Former Pittsburgh Steelers defender James Harrison claims that longtime coach Mike Tomlin gave him “an envelope” of an unspecified nature after Harrison was fined for a vicious hit on Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi in a 2010 game.
In a podcast disseminated by Barstool Sports, Harrison admitted to former Steelers teammate Willie Colon that Tomlin gave him something to help ease the sting of the $75,000 fine from the NFL for the hit.
Colon asked Harrison what the biggest fine he ever got in a game was, and the intense former EDGE immediately brought up the hit on Massaquoi.
Or, in Harrison’s words: “Yeah. Dude, how are you going to fine me? Dude, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, everything I love, on my daddy’s grave, I hit that man with about, max, 50 percent of what I had and I just hit him because I wanted him to let loose of the ball. If I had known it was going to fine me $75,000, I would have tried to kill him.”
He continued,
“Dude, I’m telling you. 75 (thousand)? And I ain’t going to lie to you, I ain’t going to lie to you, when that happened, right, and the G-est thing Mike Tomlin ever did, he handed me an envelope after that. I ain’t going to say what, but he handed me an envelope after that.”
Steelers ownership vehemently denied any knowledge of the alleged envelope incident.
Massaquoi suffered a concussion on the play.
The hit in question, courtesy of Yahoo!:
