 3-4 OLBs, like Harrison is. . .

[BradshawsHairdresser]

who is pissed?

James may be pissed, but he shouldn't be.

I hate to see James go, but I've got to agree with you, it was a reasonable business decision.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

James may be pissed, but he shouldn't be.

I hate to see James go, but I've got to agree with you, it was a reasonable business decision.

no doubt.

james may be pissed when he finds less on the open market. I'm sure that offer won't be made again. Sounds like they tried to bend some for him.

[lloydroid]

I think it was reasonable. That's the problem with these super deals - be careful what you wish for. Once a few years go by, the contracts are too big to honor. I don't know why they bother making such mega big years to begin with. We won't be replacing JH any time soon. In his prime, there is no one in the entire NFL on his level when you consider every aspect of his play, collectively.

[Mister Pittsburgh]

who is pissed?

pretty calm reaction from what I can see. Most understand this is a rational business decision.

Why does 'blame' always have to be placed. Steelers are in a tough spot and Harrison thinks he is worth the money. I don't blame him for trying to max out his money with him getting a late jump on earning the big checks. Dude balled hard for us and I wish James luck (unless he signs with a division foe).

[hawaiiansteel]

A Death Watch

By Jim Wexell
Publisher SteelCityInsider.net
Posted Mar 8, 2013

From the notebook of a sportswriter who’s sitting at his computer awaiting the death of a linebacker:

* Of course that’s overwrought. But when you’re waiting for news from the team you cover about the imminent release of the most interesting, menacing, brutal, and brutally honest football player you’ve ever covered, it’s a death watch.

* Ray Davies once sang, “Celluloid Heroes never feel any pain. Celluloid Heroes never really die.” So in that regard, yes, James Harrison will live, and thrive, on tape forever.

* I interviewed him the first day he reported for spring practice. He had been the subject of a brief at the bottom of a notebook in the previous day’s metro newspaper. One of the Steelers’ scouts, Phil Kreidler, told the reporter that this undrafted rookie out of Kent State was “mean.”

* I assumed this to be typical scout talk about a young linebacker, but I also wanted to ask Harrison if he felt any sort of kindred spirit with another former Steelers linebacker from Kent State.

* But Harrison proceeded to rip Jack Lambert – on the first day of spring camp as an undrafted rookie in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room.

* Harrison, he didn’t much care about Lambert because Lambert never came back to Kent or did anything to help him. Harrison then said he didn’t much care if I liked what he was saying or not. And then he walked away.

* That’s when I started listening more closely to what Phil Kreidler had to say.

* A few years later I asked Harrison if he ever heard from Lambert. Harrison proudly said that he had, that Lambert – an old-school man of letters – had written Harrison to tell him how proud he was, as a fellow alum, of his accomplishments and the way he played the game. James said he cherished the letter.

* Well, he didn’t actually use the word “cherish.” He would’ve had to kill me.

* I watched Harrison closely his first training camp and his strength was undeniable. The only other rookie I remember standing out so vividly was Willie Parker.

* While Harrison’s brute strength was fun to watch, his idiosyncrasies were just plain funny. He’d knock over a guy during special-teams practice and then stand over him and glare down in personal victory – oblivious to the return man running past him.

* My friend and colleague Dale Lolley called him “Shaft. John Shaft.” But the nickname never stuck. “Silverback” was the choice for a while. And then “Deebo.” Then he just became James, which is saying something for such a common name.

* “I can’t wait till we cut that *&!@%*#,” said Mike Archer.

* Harrison’s first linebackers coach with the Steelers later came around to James’s, um, frustration in dealing with being coached and corrected, and Archer laughed about the comment some years later. But he told me that he heard James still dislikes him.

* Archer told me that Joey Porter and Jason Gildon should be credited for Harrison’s development. I relayed that quote to Harrison and he shrugged it off and said it didn’t mean much. “As far as Archer goes, that’s another story in itself,” Harrison said. But, I told James, Archer had wished him well.

“It’s great that he wishes me well,” Harrison said. “But like I said, that’s just something else altogether.”

* In spite of their difficulties, Harrison turned out rather well. Thank God for demanding coaches.

* “I think the funniest thing James ever said,” recalled Chris Hoke, “was when Coach Cowher was here. He had a block in the back, Silverback did, and Coach Cowher came up to him and started yelling at him, and Silverback said to him, ‘(Expletive) happens.’ Cowher was like, ‘I respect that.’”

* Scott Brown, a reporter for the Trib, was just doing his job one day when Harrison began ripping into an official after a game. Harrison implied that the official was cheating, throwing the game, and after Brown published the quote Harrison was fined $15,000 by the league. The next day Harrison walked into the packed locker room during media time and yelled, “Which one of you (expletive deleteds) is Scott Brown!?!” The room became hushed. No one answered. After a pause Harrison yelled, “You owe me $15,000!”

* In 2006 Sports Illustrated put Joey Porter on its cover with the title “NFL’s Meanest Man,” which became something a joke in the Steelers’ locker room because Porter wasn’t even the meanest man at his position on his team.

* One day I learned that one of Harrison’s college teammates, Roy Attieh, had died in a car accident a few days earlier. I asked Harrison about him, and he began to cry. Another reporter and I walked away. That reporter said, “You realize he’s going to have to kill you now.”

