To anyone out who there thinks the lockout is boring, it’s time to fasten your seat belts.
Steelers linebacker James Harrison doesn’t appreciate the league’s decisions to fine him for hits that Harrison insists were legal, and Harrison likewise doesn’t appreciate the league’s efforts to expand the rules in a way that could get him fined even more. The focal point of his frustration is Commissioner Roger Goodell, and Harrison has unloaded on the man in charge of the game as part of a new interview with Men’s Journal magazine.
“If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it,” Harrison said, per the Associated Press. “I hate him and will never respect him.”
Harrison also called Goodell a “crook” and a “devil” and a “puppet” and a “dictator.” Harrison also described Goodell with the use of what the AP calls an “anti-gay slur,” a clumsy articulation of what most people describe simply as a “gay slur.” (Unless there’s a new slur that is used to describe folks who don’t like gay people. . . . Maybe Harrison called Goodell “Michele Bachmann.”)
Harrison likewise said that, if the Steelers had won Super Bowl XLV, he would have whispered this particular sweet nothing in Goodell’s ear: “Why don’t you quit and do something else, like start your own league in flag football?”
But Goodell isn’t alone in feeling Harrison’s wrath. Harrison calls former Patriots standouts Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison “clowns.” Harrison also claims that Texans linebacker Brian Cushing is “juiced out of his mind.”
Hell, some of Harrison’s venom even splashed inside the Pittsburgh locker room, with the Pro Bowler criticizing running back Rashard Mendenhall and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for their performances in the February loss to the Packers, which kept Harrison from using the fairly lame “flag football” line on Goodell. (He should have gone with “jerk store.”)
It looks like I have to go find a copy of Men’s Journal. And it sounds like there won’t be many left on the shelves this month.
UPDATE: Our buddy Paul Pabst of The Dan Patrick Show has found the photo that accompanies the story. Apparently, Harrison is ready for that next “bang-bang” play.