This time it will probably stick.
James Harrison, the Steelers' all-time sacks leader, announced on social media Monday he is retiring. It marks the second time Harrison will have done so. But this time, the Steelers are unlikely to coax him into changing his mind as they did in 2014.
Harrison made his announcement on Instagram, posting along with numerous photos of his children, James and Henry, "I’ve missed way too much for way too long. I’m done. Many thanks to my family, coaches, the fans, and everyone who played a role in my football life.”
Harrison, who turns 40 next month, played 15 seasons in the NFL, 14 of which came with the Steelers, who signed him originally as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Kent State. He did not initially make the team's roster and was cut several times, hopping on and off the team's practice squad and also signing with Baltimore one offseason. The Ravens sent him to NFL Europe, where he contemplated retirement at that time.
But an injury gave Harrison new life with the Steelers, who re-signed him in 2004 when Clark Haggans arrived at training camp the next season with a broken hand suffered while lifting weights.
He would go on to appear in 193 games, record 84.5 sacks -- 80.5 with the Steelers -- and win the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2008. That also was the same year he made the biggest defensive play in Super Bowl history, intercepting a Kurt Warner pass at the end of the first half of Super Bowl XLIII and returning it 100 yards for a touchdown in Pittsburgh's 27-23 win.
That play forever etched his legacy in Pittsburgh sports history. But, things weren't always rosy.
The team released him after the 2012 season when he refused to take a pay cut and he wound up signing with Cincinnati for less money than the Steelers were offering. After a lackluster season with the Bengals, Harrison announced his retirement the first time at age 36. But injuries at the linebacker position forced the Steelers to give him a call to see if he'd reconsider, further cementing his legacy with the team.
That legacy was tarnished, at least to some of his teammates, late last season when Harrison forced his way off the team's roster Dec. 24 after playing sparingly over the course of the season.
Several teammates said Harrison made it apparent he no longer wanted to be a part of the team and began acting out in an effort to gain his release.
"He erased his own legacy here, let's be serious," center Maurkice Pouncey said.
Harrison signed with the New England Patriots, appearing in one regular season game and recording two sacks on back-to-back plays at the end of a win over the Jets. He then started the Super Bowl for New England, coming up short of winning his third Super Bowl when the Patriots lost to Philadelphia.
Harrison told me at the Super Bowl he understood where his former teammates were coming from when they spoke out about him.
"They're talking from emotions. They were hurt," Harrison admitted. "You don't get surprised when someone is talking from emotions of being hurt."
But he also didn't agree with Pouncey that he had tarnished his legacy with the Steelers, mentioning another former great, Franco Harris, who signed with Seattle at the end of his career in 1984 after holding out of training camp with the Steelers that year.
"Ask Franco, I guess," Harrison said when asked if he thought he had tarnished his legacy in Pittsburgh.