Report: James Harrison Frequently Skipped Steelers Practice, Would Fall Asleep And Snore During Team Meetings

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It appears that James Harrison was not well liked by his teammates. After Harrison signed with the Patriots yesterday several Steelers players have come forward to blast their former teammate.

Today, Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree described why Harrison was a nightmare teammate.


via CBS Sports

“People going in on coach [Mike] Tomlin, saying the Steelers are stupid for cutting James Harrison, the Steelers are dumb, [Harrison’s] gonna tell the whole — if he tells the whole playbook, that’s his fault,” DuPree said. “I didn’t see him in meetings, so I don’t know if he knows the plays or not.”

“It feels like he went to the Patriots just to spit in Coach Tomlin and Mr. Rooney’s face. That’s all it was to us,” Dupree said. “Like basically you spit on your teammates, you spit on us because the whole season you’ve been shown as someone different than what you were supposed to, so-called, be to us — other than a leader.”

“When someone really doesn’t want to share wisdom with you or share knowledge with you because they feel like you’re gonna take their shine or take their limelight, that’s how we feel,” DuPree said. “We tried to hold back as much as we could because we didn’t wanna jeopardize making him look bad.”

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According to Dupree, Steelers players would get mad at Harrison for posting Instagram videos showing off in the weight room and making them look bad.

“It’s not that we don’t choose to work out like [Harrison works] out,” . “The strength coaches, they won’t even allow us to lift how he lifts. He’s in the weight room, making all those videos before practice, calling us out. Now you’re making them look at us, like, so me and T.J. aren’t supposed to be playing? That’s just how we feel.”

One player told ESPN’s Jeremy Fownler that Harrison would fall asleep and snore during team meetings.

Harrison ended up firing back at his former teammates by claiming that he made a “business decision.

After the first week of the season, I said to them, it’s clear you want to play your younger guys and I understand, so why don’t you release me,” Harrison said. “You go on your way and I’ll go on mine. They said, ‘No, no, no, we got a role for you.'”

“I explained the situation to [Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter] and he said, ‘I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to do something when you’re making a business decision,'” Harrison said. “I made a decision based on what was best for me.”

Jorge Alonso BroBible avatar
Brobible sports editor. Jorge is a Miami native and lifelong Heat fan. He has been covering the NBA, MLB and NFL professionally for almost 10 years, specializing in digital media.