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The steepest with the four fines the previous Steelers linebacker James Harrison incurred in 2010 stemmed from the vicious helmet-to-helmet hit he sent on Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, knocking him out by using a concussion. The strike went without the need of penalty on the field, however the N.File.L., intent on meting out stiffer self-discipline for violations of participant protection, docked Harrison $75,000 — not less than some of which, Harrison claimed on the podcast Thursday, was offset by his coach, Mike Tomlin.

Harrison, appearing on Barstool Sports’s “Going Deep” podcast, told his former Pittsburgh teammate Willie Colon that Tomlin — who even now coaches the Steelers — slipped him an envelope soon once the fine was levied.

“Dude, I’m telling you — seventy five,” Harrison explained, referencing the amount of the fine. “And I ain’t gonna lie for you: When that occurred, 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 after that.”

Harrison recounted the Tale unprompted, after Colon requested him regarding the heftiest fantastic he absorbed across his fifteen N.File.L. seasons.

“Listen, on every thing I like, on my daddy’s grave, I strike that male with about max fifty per cent of what I'd,” Harrison mentioned of Massaquoi. “And I just hit him due to the fact I required him to Enable loose with the ball. If I had realized they was gonna good me $75,000, I might have attempted to kill him.”

Harrison’s fantastic was afterwards minimized to $fifty,000. Although Harrison didn't explicitly say just what the envelope contained, the mere insinuation that Tomlin compensated him in almost any way evoked comparison on the so-known as Bountygate scandal, in which The brand new Orleans Saints’ coaching employees was resolute over a three-yr interval to get presented payouts to defensive players who injured opponents, according to a league investigation. The Saints’ mentor, Sean Payton, didn't fork out gamers himself, but the league suspended him for the calendar year, partly, for not stopping the process following he was manufactured conscious of it.

It is actually unclear whether the league will examine the matter with Harrison and Tomlin; a spokesman to the N.File.L. declined to touch upon Friday. League guidelines stipulate that groups and its users are prohibited from paying a player’s fine.

In an announcement, Steelers President Artwork Rooney II stated he was positive that Harrison’s allegations are untrue. “I'm quite certain practically nothing like this at any time occurred,” Rooney stated. “I do not know why James would create a remark similar to this, but there's merely no basis for believing anything similar to this.”

Harrison on Friday posted an announcement to his Instagram account that seemingly walked back his earlier comment. “Mike T. Has NEVER compensated me for hurting a person or Seeking to hurt someone or set a bounty on Any person!” it browse.

Harrison, along with the Corridor of Fame safety Troy Polamalu, was the snarling face of your Steelers’ protection while in the 2000s, if they received two Tremendous Bowls. The league’s defensive player of your calendar year in 2008, Harrison produced a standing for administering violent hits that teetered about the boundaries of legality. Following the strike on Massaquoi in 2010, Harrison and Tomlin argued that it absolutely was clean and didn’t benefit a great. Tomlin, at some time, also said he favored harder penalties and rule improvements to boost participant protection.

A member with the N.File.L.’s Levels of competition committee, Take a look at the site here Payton, along with the Saints’ Group, have had a combative marriage Together with the league considering the fact that Bountygate, and it has only deepened, after the egregious non-phone that likely denied New Orleans a brilliant Bowl berth adhering to the 2018 season. For the duration of a radio interview on Thursday, Payton all but challenged N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell to research the Steelers, stating he can be “shocked” If your league did and that folks “shouldn’t maintain their breath” waiting for it to do so.

“I think what occurred with us back in 2011 in so many ways was a sham, and nonetheless there wasn’t lots we could do with it,” Payton reported on 105.7 FM in Baltimore. “The players were vindicated, but from a league or coaching standpoint, there is no union, there is no illustration.”

He additional, “That’ll be a thing that’s tucked absent or under the rug at Park Avenue. They’ll consider it briefly. Pay attention, don’t get me begun on that. I lost $6 million in salary, and honestly it had been something that I’ll by no means certainly get over because I know how it absolutely was dealt with And the way it absolutely was run and The explanations powering it. That’s just the reality.”