Written by Paul Zeise at Pittsburgh Post Gazette.com
James Harrison is a tough guy, and he is having fun on social media these days.
And the reality is he is right to challenge the NFL publicly and call them out about their ridiculous witch hunt for steroids and steroid users.
Harrison was one of the players linked to steroids — others included Peyton Manning, Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers — by an Al Jazeera report in December.
The report claimed that a pharmacist sent shipments of Delta-2, a performance-enhancing drug, to the houses of the players, but the report was recanted by its main source, a man named Charlie Sly, who said that all of the statements are false.
That last part — the fact that it was made clear he was making up stories — is pretty important to me.
Here is what Sly said about the recordings of him that led to these reports: “I am recanting any such statements and there is no truth to any statement of mine that Al Jazeera plans to air. Under no circumstances should any of those statements, recordings or communications be aired.”
In other words, there is nothing true about the report, but yet, the NFL is requesting meetings with Harrison, Matthews and Peppers.
To Harrison’s credit, he isn’t backing down. He has taken his fight public, and, much to the NFL’s chagrin, it seems as if he is winning the public relations battle.
I don’t get the impression he has ever been one to back down from a good fight. He made that point on his Instagram account last night as he wrote that he would agree to a meeting with the NFL but only on his terms:
“I’ve never had a bully before in my life and I’m damn sure not about to have one at this point. But since I am a nice guy and don’t mind helping to clear the air in the name of the NFL Shield, I’ll do this interview. With these stipulations…”
To continue reading this article, click here.
