TTP wrote:Also, I haven't seen anything stating that JH wasn't practicing. Dupree said he left games when not dressing and didn't attend team meetings. I'm not sure if this can even be true. How could Tomlin let that go? There are plenty of examples of players around the league being disciplined for being late to meetings let alone missing them all together. If Tomlin was letting this happen, then he deserves a ton of criticism in this mess.
I doubt any of us will ever know the whole story and most likely what we hear will be influenced by the perception of the person telling the story. That said, here are my thoughts:
- Porter saying JH hadn't been promised a certain % of snaps since 2015 may or may not be trues but it actually sounds pretty reasonable. You tell a guy how much he'll get to lure him out of retirement but that's about all.
- The fact that Butler's scheme requires OLBs to drop into coverage more likely impacted the number of snaps he got. Add in no special teams play and that further reduced his opportunities.
- Regardless of the contrary opinions here, I personally don't believe the staff would keep him on the bench or inactive of they thought they had a better chance of winning with him playing.
- James made a great & important play against KC but the other times he was on the field he was JAG and he was terrible against the run in the Ravens game. Father time eventually catches up with everyone, even JH. That said, realizing that your performance has declined is a skill few people have and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that James' opinion of himself doesn't match the staff's.
- If true, any of skipping or sleeping through meetings, trying to show up other players with workouts the trainers would let anyone else do and being unwilling to mentor younger players is inexcusable - if all are true that's even worse.
- James has always marched to a different drummer and was often kind of a jagoff. It was great when it worked ion our favor but it pretty much sucks now.
- After seeing Harrison make a FB post on Monday about how great it was to be home with his sons on Christmas, I wondered if the staff had tried to throw him a bine by cutting him and letting him stay home for the holiday knowing they wouldn't use him in Houston.
- We'll never know but it is possible Tomlin's discipline of JH for the things mentioned above was deactivating him but choosing not to publically humiliate him by announcing it was punishment. When James complained on TV and kept doing those things the situation may have become untenable, forcing the coaching staff's hand.
Harrison has been one of my all-time favorites and I have his jersey with the SB XLIII patch (wore it when I went to the Bungles game this season figuring it was his last) and I was really disappointed this happened so close to the end of the season. I will always appreciate his "big moment" sacks and the SB pick six will live with me forever. Even so, hearing the stories from his teammates over the last two days has certainly impacted my impression of him.
The sad thing is that he probably would have been hailed as a hero by the fans & media had he retired as a Steeler after the season. I don't see a way he can come back and do the "sign & retire" thing with the Steelers, just too many burned bridges. On the other hand, the Pats fans could give a rip about him and Belecheat will use him for what he can and throw him on the scrap heap so he will most ;likely never get the big sendoff he deserves.
