Even though several recent reports indicated that Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison wouldn’t interview with the league about an Al-Jazeera report claiming he bought and used performance-enhancing drugs until the 30th of August, it turns out that meeting will take place before the team plays their Friday night preseason game against the New Orleans Saints.
According to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Harrison has been informed that his meeting with NFL investigators will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Steelers practice facility.
It was originally reported that Harrison’s interview would take place on the 30th of August and that the NFL would be interviewing Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, two Green Bay Packers players who were also named in the report, on the 25th. Last week, the league had informed the players named in the report that they must submit to interviews by August 25 or face possible suspensions.
After Friday night’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles, an irritated Harrison indicated that it would be fine with him if his interview with the league would ultimately be filmed live for television. That, however, obviously isn’t going to happen.
“I’ve been prosecuted and persecuted, you know, publicly in the media by them for something I didn’t do,” Harrison said Friday night. “So I don’t see why we couldn’t have the media there and do a live interview. They can ask whatever questions they want and I can answer them. You all can see whatever evidence they say they got.”
At this point, Harrison is probably ready to move past this situation with the league and that will happen Thursday in Pittsburgh before the team leaves to go to New Orleans. Even so, I wouldn’t expect Harrison to be overly chatty during his interview and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about what all transpired and what kind of questions he was asked after it is concluded.