* I thought our bond might actually have become a bit tighter after that, but I never really assumed it, or tried to use it. I did ask him for his mom’s phone number. I wanted to start my tour for my book Steeler Nation in Akron with the Hall of Fame Game at the start of the 2007 season. I was as nervous as a freshman asking a girl out for a date, but Harrison said, “Yeah, no problem. What’s your name again?” I don’t think he ever remembered it. So much for our “bond.”

* The $15,000 fine for calling an official a cheater was a pittance compared to the heavy stuff that began to roll up later in Harrison’s career. In 2010 he accumulated $125,000 in fines, and of course became the centerpiece of just about every story on the new NFL, the safety issues, concussions. It was all anyone seemed to want to discuss with Harrison at that year’s Super Bowl. I was standing next to him when a reporter asked him about concussions, and Harrison said, “Concussions are part of the risk I take with my job, and I love my job. Don’t you love your job?”

“Yeah,” said the reporter, “But concussions aren’t a part of my job.”

“They will be if you ask another question like that,” Harrison said.

* Oh, my, the 100-yard interception return before halftime of Super Bowl 43; the slamming of the drunken Browns fan who wandered onto the field; getting his big break because “Peezy” got into a fight right before game time and Alonzo Jackson couldn’t play special teams and was inactive; the Monday Night demolition of the Ravens in 2007 with 10 tackles, 6 QB hits, 3½ sacks, 3 forced fumbles and an interception.

* The strength, the bend, the burst, the violence upon impact.

* A few years after Harrison had developed into a star, I asked a scout if character issues were the reason the Steelers didn’t draft Harrison after he had led the MAC with 15 sacks. “No way,” said the scout. “If he came out today we’d have the same problem with his size and speed.”

* That’s why these guys are so hard to find. Just because the Steelers got lucky three times in a row – Greg Lloyd, Porter and Harrison – doesn’t mean Jason Worilds is a failure for not being a freak.

* And here I am, toggling back and forth between my Word document and the Internet for the bad news, because bad news is normally announced on Fridays.

* But as my deadline approaches, I’m arguing with someone on Twitter over who’s a better 3-4 OLB draft prospect: Damontre Moore or Corey Lemonier.

* As if it matters. As if the Steelers will just find the next James Harrison on purpose, or because they’re that much smarter than everyone else.

* Let’s just hope by the start of the NFL’s fiscal New Year on Tuesday that we can have a good laugh at the prematurity of this column, that James had stood strong and called the Steelers’ bluff, and that the Steelers had found a way to keep him.

http://pit.scout.com/2/1272901.html

[DukieBoy]

Great article by Wex, full of anecdotes. I miss James already.

[Mister Pittsburgh]

Yeah man. James leaving is kind of representative of the death of physical football.

[hawaiiansteel]

James Harrison rumors: Patriots interest free agent LB

By Jason Garrison on Mar 9 2013

Now that James Harrison is no longer a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one team that interests him is the New England Patriots.

The Pittsburgh Steelers released outside linebacker James Harrison on Saturday, as was expected. Now that he's a free agent, one team that interests Harrison is the New England Patriots, according to The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe.

When Harrison was asked by ESPN about whether or not he would like to play for the Patriots, the linebacker's response was "telling."

"Of course it would be nice to play with Tom Brady," Harrison said. "I mean, who wouldn't want to?"

Harrison has been a linchpin in the Steelers' 3-4 defense for years, and the five-time Pro Bowler could bring an added dimension to any defense.That said, the Patriots' 4-3 defense may not be the best fit.

Harrison's tune has changed quite a bit on the Patriots. After New England was defeated by the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, Harrison took to Twitter, saying "Told you, cheaters never win!" Seeing Harrison in a Patriots uniform would be somewhat ironic.

Harrison did say in his interview with ESPN that he would be interested in playing with any team.

Harrison is coming off a season in which he played in 13 games and racked up 70 tackles and six sacks. In his 10-year career with the Steelers, Harrison has made 617 tackles and 64.5 sacks as well as intercepted five passes. He has also been fined thousands of dollars for illegal hits as well as suspended for a few games.

Harrison has been labeled in the past as one of the NFL's most violent players. Any team, including the Patriots, would likely be interested in bringing in an intimidating player with Harrison's abilities to make plays. That is, as long as they're willing to get penalized every now and again.

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2013/3/9/4084008/james-harrison-patriots-nfl-free-agency

[Mister Pittsburgh]

James, would you ever play for the Patriots?
Sure, who wouldn't want to ply with Tom Brady...

HARRISON SAID HE WANTS TO BE A PATRIOT!

What kind of stupid article is that?

[papillon]

A bad day for Steeler football.

Papillon

[williar]

James, would you ever play for the Patriots?
Sure, who wouldn't want to ply with Tom Brady...

HARRISON SAID HE WANTS TO BE A PATRIOT!

What kind of stupid article is that?

My embellishment: Of course, I want to play with Tom Brady as opposed to the knucklehead QB I've been playing with. My defense had to save his ass every week.

Sorry! I couldn't resist....

[hawaiiansteel]

My embellishment: Of course, I want to play with Tom Brady as opposed to the knucklehead QB I've been playing with. My defense had to save his ass every week.


and "I can't wait to play against Ben, I'll get six sacks every time the way that knucklehead hangs onto the ball so long..."

[Eddie Spaghetti]

and "I can't wait to play against Ben, I'll get six sacks every time the way that knucklehead hangs onto the ball so long..."

didn't deebo get somethjng like 4 sacks vs ben in a MAC Championship Game?

dude is a certified badass.