On Halloween, everyone’s entitled to providing one good scare. For James Harrison, every day must feel like Halloween because he’s constantly scaring people. When he was a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Harrison was arguably the most frightening player in the league. His attitude and strength made for an imposing figure. Former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski recently explained why he was terrified to block Harrison.
“With James [Harrison], I knew I couldn’t get into his chest,” Gronkowski explained Thursday on his Dudes on Dudes podcast. “The guy is like a bowling ball.
“You know that 28-pound bowling ball that everyone wants to throw down the lane and just try to knock down all the pins? You kind of do it granny-style and it’s so heavy, you blow out your back? Those are the hardest guys to block in the NFL, especially at my size.”
As funny as the image of Gronkowski throwing a bowling ball like an old woman is, he’s right that Harrison had that kind of build. There’s a reason he went undrafted. He’s listed at six-feet tall, but he’s definitely on the shorter side of that spectrum. Harrison was undersized, and he used that to his advantage.
For all his power, Harrison was an underrated technician too. His ability to get low against offensive tackles was one of his greatest weapons. There are so many examples of Harrison dipping down and ripping through some poor tackle trying to block him.
Gronkowski is a massive man, standing 6-6′ and weighing over 250 pounds. Still, he feared Harrison.
“Therefore, when I’m blocking him. it’s a guy that you just kind of want to get in his way. I’m not going to come off the ball and crush his skull,” he said. “I’m not trying to do that because if I piss him off, if I hit him hard and I trigger him, I’m telling you, he’s going to pick me up and throw me to the next play.”
Even as one of the biggest guys in the league, Gronkowski was not trying to play games with Harrison. That speaks to how intimidating he was. There was no way Gronkowski was going to be able to outmuscle Harrison, so he went with a tried-and-true method of just acting like an obstacle.
Gronkowski is arguably the greatest tight end of all time, and he was a fantastic blocker. Despite that, having any tight end try to block Harrison was a mistake. Offensive tackles had their hands full with him, so Gronkowski could only do his best.
However, Harrison never recorded a sack against the New England Patriots during Gronkowski’s tenure with the team. In four games against the Patriots, three with the Steelers and one with the Bengals, Harrison never got a sack. Although he was a little older by then, Gronkowski still must have been doing something right. Gronkowski may have conquered his fear. He shouldn’t tell Harrison that though.
