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How did the menacing defender go from being a retired linebacker to one of the most impactful Pittsburgh players this season? The answer, plus thoughts on the turkey day results, the Week 13 spotlight player and 10 things to watch Sunday
Interesting weekend of football, starting with the two marquee games Thursday, and two big ones Sunday: New England at Green Bay in the late-afternoon national window, and Denver at Kansas City on Sunday night. You’ll hear much about those games, and no doubt already have this week. For my column today, I want to focus on something else: the comeback of James Harrison, who will try to chase down Drew Brees on Sunday at Heinz Field in a strange matchup with big playoff implications. Strange because the 4-7 Saints are tied for first in the moribund NFC South, and Pittsburgh is one of four seven-win teams jockeying for post-season position in the AFC North. Fun game.
Harrison’s story is downright stunning, if you consider all angles. He announced his retirement at the Steelers’ training complex on the South Side of Pittsburgh on Sept. 5, and then, after the severe wrist injury suffered by starting linebacker Jarvis Jones a couple of weeks later, Harrison was re-signed on Sept. 23. Since then, the 36-year-old Harrison has been playing like the 29-year-old James Harrison in his eight games as a second-time Steeler.
Averaging 53 percent of the defensive snaps per game, Harrison took four games to get his football legs back. In his last four, he’s been the classic Harrison. He sacked Andrew Luck twice and Joe Flacco twice in back-to-back games, and then, in his last two games before the Steelers’ bye, he had seven significant pressures or hits of Michael Vick and Zach Mettenberger against the Jets and Titans.
The game against Baltimore was a tour de force, with Harrison beating pricy left tackle Eugene Monroe of the Ravens for consistent pressure on Flacco. To watch that game, you wondered: Why did Harrison ever retire?
A quick primer: Harrison, who’d been an outside rusher and underrated run player in the Pittsburgh 3-4 defense, was a fish out of water in the Bengals’ 4-3 defense last year, and Cincinnati didn’t want him back after Mike Zimmer left to be the Vikings’ head coach. Harrison was wooed by the Cardinals, but he decided after talking to his two young sons that he didn’t want to live apart from them for another year. So he retired—even though he knew he still had some good football left in him.
“I had a deal in Arizona,” Harrison said recently from Pittsburgh. “I could have gone to Arizona for $2 million guaranteed. I kept asking for more money, and I could tell they wanted me to sign. But at the end of it, I didn’t want to play anymore … if I had to be away from my kids. I was already away from my family for a year in Cincinnati, and I wasn’t going to do that to them again.
“Then the Steelers had that injury.” Jones dislocated his wrist against Carolina on a Sunday night of Week 3. “At, like, 4:03 a.m. [Monday], Brett Keisel texted me: ‘Come back.’ Coach [Mike] Tomlin called me. But I wasn’t going to come back if it wasn’t okay with my boys. So I asked them, and they both said yes. And I signed.”
“How old are your boys?” I asked.
“Five and six,” Harrison said.
“You’re saying your decision on whether you were going to play football again came down to what your five- and six-year-old sons wanted?” I asked.
“Right,” he said.
Pretty noble of Harrison. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau found him to be the same power presence against the run, and the way Harrison rushes the passer is the way a great hockey player make a power rush to the net, while a defenseman tries to ride him over to the board. Both athletes are low to the ground, trying to cut off the angle to the passer (for Harrison) or to the net (for the hockey player).
But after not playing effectively a year ago, and turning 36, I wondered if his play this fall was a surprise to him. “I can’t say I’m shocked, where I’m at,” he said. “I’ve done this before. After games, you’re sort of questioning why you do, because you get so sore. I’m old and slow. Like I’ve said, this is God’s work, not mine.”
James Harrison, the key to another Pittsburgh playoff run. Of all the surprising story lines in 2014, this is a big one.
How did the menacing defender go from being a retired linebacker to one of the most impactful Pittsburgh players this season? The answer, plus thoughts on the turkey day results, the Week 13 spotlight player and 10 things to watch Sunday
Interesting weekend of football, starting with the two marquee games Thursday, and two big ones Sunday: New England at Green Bay in the late-afternoon national window, and Denver at Kansas City on Sunday night. You’ll hear much about those games, and no doubt already have this week. For my column today, I want to focus on something else: the comeback of James Harrison, who will try to chase down Drew Brees on Sunday at Heinz Field in a strange matchup with big playoff implications. Strange because the 4-7 Saints are tied for first in the moribund NFC South, and Pittsburgh is one of four seven-win teams jockeying for post-season position in the AFC North. Fun game.
Harrison’s story is downright stunning, if you consider all angles. He announced his retirement at the Steelers’ training complex on the South Side of Pittsburgh on Sept. 5, and then, after the severe wrist injury suffered by starting linebacker Jarvis Jones a couple of weeks later, Harrison was re-signed on Sept. 23. Since then, the 36-year-old Harrison has been playing like the 29-year-old James Harrison in his eight games as a second-time Steeler.
Averaging 53 percent of the defensive snaps per game, Harrison took four games to get his football legs back. In his last four, he’s been the classic Harrison. He sacked Andrew Luck twice and Joe Flacco twice in back-to-back games, and then, in his last two games before the Steelers’ bye, he had seven significant pressures or hits of Michael Vick and Zach Mettenberger against the Jets and Titans.
The game against Baltimore was a tour de force, with Harrison beating pricy left tackle Eugene Monroe of the Ravens for consistent pressure on Flacco. To watch that game, you wondered: Why did Harrison ever retire?
A quick primer: Harrison, who’d been an outside rusher and underrated run player in the Pittsburgh 3-4 defense, was a fish out of water in the Bengals’ 4-3 defense last year, and Cincinnati didn’t want him back after Mike Zimmer left to be the Vikings’ head coach. Harrison was wooed by the Cardinals, but he decided after talking to his two young sons that he didn’t want to live apart from them for another year. So he retired—even though he knew he still had some good football left in him.
“I had a deal in Arizona,” Harrison said recently from Pittsburgh. “I could have gone to Arizona for $2 million guaranteed. I kept asking for more money, and I could tell they wanted me to sign. But at the end of it, I didn’t want to play anymore … if I had to be away from my kids. I was already away from my family for a year in Cincinnati, and I wasn’t going to do that to them again.
“Then the Steelers had that injury.” Jones dislocated his wrist against Carolina on a Sunday night of Week 3. “At, like, 4:03 a.m. [Monday], Brett Keisel texted me: ‘Come back.’ Coach [Mike] Tomlin called me. But I wasn’t going to come back if it wasn’t okay with my boys. So I asked them, and they both said yes. And I signed.”
“How old are your boys?” I asked.
“Five and six,” Harrison said.
“You’re saying your decision on whether you were going to play football again came down to what your five- and six-year-old sons wanted?” I asked.
“Right,” he said.
Pretty noble of Harrison. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau found him to be the same power presence against the run, and the way Harrison rushes the passer is the way a great hockey player make a power rush to the net, while a defenseman tries to ride him over to the board. Both athletes are low to the ground, trying to cut off the angle to the passer (for Harrison) or to the net (for the hockey player).
But after not playing effectively a year ago, and turning 36, I wondered if his play this fall was a surprise to him. “I can’t say I’m shocked, where I’m at,” he said. “I’ve done this before. After games, you’re sort of questioning why you do, because you get so sore. I’m old and slow. Like I’ve said, this is God’s work, not mine.”
James Harrison, the key to another Pittsburgh playoff run. Of all the surprising story lines in 2014, this is a big one.