The steepest on the 4 fines the former Steelers linebacker James Harrison incurred in 2010 stemmed from a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit he delivered on Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, knocking him out which has a concussion. The hit went with no penalty on the field, although the N.F.L., intent on meting out stiffer willpower for violations of participant safety, docked Harrison $seventy five,000 — at least many of which, Harrison claimed over a podcast Thursday, was offset by his coach, Mike Tomlin.

Harrison, appearing on Barstool Sporting activities’s “Likely Deep” podcast, informed his former Pittsburgh teammate Willie Colon that Tomlin — who nonetheless coaches the Steelers — slipped him an envelope soon after the fantastic was levied.

“Dude, I’m telling you — 75,” Harrison stated, referencing the level of the fantastic. “And that i ain’t gonna lie to you: When that transpired, right, the G-est detail Mike Tomlin at any time did, he handed me an envelope following that. I ain’t gonna say what, but he handed me an envelope following that.”

Harrison recounted the story unprompted, following Colon questioned him regarding the heftiest fine he absorbed throughout his 15 N.F.L. seasons.

“Listen, on anything I love, on my daddy’s grave, I strike that man with about max fifty per cent of what I'd,” Harrison stated of Massaquoi. “And I just hit him because I preferred him to Enable loose of the ball. If I had understood they was gonna good me $75,000, I would have attempted to kill him.”

Harrison’s good was later lowered to $fifty,000. Despite the fact that Harrison did not explicitly say just what the envelope contained, the mere insinuation that Tomlin compensated him in any way evoked comparison on the so-identified as Bountygate scandal, in which the New Orleans Saints’ coaching personnel was determined over a three-calendar year period of time to have made available payouts to defensive gamers who hurt opponents, In accordance with a league investigation. The Saints’ mentor, Sean Payton, didn't pay gamers himself, nevertheless the league suspended him for any yr, in part, for not halting the technique immediately after he was built conscious of it.

It truly is unclear whether or not the league will discuss the subject with Harrison and Tomlin; a spokesman to the N.F.L. declined to touch upon Friday. League principles stipulate that groups and its customers are prohibited from spending a player’s great.

In a statement, Steelers President Art Rooney II claimed he was positive that Harrison’s allegations are untrue. “I'm quite sure almost nothing such as this ever took place,” Rooney explained. “I don't know why James would generate a comment similar to this, but there is only no foundation for believing something such as this.”

Harrison on Friday posted a press release to his Instagram account that seemingly walked back his previously comment. “Mike T. Has NEVER paid out me for hurting another person or TRYING to damage anyone or put a bounty on Any person!” it go through.

Harrison, along with the Corridor of Fame safety Troy Polamalu, was the snarling deal with with the Steelers’ defense during the 2000s, if they received two Tremendous Bowls. The league’s defensive participant of the calendar year in 2008, Harrison produced a track record for administering violent hits that teetered cheapjerseysonline.co to the boundaries of legality. Once the strike on Massaquoi in 2010, Harrison and Tomlin argued that it absolutely was cleanse and didn’t benefit a fantastic. Tomlin, at the time, also mentioned he favored more durable penalties and rule alterations to improve player basic safety.

A member with the N.F.L.’s Opposition committee, Payton, and the Saints’ organization, have experienced a combative connection With all the league considering that Bountygate, and it's got only deepened, once the egregious non-contact that probable denied New Orleans a brilliant Bowl berth adhering to the 2018 time. In the course of a radio interview on Thursday, Payton all but challenged N.File.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell to research the Steelers, stating he could be “stunned” When the league did and that men and women “shouldn’t keep their breath” watching for it to take action.

“I do think what befell with us back in 2011 in so many ways was a sham, and still there wasn’t a lot we could do with it,” Payton stated on 105.7 FM in Baltimore. “The players were being vindicated, but from the league or coaching standpoint, there isn't a union, there isn't any representation.”

He included, “That’ll be something that’s tucked absent or beneath the rug at Park Avenue. They’ll explore it briefly. Hear, don’t get me started out on that. I misplaced $6 million in salary, and Truthfully it was something which I’ll never ever truly get over simply because I know the way it had been managed And just how it absolutely was operate and the reasons guiding it. That’s just the reality.”