James Harrison still holding a grudge over fines
If the NFL had thought that fines would act as a deterrent against hits that might be too hard even for the NFL, then their plan failed.
Research into the effects of head injuries among football players had left the league scrambling to protect its image. Early on in the regular season, the NFL started handing out ridiculous fines for hits to the head in an effort
to make the game safer. The NFL started with Pittsburgh Steelers’ hard hitter, James Harrison.
In week six, Harrison was fined a mind-numbing $75,000 for a helmet-to-helmet hit against Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver, Mohamed Massaquoi. The hit knocked out Massaquoi and he suffered a concussion. In the same week, two other
players were slammed with $50,000 fines for helmet-to-helmet hits.
Since then Harrison has been fined a total a total of $125,000 for various hits. “I felt like they might have been looking for a poster boy to implement their rule, and they just chose me,” Harrison said at Super Bowl XLV media
day on Tuesday. However, NFL was quick to deny singling out Harrison.
“Neither he nor anyone else was singled out. But he was a repeat offender and he was held accountable for that,” NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, Ray Anderson said. The league was hoping to change the way
players play the game to make it safer. They believe they have been successful to an extent.
“We clearly over the course of the season saw players changing their approach- lowering their targets, refraining from gratuitous hits,” Anderson said, adding that players adapted their techniques to play within the rules. He said
that the stricter implementation of rules and the heavy fines had the desired effect in guaranteeing compliance with the rules.
Harrison disagreed with the implications and met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during the regular season to try to understand what the league wanted him to do. He came out of the meeting only more confused.
Harrison explained to Goodell that no player ever wants to injure another player and that hits to the helmet were almost unavoidable. He further added that the hit to Mossaquoi was a result of that. The league told Harrison that
being the contact-making player, it was his responsibility to readjust to a last second adjustment.
Harrison said that even if he wanted to change the way he played the game, he could not do it on most plays because the game happens so fast. Goodell has said that in his opinion Harrison is not a dirty player. The NFL even reduced
the $75,000 fine down to $50,000 after Harrison appealed. Nonetheless, he was still bitter about the fact that the league took $100,000 out of his pocket.
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