Former Pittsburgh Steelers OLB James Harrison was a modern-era semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the third time this year, but he failed to advance to the finalist stage. With the path to making the Hall of Fame only getting more difficult, it doesn’t seem as if Harrison will wind up in Canton, and that’s just fine with him.
“If I get there I get there. If I don’t, I don’t. I really don’t feel like I belong because of the numbers, to be honest with you,” Harrison said on The Pivot Podcast. “They’re not up there where they should be. But the biggest thing for me is that I made my dad proud. And that’s all that matters to me.”
Harrison’s 84.5 sacks aren’t a super low number that would keep him out of the Hall of Fame, but it’s a number that’s lower than six outside linebackers who are in the Hall of Fame and is also lower than Terrell Suggs, who is also vying to make the Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame voters can value different things, and it’s not all about the raw numbers. Harrison’s case could be bolstered by his two Super Bowl rings, his 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII and his 2008 Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Harrison didn’t have a super long peak, but he was inarguably one of the best players in football from 2007-2011. He was an All-Pro in four of those years and made the Pro Bowl all of those years, and his dominance over that stretch could also help garner him votes.
But given that he hasn’t advanced to the finalist stage yet, it’s going to be tough with more players becoming Hall of Fame eligible and the harder standard for induction. Ultimately, Harrison wasn’t a player who burst onto the scene and immediately made an impact, instead spending time in NFL Europe and biding his time as a backup in Pittsburgh until he earned a larger opportunity in 2007.
Had he had more success early in his career, his stats would almost undoubtedly be good enough for him to be worthy of induction, but for a player who made his debut in 2002, it took five seasons for him to have more than 3.5 sacks in a season, largely due to the fact that he was raw coming in as an undrafted free agent and played behind a lot of talented pass rushers in Pittsburgh.
The stats are a fair enough argument on keeping James Harrison out of the Hall of Fame, even if there are good arguments for why he should be in. But it’s not something he’s losing sleep over, and likely being kept out of the Hall isn’t something that Harrison seems to care all that much about.
