Third ring eludes Harrison, but he's adamant he's not done

MINNEAPOLIS -- James Harrison made a lonely walk down to the Super Bowl postgame media podiums, his dream of winning a third Super Bowl ring dashed moments before by the upstart Eagles.

It was a strip-sack that wound up being the key defensive play -- maybe the only defensive play -- in this game. But it wasn't Harrison, who has made a career-long habit of that play, who had done the deed. It was Philadelphia's Brandon Graham who got a key sack of Tom Brady with 2:09 remaining in the game that helped seal the 41-33 victory here at U.S. Bank Stadium.

And Harrison, the Steelers' all-time sack leader who signed with New England days after being released Dec. 23, was left with that empty feeling he had had in 2011 in Dallas. It was the Steelers who came up one play short on that day against Green Bay.

This time, it was another team in green that did the deed.

"Man, I didn't expect that, but they did a great job. They did a great job," said the 39-year-old Harrison. "They did a better job of executing their offense than we did of executing our defense."

Harrison did what he hadn't done in some time -- play nearly every snap. Even with the Steelers in the past couple of seasons, he was in more of a time-share. But in this game, he was out there from the start, rushing off the right edge.

"Pretty much every play except when we were in goal line," he told me of how much he'd played.

I asked him when he learned he would play that much.

"I knew it all week," he said.

But like the rest of the New England defense, he was powerless to stop what the Eagles were running at him most of the time. Philadelphia's 41 points were the most scored against a Bill Belichick-coached defense in a postseason game. So were the 538 yards gained by Philadelphia.

The Eagles punted just once in the game following their only three-and-out. And even that came after New England had botched a field goal, so no harm, no foul.

And despite being on the field for nearly all of Philadelphia's 71 offensive snaps, Harrison's stat line read one tackle, one assist. He also had two quarterback hits. But the Patriots failed to sack Philadelphia backup quarterback Nick Foles, who was named the game's MVP after throwing for 373 yards and three touchdowns. They certainly didn't rattle him.

"They played better than we did," Harrison said. "It was pretty simple. They ran the ball well. They used play-action well. And we didn't stop it."

I asked Harrison if this just steeled his decision to want to return next season, something he had told me earlier in the week. There was no doubt about that.

But where?

"I'll play for anybody who wants me," he said. "It doesn't matter. I just want to play."

Whether he gets that opportunity now remains to be seen. His performance Sunday night wasn't terrible. But it wasn't great, either. Nobody on either defense will want to put much of this game in their personal highlight film, other than the fact that the game was played on the biggest stage.

But it's hard to walk away after losing like that.

"I don't know," Harrison said when asked how long it's going to take to get over this particular loss. "It's probably going to take a while. This is how it goes, somebody wins, somebody has to lose."