Less than two days after Steelers linebacker James Harrison created a slow-news-day firestorm with a stream of controversial comments against Commissioner Roger Goodell, teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall, and others, Harrison has apologized for the remarks.
The apology came in a statement released on Facebook and linked on Twitter. He apparently gave the statement initially to Josina Anderson of FOX 31 in Denver.
In so doing, Harrison offers no real excuse for his words. Sure, he says that his words were “pulled out of a long conversation and the context was lost.” And he brushed off the use of a gay slur toward Goodell as merely the utterance of a “slang word.” (There are plenty of slang words that are also inherently offensive.)
But Harrison never says that he didn’t say what he said.
So he said it. And it now remains to be seen whether and to what extent he faces consequences from the league, the team, his teammates, or the fans.
