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The steepest in the 4 fines the former Steelers linebacker James Harrison incurred in 2010 stemmed from a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit he sent on Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, knocking him out which has a concussion. The hit went with out penalty on the sphere, though the N.F.L., intent on meting out stiffer willpower for violations of player protection, docked Harrison $75,000 — a minimum of a number of which, Harrison claimed on the podcast Thursday, was offset by his coach, Mike Tomlin.

Harrison, showing on Barstool Athletics’s “Heading Deep” podcast, told his former Pittsburgh teammate Willie Colon that Tomlin — who nevertheless coaches the Steelers — Click for more info slipped him an envelope soon following the fantastic was levied.

“Dude, I’m telling you — seventy five,” Harrison stated, referencing the level of the wonderful. “And that i ain’t gonna lie to you personally: When that transpired, suitable, the G-est factor 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 asked him with regards to the heftiest fantastic he absorbed across his 15 N.File.L. seasons.

“Hear, on almost everything I like, on my daddy’s grave, I strike that male with about max fifty p.c of what I had,” Harrison reported of Massaquoi. “And that i just strike him since I desired him to Enable free with the ball. If I had understood they was gonna fantastic me $seventy five,000, I would have attempted to get rid of him.”

Harrison’s fantastic was afterwards minimized to $50,000. Even though Harrison did not explicitly say what the envelope contained, the mere insinuation that Tomlin compensated him in any way evoked comparison towards the so-termed Bountygate scandal, where The brand new Orleans Saints’ coaching staff was determined over A 3-calendar year period to own made available payouts to defensive gamers who injured opponents, Based on a league investigation. The Saints’ coach, Sean Payton, did not fork out players himself, although the league suspended him for just a calendar year, partially, for not halting the method immediately after he was created aware of it.

It is actually unclear if the league will examine the matter with Harrison and Tomlin; a spokesman to the N.File.L. declined to comment on Friday. League principles stipulate that groups and its users are prohibited from paying out a participant’s fine.

In a press release, Steelers President Art Rooney II mentioned he was optimistic that Harrison’s allegations are untrue. “I'm really certain practically nothing such as this at any time took place,” Rooney said. “I don't know why James would make a comment like this, but there is just no basis for believing nearly anything similar to this.”

Harrison on Friday posted a press release to his Instagram account that seemingly walked back again his previously remark. “Mike T. Has NEVER compensated me for hurting anyone or Seeking to harm somebody or put a bounty on Any individual!” it examine.

Harrison, along with the Hall of Fame security Troy Polamalu, was the snarling encounter with the Steelers’ defense within the 2000s, whenever they gained two Super Bowls. The league’s defensive participant of your year in 2008, Harrison designed a reputation for administering violent hits that teetered around the boundaries of legality. Following the hit on Massaquoi in 2010, Harrison and Tomlin argued that it was cleanse and didn’t merit a great. Tomlin, at some time, also reported he favored more durable penalties and rule modifications to boost player protection.

A member of your N.File.L.’s Competitors committee, Payton, and also the Saints’ Corporation, have had a combative relationship While using the league due to the fact Bountygate, and it's got only deepened, once the egregious non-phone that probably denied New Orleans an excellent Bowl berth next the 2018 year. For the duration of a radio interview on Thursday, Payton all but challenged N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell to analyze the Steelers, declaring he would be “stunned” When the league did and that people “shouldn’t maintain their breath” waiting for it to do so.

“I believe what occurred with us back again in 2011 in so numerous ways was a sham, and yet there wasn’t quite a bit we could do with it,” Payton mentioned on one hundred and five.seven FM in Baltimore. “The gamers were vindicated, but from the league or coaching standpoint, there is no union, there's no illustration.”

He included, “That’ll be something that’s tucked away or underneath the rug at Park Avenue. They’ll explore it briefly. Listen, don’t get me started out on that. I misplaced $6 million in wage, and Truthfully it had been a thing that I’ll hardly ever certainly get over simply because I know the way it absolutely was dealt with And the way it was run and the reasons guiding it. That’s just the truth.”