If you haven’t been paying attention, you’ve been missing out. Roger Goodell has constructed a web of lies surrounding Ray Rice and everything is falling apart. I won’t bother recounting everything, because it’s all over the internet already and the story keeps changing (as the NFL has to keep digging this hole deeper with more and more lies).
What got everyone in Steeler Nation fired up in one way or another was this tweet courtesy of the recently-retired James Harrison.
@nflcommish ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun huh?
— James Harrison (@jharrison9292) September 10, 2014
Several people were quick to point out that Harrison himself got in trouble for domestic violence a few years ago, and reveling in the massive backlash against Goodell makes him a hypocrite. Hold that thought.
James Harrison isn’t saying a dang ol’ thing about domestic violence. He’s not commenting on Ray Rice. He’s watching the fall of a man who has tormented him for most of his career. When Goodell proclaimed he was going to crack down on player quarterback safety, he was judge, jury, and executioner. Certain players became targets, and James Harrison became the man who was constantly made an example of with fines and suspensions. You know that, I know, and James Harrison knows that.
But now, the commissioner has played God for too long, and it’s finally coming back to him. Having been with the NFL for so long, and in charge of it for a decade, it looks like our Dear Leader is under the impression that he is the highest law in the land, and his failure to act sooner on Ray Rice suggests that in his world, violence again women is only a minor offense for which a slap on the wrist is punishment enough.
But this world, where the NFL commissioner reigns supreme, is not the real world, and instead of just football fans complaining about Goodell’s heavy-handed approach to everything that matters least, it’s New Jersey law enforcement and the Associated Press, rightfully outing the NFL as a dishonest organization, at the head of which is Roger Goodell.
So when James Harrison watches the world turn on a man he has openly hated for years, as we demand he be stripped of his position and exiled in disgrace, if Harrison decides it’s a good time to kick the man while he’s down, well, I can’t blame him at all. Is he a paragon of virtue? Absolutely not. He’s no angel, but I can completely sympathize with his hatred for the man who removed a substantial amount of money from his salary every year. In fact, I won’t really be surprised if the NFL reflexively tries to fine Harrison for his comments, even in retirement.
Tweet on, Silverback.
