Paul Solotaroff, the author of the Men\’s Journal article on Steelers linebacker James Harrison, was on “The Opening Drive” this morning with Bob Papa and Ross Tucker to take questions about the explosive article. Solotaroff infers that he left quite a bit of the damaging comments Harrison made out of his piece, including even more of Harrison talking bad about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Solotaroff did say that when he spoke to Harrison yesterday, he had no beef at all with anything he had been quoted as saying.
Papa asked about the misquoted angle floating around and Solotaroff replied, “Well you know, there as been a little bucking and wheeling in the last 24 hours regarding the crack about Roethlisberger, but let’s get clear about that, first of all, I\’ve got way more about Roethlisberger on the cutting room floor here. Better stuff than what I ran. Second of all, there isn\’t a single Steeler on that defense that has a poster of Big Ben on his bedroom wall if you know what I\’m saying. There is a real schism on that team, I suspect, from the guys I\’ve talked to on that defense, between offense and D in Pittsburgh and you know, it’s probably not that different from locker-rooms around the NFL, where the defense thinks every rule in this game is tilted against us. Every fine, you know, as James points out he is been knocked out repeatedly by crack back blocks, not one of those guys has ever been fined a penny.”
Tucker next asked specifically about the report that Harrison called Roethlisberger yesterday and told him his words had been twisted and Solotaroff said, “I told him yesterday, you’ve got to live with that dude for the next three years, you’ve got three very lucrative years left on your contract. You’re the one that\’s got to share a locker-room with him; you’re the one that has to share a sideline with him. Whatever it takes you know.”
We have yet to hear from Harrison and his side of the story as he cancelled his interview scheduled for yesterday evening on Sportscenter once the shit started to hit the fan. Solotaroff made it sound in his interview this morning that Harrison would be making the media rounds on Friday. Those will indeed be some interviews everyone will want to hear, including Roethlisberger.
