The NFL has done a lot of work to take out the kind of body-bag hits that used to happen from time to time. If you look back through the lore of the NFL, members of the Pittsburgh Steelers have been at the forefront of some of the rule changes. There was the Mel Blount rule in the late 1970s to stop cornerbacks from mugging wide receivers. The Hines Ward rule in 2009 to prevent crackback blocks. And then finally a rule inspired partially by James Harrison in 2010 to prevent helmet-to-helmet contact and big hits on quarterbacks.
There were many big hits that Harrison delivered throughout his career, but one that instantly comes to mind is his crushing blow to Cleveland Browns WR Mohamed Massaquoi. For a refresher, here is the hit below.
It was one of those hits that would result in an ejection and likely a suspension in today’s NFL. Harrison debates this point, but he left his feet and launched to Massaquoi’s head and neck area. He knocked the ball loose for an incompletion, but it came with a penalty.
Harrison is very forthright when he explains his intentions behind these types of hits.
“I don’t want you out of the season, but I want to do my best to make sure you don’t finish that game,” Harrison said via The Pivot Podcast.
In some ways, Harrison and Mike Tomlin jokingly put blame on Ryan Clark for the fine that Harrison ended up receiving from the league office.
“He started doing the [rain] dance,” Harrison said. “I ain’t lying though, that’s how I got fined.”
Clark chimed in with his side of the story.
“When Deebo hit him, God forgive me ’cause I was wrong now looking back at it, he shut his lights off first, but not his body. So his body was still going through the motions. So he just fell to his knees,” Clark said. “I started spinning around in a circle.”
Tomlin made sure to point out to Clark in a team meeting that “we can’t dance around dead bodies.”
Harrison ended up getting a $75,000 fine and becoming the talk of the NFL world. Partially because of the hit, partially because of the dance, but perhaps also because of how it was portrayed in the media. He thinks a Sports Illustrated cover contributed to his public perception in a big way.
“They actually elevated me two, three feet off the ground,” Harrison said of Sports Illustrated allegedly exaggerating the way that he launched at Massaquoi. “When I hit him, my toes barely came up this high. They elevated me like this. It’s no way I coulda hit him like that. He was already crouching.”
I will let you guys be the judge on this one. It doesn’t look like Harrison gets that high in real time when watching the video, but the SI cover looks pretty much the same as the cover photo of this article above.
“Back then, if I had knew they were gonna fine me $75,000, dude, I would’ve did everything I could to try and make that the most grotesque hit that the NFL had ever seen,” Harrison said. “Because I only gave him 30 to 40 percent.”
That’s a frightening thought that Harrison was holding back on this hit that clearly turned the lights out for Massaquoi. It wasn’t the first hit that got Harrison suspended, but it definitely factored into the decision of repeat offenses. This put him on the map as a dirty player, as you can see with “CONCUSSIONS” in all caps on the Sports Illustrated cover behind the photo of his hit.
Harrison puts some of the blame on the optics of Clark dancing or the alleged altering of the magazine cover photo, but fines and suspensions were probably inevitable for the five-time Pro Bowler. He was a 1970 throwback player who happened to be playing in the era of player safety as the science behind concussions became clearer. He was vocal in his displeasure on how the league handled this, but it was always going to be a losing battle.
