In the immediate wake of his career-ending injury and amid speculation that he’ll join NBC’s NFL broadcast team, it seems like Rodney Harrison would have no need to manufacture a presence in the headlines. You’d think, anyway.
(”What do you mean, I can’t give a receiver an ass full of pipe wrench if he comes over the middle?! You’re all a bunch of nancy boys!”)
For whatever reason, though, he’s out there making a name for himself in the press, this time by coldly slandering the very sport that made him ludicrously wealthy over the last decade or so. You see, according to the USA TODAY, Harrison’s just too much man for the NFL to handle:
“Football now is turning into a soft, pansy sport. This is not volleyball! This is not tennis! This is some of the biggest, fastest, strongest men in the world. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. I went out on my own terms. It won’t bother me anymore.”
Harrison’s complaints are largely centered on the boatload of fines handed out for what he perceives to be clean (or at least necessary) hits. The NFL disagrees, of course.
The timing of Harrison’s comments is curious, to say the least. Considering the most famous rule change of the off-season has been the outlawing of the low hit that wrecked Tom Brady’s knee in Week 1 in 2008, we’re not sure why Harrison is taking his stance so strongly. After all, the league is basically protecting Brady, or the very player who catapulted Harrison into relevance (sorry, but nobody’s going to care what Rodney has to say if he’s on 5-11 teams all his career), and Harrison’s going to thank Brady by telling him he was hit cleanly and there was nothing wrong with the play? The master of the Retaliatory Cheap Shot sees nothing contradictory with that notion? Really?
Harrison also wants to see the disparate treatment of defensive players evened out by having more former defenders in the front offices of the NFL, which isn’t a terrible idea. When it comes time to dole out fines, someone does need to stand up for a defender making a hard, tough play that ends in injury and remind the league to penalize the act, not the result. That’s a fair statement to make, and one that also doesn’t substitute elementary school insults for nuance. Harrison would be wise to learn the distinction.
1:29 pm on June 8th, 2009
Rodney is absolutely right. I read more of what he said and one of his biggest complaints is he can aim to give a guy a forearm to the chest but if he curls up like a little girl he could get a penalty for hitting him in the head. Too many times defensive players are unrealistically expected to pull back or aim for small areas at lightening speeds. Meanwhile a runningback gets no penalty for putting his head down and plowing thru the line.
2:12 pm on June 8th, 2009
YEAH MAN! Harrison sucks nuts !
2:17 pm on June 8th, 2009
harrison is correct. Football was meant to be tough, not to make sure the biggest names don't get hurt. I played quarterback in the Big East Conference (when it had Miami, VT, and BC - not the pu ssy conference it now is) and the hit that took Tom Brady out was clean. It was unfortunate for sure, but it was nor dirty. The DT was trying to get to the QB any way that he could, which is what he is supposed to do. As with everything else in this country, football is becoming soft as well.
3:13 pm on June 8th, 2009
There are also a number of rules protecting defensive players that no one talks about (clipping, chop block, crackback, etc.). Ask defensive players if they would like those dropped, and I think they would stop complaining.
My point is that the conversation always seems to be one-sided despite the fact there are rules protecting both sides of the ball.
12:47 pm on June 9th, 2009
The difference is those rules or there because the defensive players don't have the ball and wouldn't be expecting a hit in the back or being held up by one guy while another guy takes his legs out. They have the same rules for all offensive players. But when somebody has the ball they should be fair game. If you don't want your star to get hit, use one of your other 10 guys to protect him or don't give him the ball.