James Harrison Does More Harm To Steeler's Image

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a sexually assaulting, drunk-driving, bin Laden-loving, gun-toting, head-hunting, in-fighting, gay-bashing, finger-pointing rogue outfit. And most of that was just in the past couple of months.

Some of it is just allegations and some interpretation. And this is certainly not a statement on gun control, but instead just about image.

The Steelers' image as the gold-standard of NFL righteousness was always mythology anyway.
But with Hines Ward’s arrest for alleged DUI, Rashard Mendenhall’s tweets about the U.S. not hearing Osama bin Laden’s side of the story and Ben Roethlisberger’s lingering bad-guy standing, things were changing. Now, after James Harrison’s cover story in the upcoming issue of Men’s Journal, it has all added up to a new image for the Steelers. They have touched on, danced on, stomped on, just about every part of the stereotype of athletes behaving badly. It tops off with Harrison’s cover photo.

Imagine what NFL commissioner Roger Goodell must have felt Wednesday morning when he saw Harrison, the guy he has held as an example of dirty play, on the cover of a magazine, arms folded across his chest, holding a gun in each hand under the headline: “Confessions of an NFL Hitman.”
Highlights in the article include Harrison calling Goodell a devil, a thief, a dictator and a puppet, and saying “If that man was on fire and I had to (urinate) to put him out, I wouldn’t do it. I hate him and will never respect him.”

And this about Harrison’s own quarterback, Roethlisberger, who threw big interceptions in the Super Bowl: “Hey, at least throw a pick on their side of the field instead of asking the D to bail you out again.

Read the full story and view his interview HERE