{"id":8303,"date":"2014-09-24T18:05:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T18:05:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-09-24T18:05:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T18:05:53","slug":"steelers_take_heat_for_re_signing_james_harrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/09\/24\/steelers_take_heat_for_re_signing_james_harrison\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Take Heat for Re-Signing James Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: So the Steelers have got some linebacker problems. They lost a couple on Sunday night in Charlotte against the Carolina Panthers. They lost one of their great rookies, Ryan Shazier, number 50, and a second-year player, Jarvis Jones, just coming into his own, dislocated or broken wrist, gonna be gone at least eight weeks. Not known how long Shazier is gonna be gone. <\/p>\n

The Steelers played an amazing defensive game Sunday night. They shocked everybody the way they played. So they want to keep the momentum going. They\u2019ve gone back to old number 92, James Harrison, who announced his retirement from the Steelers back in September at a formal ceremony at Steelers facility. <\/line><\/p>\n

Now, Harrison, for those of you that follow the game, know that he\u2019s been in trouble with the league before because this guy was a headhunter. He followed the rules, but he hit with his head, he led with his head. He laid a bunch of guys out and he got fined repeatedly. He was on highlight reels called “Jacked Up” back when ESPN used to make stars out of guys that laid other guys out. That\u2019s before they were guilt tripped in the whole concussion business. <\/p>\n

So it\u2019s time to bring back James Harrison. They gotta give him a physical. They gotta negotiate a new deal with him. That\u2019s being done. But then somebody said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, James Harrison, didn\u2019t he hit a woman once?” And right here it is, USA Today<\/a>: “At a time of heightened sensitivity in the NFL about domestic violence, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says he expects no problems with the team\u2019s decision to re-sign a player who has an issue in the past that has parallels to Ray Rice\u2019s.<\/p>\n

“Linebacker James Harrison admitted to police in March 2008 he broke down a bedroom door, slapped his girlfriend in the face and snapped her cell phone in half during an argument the Steelers said at the time was over whether to baptize Harrison\u2019s son, according to the criminal complaint. Allegheny County prosecutors dropped charges of simple assault and criminal mischief against Harrison after he entered into domestic abuse counseling and the girlfriend, Beth Tibbott, said she did not wish to pursue further charges.<\/line><\/p>\n

“Steelers chairman Dan Rooney faced scrutiny at the time for applying a double standard when the team cut receiver Cedrick Wilson hours after his own domestic violence arrest less than two weeks later. But the Steelers stood by Harrison, and the NFL didn\u2019t suspend him.”<\/p>\n

So naturally at the press conference yesterday, they asked Mike Tomlin about this. They want to know here, what\u2019s the deal bringing back Harrison? The question was, “I know it\u2019s been seven years, but it\u2019s a different climate now with everything going on around the league. What went into the thinking about standing by James Harrison when he had his incident when it hasn\u2019t been the case with other players.” Meaning, they let Cedric Wilson go, they kept Harrison. <\/p>\n

Look, everybody knows the answer to the question. Harrison can play. It\u2019s why the Ravens wanted to keep Ray Rice. He can play. It\u2019s one of the — I hate the phrase “dirty little secrets,” but everybody knows. They invested a lot of money. They invested a lot of time with Harrison. Harrison spent 10 years with the team, getting cut numerous times. He really worked his way up to a starter position and may in fact have the greatest play in Super Bowl history, a 100-yard interception return against the Arizona Cardinals. Anyway, here\u2019s what Mike Tomlin had to say.<\/p>\n

TOMLIN: It\u2019s been seven years, and it is a different climate. I\u2019ve discussed directly that climate change with James, but knowing James over those seven, eight years, he\u2019s grown a lot, as has his lady, and I don\u2019t anticipate that being an issue at all moving forward.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Obviously not or they wouldn\u2019t have brought him back in this climate, as you say. And there haven\u2019t been any subsequent issues with James Harrison since that incident seven or eight years ago. Now, in light of that, you know, last week I think in the heat of all of this discussion about Ray Rice domestic violence, et al, in the National Football League, I referenced a piece I\u2019d read in the New York Post by Phil Mushnick<\/a> in which he pointed out that every one of these players in the NFL that\u2019s been accused of or charged with some form of domestic violence is a college man. <\/p>\n

They all come out of college. What was going on in college? Were they not trained? Were they not educated? Did they engage in this behavior in college, was it looked the other way? I remember, just as an illustration of this, I don\u2019t know how many, five years ago now, maybe, six, time flies, the former coach at the University of Tennessee, Phillip Fulmer, one year, 21 players on his team were arrested for various problems with the law.<\/p>\n

He was driven to frustration and he actually had a press conference. He said he couldn\u2019t understand why young men with such a unique and great opportunity to play football at Tennessee and perhaps end up playing on Sunday in the NFL and all that could mean to them economically, financially, he couldn\u2019t understand why young men would just throw that all away in one night. <\/p>\n

