It’s been a few days now since James Harrison signed with the New England Patriots, sparking a firestorm of reactions across the NFL landscape.
Many Steelers fans, and even one of his former teammates in Pittsburgh, feel like Harrison betrayed them by signing with one of their team’s chief rivals. There has even been some suggestions that Harrison forced his way out of Pittsburgh by not showing up to meetings.
Harrison recently divulged his take, which was that the Steelers broke a promise to him about playing time. Then on Friday morning, via his Instagram account, Harrison doubled down on his criticism of the Steelers.
It’s easy to understand why the 39-year-old veteran was upset about barely being used this year as a member of the Steelers. After all, he’s the franchise sack leader and has been one of the team’s highest performers on defense for years.
However, Pittsburgh was clearly interested in a youth movement this season, and it’s not like the young guys they promoted to play were unable to make a difference.
Now Harrison is with a team that desperately needs help getting pressure on quarterbacks. The Patriots have a banged up defensive front that was very thin heading into the postseason. Harrison should be rested and ready to fill that void, and perhaps along the way he can get a bit of revenge against the team he thinks betrayed him.