James Harrison Is One Rich Mofo
By chris
I’ve never seen James Harrison laugh. And if he did, we wouldn’t be permitted to acknowledge it. Even though the above posted skit was probably the best thing on Saturday Night Live since “Lazy Sunday,” I wouldn’t want to be Kenan Thompson if he ran into him on the street. A comedian would die in New York City.
James Harrison is a serious man with serious business. And as of today, he’s getting paid some serious money. The Pittsburgh Steelers have resigned their Pro Bowl linebacker to a whopping 6 year $51.175 million dollar contract which on paper makes him the highest paid LB in the NFL. Obviously not all of that is guaranteed money so he may not see the full value of the contract but he does receive a $20 million signing bonus for his efforts. Not bad for an undrafted free agent.
Normally, I’d be slightly dubious of such a long term contract but not so much in this case. Although Harrison is 31 years old, his football mileage is fairly low. He’s only been starting for two years so there should be a lot of gas left in the tank. The Silverback went Donkey Kong on opposing quarterbacks 16 times last season and would’ve had about 45 sacks if he wasn’t mugged raped held on almost every play. He and fellow bookend linebacker LaMarr Woodley are the most fearsome pass rushing duo in the NFL.
Harrison’s contract extension was the #1 priority for Director of Player Personnel Kevin Colbert this off-season. Meanwhile, the Steelers have now gone that entire period without signing one player not already on their roster. I guess they’re not going to even try to improve upon last year.
Oh. Right.
In other free agency news, backup QB Byron Leftwich took his ball and went home… To Tampa Bay. Looks like we’re going to try and muddle through the year with Charlie Batch (who is also unsigned although seems to be generating zero interest around the league) and second year man Dennis Dixon. A lot of people seem worried that if our often sacked QB misses some time, we’ll be in trouble with those as our back ups. I disagree because I believe DD is a huge talent waiting to be unleashed. Granted he only played in the preseason last year but what we saw was positively Kordell Stewart-esque. If you’re a loyal reader, you know in my book that’s a GOOD thing.
Finally, in a news item related to my previous post, the Baltimore Ravens are now asking the NFL not to schedule any games with the Steelers in the morning, afternoon, early evening, or any day that ends in the letter “y” since they’ve already wussed out on nationally televised night games. In fact, they’d prefer all games be decided by a best of three rock-paper-scissors in order to spare their clumsy and fragile players any further humiliations at the hands of the Black and Gold.