Now, the odds are he did. I don\u2019t want to put words in his mouth, but the point is, these guys all come from somewhere. My point back then was, the NFL doesn\u2019t turn these guys into this kind of behavior; they arrive that way. And in many cases, it\u2019s the same way on college campi. They arrive that way. So what is it that is happening in their lives that they arrive with these behaviors intact, and why is it that there hasn\u2019t been any discipline meted out prior to that? <\/p>\n

Well, one of the answers to that is — and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen it in your life. A young kid, could be as young as 11 or 12, exhibits rare athletic talent and skill. It could be pitching a baseball, could be hitting one. It could be throwing a football. It could be swinging a golf club at a hundred miles an hour. It could be anything, but once it is spotted, those kids are immediately focused on and coddled and shaped and formed and everything is done for them to ensure that they have every chance to take that skill or athletic talent as far as they can. <\/p>\n

So it\u2019s looked the other way if they cut class, they don\u2019t go to class. People don\u2019t pay attention. They are coddled, and they very rarely are said “no” to. They\u2019re not subject to the discipline everybody else is, and they grow up expecting that kind of reverential treatment. You\u2019ve seen it, you know exactly what I\u2019m talking about. Let me give you an example of this. This is not bad, it\u2019s just an example. When I worked for the Kansas City Royals, an incident, it was funny in a way, it was charming in a way, but it\u2019s still illustrative. <\/p>\n

Every off season various clubs have awards banquets and dinners to keep interest in baseball alive during the cold and snowy winter months. They\u2019ll bring in award winners from around the league to come in for a big banquet and dinner and they\u2019ll show video highlights from all the players from outside of town. We had a guy that was invited to go to the Milwaukee awards dinner, and it was in January. Well, there weren\u2019t any direct flights from Kansas City to Milwaukee, so the player had to go through Chicago. <\/p>\n

The player had never been in an airport, even though he traveled with the team. It\u2019s all charters. A bus takes you to the airplane. A bus picks you up at the airplane. A bus takes you to the hotel, where you are met by an official with your room key. You don\u2019t even see the front desk. You get on the plane. The plane flies. The plane lands. You get on a bus, go right to the hotel. You\u2019re given your room key. You go up to your room. You never check in. You never check out. You never see your luggage. It\u2019s done that way for convenience. <\/p>\n

If you have to move around a lot of people, that\u2019s the way you do it. It\u2019s not done to treat \u2019em like kings; it\u2019s for efficiency. But this poor guy didn\u2019t know what to do once he got off the plane Chicago. He\u2019d never changed planes. We had to ask him, “What signs are you seeing?” I just mention that as an example of how a lot of them end up being sheltered and protected from when they\u2019re very young and exhibit this kind of talent. <\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s all leading up to this story. This from Alabama.com<\/a>. I just got this about 25 minutes ago. “Auburn University Reportedly…” Now, keep this in mind: It\u2019s at Alabama.com, state rivalries and all that. So we\u2019ll take this under advisement. “Auburn Reportedly Recruiting Defensive Tackle Dismissed by Georgia Over Assault, Family Violence Charge.” Now, I\u2019m not gonna mention the guy\u2019s name \u2019cause I don\u2019t know how true this is, but I\u2019m just gonna read you the story. <\/p>\n

“It appears [X] is working his way back into SEC circles. Auburn is reportedly keeping tabs on the 6-foot-5, 320-pound defensive tackle, who was dismissed from Georgia\u2019s program in July. [He] was arrested and charged with aggravated assault\/family violence and was subsequently dismissed by the Bulldogs. It wasn\u2019t his first run-in with the law, as he was also one of four players arrested after trying to double-cash scholarship checks in March.<\/p>\n

“While his legal issues have yet to be resolved, [X] is currently on the road to redemption at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in” Mississippi. So the point here is while everyone\u2019s focused on the Ray Rice incident in the NFL, this is a little nugget here for you: Auburn and LSU are both trying to recruit X, who used to play at Georgia. <\/p>\n

The coach dismissed him from Georgia after he was arrested for punching his girlfriend in the face. Does that sound familiar? So you wonder where these players with these attitudes come from. As Mushnick said, they\u2019re all college men. Where does this start? So the NFL gets blamed here, but as I said, the NFL is not creating this atmosphere of behavior, this climate of behavior. <\/p>\n

They may have been looking the other way in certain instances, tolerating it, but they\u2019re not starting it. In fact, I\u2019ll just say one more time: The NFL, in many cases, is probably the first real formal workplace discipline that a lot of players have ever encountered. It\u2019s required to stay on the team. I\u2019m talking about discipline at the facility, not in your off-hours or private life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: So the Steelers have got some linebacker problems. They lost a couple on Sunday night in Charlotte against the Carolina Panthers. They lost one of their great rookies, Ryan Shazier, number 50, and a second-year player, Jarvis Jones, just coming into his own, dislocated or broken wrist, gonna be gone at least eight weeks. 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