You had to figure when Damon Harrison described his release from the Lions as “mutual,” that the relationship wasn’t good.
The more he talks about it, the more obvious it becomes.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Harrison said on the “Green Light” podcast with former NFL defensive end Chris Long that he was never comfortable with the Lions, and tried to gin up a trade last summer..
“I came into camp in shape, but during the first three weeks of camp I think I kind of worked myself out of shape because I wasn’t doing anything,” Harrison said. “That was a time where, to be honest with you, we were trying to facilitate a trade. I was hell-bent on getting out of there.”
The Lions gave Harrison a one-year extension last year, handing him an extra $2.2 million. But he said he wasn’t quite there, and health issues for his wife contributed to his malaise.
“Mentally I was just out of it, man,” he said.
The 31-year-old was sent to Detroit in a midseason trade in 2018, and he said he never felt comfortable there.
“To be completely honest with you, I didn’t want to go to Detroit because of some things that I heard from some guys in the past and some guys who were there,” Harrison said. “So when I got the call that that’s where I was traded, I didn’t answer the phone for a couple hours. [General Manager] Bob Quinn was calling me and I didn’t pick up the phone because I was trying to figure out a way to get out of it. . . .
“It’s nothing against the people of Detroit, the city or anything like that. I’ll forever love the city of Detroit, but I just had to go try to put myself into a situation where I saw myself there for two or three years to end my career, and I just didn’t see myself in Detroit for that long.”
Harrison remains on PFT’s list of Top 25 available free agents, and ostensibly if he signs somewhere, he’ll be more on board with the idea of changing teams this time.