The Patriots’ James Harrison pushes the Jaguars’ Allen Hurns out of bounds during the first half. - AP

Steelers

Lolley: Harrison heading to Super Bowl? Now that's a season capper

By Dale Lolley

Jan 22, 2018 • 12:01 am

9.6K

As soon as James Harrison helped bring down Blake Bortles for a sack in the fourth quarter of New England's 24-20 AFC Championship win over Jacksonville, social media came alive.

Best that could be ascertained between the curse words calling Mike Tomlin an idiot, many of the Steelers' fans are now unhappy Harrison was released, signed by the Patriots and headed to the Super Bowl.

Man, what a difference a month makes.

When he was released and it came out he had been a defiant, unhappy employee, many fans were upset because Tomlin took so long to get rid of a player who, at least according to his teammates, had been a problem going all the way back to training camp when it became apparent the team wasn't going to use him.

Could Harrison have helped at times this season? Sure. But he also happens to play the same spot as T.J. Watt. And with Harrison now 39, they weren't going to ask this old dog to learn any new tricks.

There were certain situations in which the Steelers could have used a situational pass rusher in place of Bud Dupree. And, in fact, they did do that at the end of a win at Heinz Field in what was his final game in a Pittsburgh uniform. But when Harrison wasn't playing as many snaps as he felt he deserved, he apparently was a problem. So Tomlin eventually rid his team of its all-time sack leader.

The thing many Steelers fans feared -- Harrison going to the Super Bowl -- has become a reality, even if it didn't come with the ultimate indignity of him beating the Steelers to do so.

We bring all of this up because Tomlin has, at least according to some, lost control of his locker room because Le'Veon Bell reportedly skipped the team's walkthrough the day before a 45-42 loss in the AFC playoffs. OK, according to the report, he didn't skip it altogether. He showed up for the final five minutes.

And social media blew up over this report -- which was buried in the final three paragraphs of the lengthy original story -- because it fit a narrative that Tomlin has no control over his locker room.

Just so we're clear, when Tomlin cuts a player who is being a problem, Tomlin gets ripped. And when he reportedly doesn't do anything with Bell, it's because he has no control over the locker room.

There's a lot of anger going around involving the Steelers right now. It's natural when a team fails to meet expectations. And this team was expected to contend for the Super Bowl.

But the rewriting of history is something that drives me crazy.

For example, Bill Cowher went from 1998 through 2004 -- seven seasons -- with three playoff wins and also had three losing seasons. He benched Jerome Bettis in favor of Richard Huntley, Amos Zereoue and Duce Staley. Bettis, like Harrison, wasn't happy about it. But, unlike Harrison, he didn't cause problems.

Chuck Noll spent the entire 1980s chasing the success he had earlier in his career. From 1980 through 1991, the Steelers won all of two playoff games and had four seasons with a losing record. He went 12-30 in his first three seasons. Would he even survive in today's coaching climate?

This is not to say Cowher or Noll were bad coaches. They weren't. In fact, they were among the best of their generation. So is Tomlin.

But some have tried to argue that since Tomlin's teams have won three playoff games in the past seven seasons -- all of which have come in the past three seasons, by the way -- that is somehow unacceptable or should be unacceptable for a storied franchise such as the Steelers.

As shown in the case of Cowher and Noll, the Rooney family is nothing, if not patient. They aren't going to cave in to any pressure to fire their head coach.

So was not using Harrison more this season a mistake? Yes and no.

The Steelers had to play Watt and Dupree as much as possible. They spent first-round draft picks on them. Harrison was brought back this season in case Watt -- or whatever rookie they selected at the position -- wasn't ready to be a full-time player. And in the case of Dupree, they have to make a decision about whether or not to pick up his fifth-year option during this offseason. How could they possibly make that decision if they had him splitting time with Harrison?

For better or worse, they had to play Dupree to see what they had. Now, having seen a full season out of him, it's doubtful they pick up that option. But they had to find that out. Dupree, as he did at the NFL Scouting Combine, looks the part of an NFL outside linebacker. But he doesn't always play that way.

Tomlin could have gotten creative and found a way to utilize Harrison more. That's part of being a head coach. You find ways to utilize your entire roster.

But let's say he gets Harrison 10 to 15 snaps per game. Would it have been enough to keep him happy?

That's what we don't know.

There's no doubt the Harrison situation was mishandled by Tomlin. But Harrison could have handled it better, as well, just as Bettis did.

• I tried to think of a Super Bowl matchup that would be worse for Steelers fans than Patriots vs. Eagles but couldn't come up with one.

It also will include two players Tomlin released for what basically amounted to insubordination. So either Harrison is winning a Super Bowl with the Patriots or LeGarrette Blount will do so with the Eagles.

• It's no coincidence Harrison wound up as angry at Tomlin as he was at Cowher earlier in his career. Remember, it was Tomlin who finally made Harrison a starter in 2007. Tomlin's first move as a head coach was to release Joey Porter and make Harrison a starter.

• As for the Bell thing, it's curious that nobody else is reporting anything close to what was reported in the Post-Gazette. It's also curious the information was buried at the bottom of a story on the crazy season the Steelers had. If the reporter, in this case, Ed Bouchette, thought he had airtight information on that, would he have buried it? If the guys on the sports desk thought it was airtight info, would they have left it at the bottom of the story?

It seems awfully convenient that a couple of days after a story comes out saying some of the team's limited investors want Tomlin gone citing a lack of discipline, an anonymous source from a closed-to-the-media practice session releases information that makes Tomlin look bad.

It's also very convenient the player in question is the team's highest-profile free agent who turned down a big contract extension in the offseason. It sounds very similar to the stories last offseason about Antonio Brown not being a good teammate when the team was negotiating a new contract with him.

• According to ESPN's Chris Mortenson, Todd Haley is a very serious candidate to become the new offensive coordinator in Cleveland.

Save all of the jokes. Haley would do a good job with the Browns. And Cleveland has two top-five draft picks and a ton of salary cap space.

WHAT'S BREWING

• Matt Gajtka's back home from California, but he's got a good look this morning at the importance of getting Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary going.

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