Former Pittsburgh Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison says that Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin handed him an envelope following his big hit on then Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi back in 2010, according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor.
Harrison made the comments during an appearance on Barstool’s “Going Deep” podcast. Harrison initially was fined $75,000 for the hit on Massaquoi, who suffered a concussion on the hit. There was no flag on the play.
“The G-est thing Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that,” Harrison said during the show. “I’m not going to say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”
“Listen, on everything I love, on my daddy’s grave, I hit that man with about 50 percent of what I had, and I just hit him because I wanted him to let loose of the ball,” Harrison explained. “If I had knew they was gonna fine me $75,000, I would have tried to kill him.”
Harrison saw an increased fine for being what the league deemed as a “repeat offender.”
Steelers president Art Rooney II issued a statement not long after Harrison’s comments hit the news cycle.
“I am very certain nothing like this ever happened,” Rooney said in the statement. “I have no idea why James would make a comment like this but there is simply no basis for believing anything like this.”
The NFL infamously fined the New Orleans Saints for rewarding players for big hits in what is known as ‘BountyGate’.
