Injuries Thrust Harrison Into a Starting Role Again

Thursday, August 11, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Coaches dread injuries to their players the way cotton farmers fear boll weevils, which makes yesterday's statement by the Steelers' linebackers coach so surprising, on the face of it.
"We were fortunate," Keith Butler said, "that Clark broke his hand."

Since Clark Haggans starts at left outside linebacker, that might rank with breaking the hand that feeds him. In the larger scheme of the Steelers' defense, though, his words ring true.
Because Haggans' hand was broken a week before training camp opened last year, the Steelers scrambled to find an outside linebacker. They signed veteran Adrian Ross and, three days before reporting to training camp, added a body they picked up from the unemployment line by the name of James Harrison.

All Harrison did was help save a 15-1 season by starting four games, playing special teams as if they were life and death and shooting up the depth chart to where he's the top backup at three positions. Yesterday, he was elevated to the first team at right outside linebacker because Joey Porter had surgery for torn cartilage in his knee and is expected to be out for a month.
"In my mind, he's a starter in this league," Butler said. "He's going to be the fifth guy for us. If somebody gets hurt, he's going in."

A crew in Philadelphia is filming a Disney movie about Vince Papale, a bartender who made the Eagles as a 30-year-old walk-on in the 1970s. That crew could as easily turn its cameras on Harrison at this end of the state. While younger than Papale when he got his break and having played the game well at Kent State, Harrison nevertheless seemed like a lost NFL cause before Haggans' injury.

Harrison went undrafted in 2002 and signed with the Steelers. He made it to Sept. 1 but was released. He hung around on the practice squad and was added to the roster Dec. 17. Back again in '03, he made the final roster but was released before the first game when they signed a player at another position. Put back on the practice squad, he was released Dec. 7 and did not play the rest of the season.

The Baltimore Ravens signed him early in '04, sent him to NFL Europe and released him before giving him much thought.
Apparently, the NFL had no need for a linebacker who stood slightly under 6 feet, no matter that he played football the way a Doberman plays with a rabbit.

Harrison did not know Chuck Noll, but he was about to follow his advice and get on with his life's work when Haggans' hand was broken while lifting weights. He came to camp and quickly and aggressively started climbing up the depth chart and over people such as Ross and '03 second-round draft choice Alonzo Jackson.

"We asked him to know outside linebacker and inside linebacker, and he did that," Butler said. "He made himself valuable on special teams. And in preseason games, he did really, really well, knew what he was doing, didn't make many mistakes.
"He made it a situation where we couldn't cut him."

Harrison led everyone with 15 unassisted tackles on special teams, 23 in all. When Porter was ejected for a pregame fight in Cleveland, Harrison started, sacked the quarterback and contributed five solo tackles and a quarterback pressure. He started the final three games for an injured Haggans and made plays everywhere, including an 18-yard touchdown return in Buffalo with a fumble.

Over the past 10 days, he has shown none of it is a fluke. He shreds blockers as if they are cardboard cutouts and, in a blocking drill they call "backers on backs," no running back has effectively stopped him.

Harrison, 27, practices every play as if it were his last.
"Well, it's been his last," Butler aptly noted. "He's been down that road. James has learned. He has a chance to do this and make more money than anything else out there. He's made the most of his opportunities."

He was doing that again yesterday with the first team, even though Porter won't be out long.
"Anytime I can start, I enjoy it," Harrison said. "It's not too flattering the way I got it, but, in this game, things happen and you have to step in."
Steelers linebacker James Harrison runs down the Jets Chris Baker last season.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)