James Harrison backpedaled on suggestions Thursday that Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin paid his fine for helmet-to-helmet contact in 2010.
Harrison, fined $75,000 for a hit on Mohamed Massaquoi of the Cleveland Browns, said Thursday in a podcast interview that Tomlin left him an envelope after his fine was reduced to $50,000 upon appeal.
The Steelers issued a denial and Harrison’s agent also said the Tomlin payment never happened.
Harrison posted a self-defense statement to Instagram on Friday.
“Wow y’all really comparing what I said to BOUNTYGATE?!? Mike T. Has NEVER paid me for hurting someone or TRYING to hurt someone or put a bounty on ANYBODY! If you knew the full story of what happened back then you’d know that BS fine for a Legal Play wasn’t even penalized during the game. The league was getting pressure because the first concussion lawsuits were starting and they had to look like they cared about player safety all of a sudden. Before that they had been SELLING a photo of THAT SAME PLAY FOR $55 on the NFL website with other videos of the NFL’S GREATEST HITS that the league Profited On back then.
“When the league had to start pretending like they cared about player safety they took all those things down off their website and they started fining guys ridiculous amounts for the same plays they used to profit off of. EVERYBODY knew it — even these same media people and all the fans that were sending money to me and the team to cover the fine. AGAIN AT NO TIME did Mike T. EVER suggest anybody hurt anybody or that they’d be rewarded for anything like that. GTFOH with that BS!!!”
Speaking on Barstool’s “Going Deep” podcast with former Steelers teammate Willie Colon, Harrison said of a helmet-to-helmet hit that concussed then-Cleveland receiver Massaquoi, “The g-est thing Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that. I’m not going to say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”
Steelers president Art Rooney II firmly denied the claim.
Harrison’s agent, Bill Parise, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “Absolutely not. Never happened. I would have known that. It didn’t happen.”
