- [Narrator] James Harrison and Roger Goodell
represent the perfect example of a workplace dynamic
going to shit.
Employee severely breaks the rules,
boss man lays down a punishment,
leaving the employee to respond
with an extremely pointed threat.
It's a sure-fire recipe for beef.
(dramatic music)
Even if you casually watch the NFL,
you've more than likely seen this dude
awarding Super Bowl winners
or getting booed yearly at the draft.
This is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
But what exactly does he do?
Well as a CEO of the NFL,
he's responsible for the day-to-day operations
with duties such as securing TV deals, stadium development,
and ensuring the league is functioning smoothly for growth.
More plainly, Goodell is a meat shield
for the 32 extremely wealthy team owners.
His mission is to help line their pockets even more.
Media experts and fans alike have criticized Goodell
for not truly having the interest of the game
as his primary focus.
He's justified that criticism often throughout his tenure,
disregarding the very people
who put their bodies on the line to keep the league going.
In 2011, during the NFL lockout,
while attempting to reach a fair contract,
NFL players collectively sent a letter
addressed to Goodell, accusing the commish
of operating in bad faith.
To have an entire group that you preside over
trash your name probably speaks a lot to your character.
It's no surprise that a person
in that position of power is hated,
but the dislike typically comes from the faceless masses.
For a player to single out Goodell,
they would have to have a special disdain for him
at the cost of potentially being targeted by the league.
James Harrison didn't care.
Throughout his life, Harrison has never been talkative,
equipped with an uninviting scowl.
But when he does speak, he aims to intimidate.
Before games in high school,
Harrison would run over to the opposing team's sideline,
point to his freshly shaven bald head
and tell them they wouldn't make it out alive.
He kept that same energy throughout college,
playing with an immense physicality,
not afraid to challenge some of the NCAA's brightest stars.
Between his size, attitude, and a few other question marks,
it took him getting cut four times
before finally sticking in the pros.
He stayed relatively out of the spotlight
his first three seasons, but when he became a starter in 07,
Harrison blossomed into an elite defender,
gaining the reputation
as one of the league's most fearsome players.
Off the field, Harrison had his issues.
In 08, he was charged with assault,
stemming from a domestic violence altercation.
The charges were later dropped,
but the arrest brought into question
if Harrison deserved a suspension.
The NFL didn't have a domestic dispute policy at the time,
leaving it to the team's discretion
whether players should be suspended.
For Pittsburgh, that sadly wasn't much.
All Harrison had to do was take responsibility
for his actions to avoid missing games.
The franchise clearly thought Harrison's talent
outweighed his off the field issues.
His behavior between the lines was revered by coaches
and teammates for setting the standard
on how the game should be played.
However, within the league office, they felt differently.
In 2010, during a week two matchup
against the Tennessee Titans,
Harrison and two of his teammates ripped into the backfield
and did a three-way body slam sack on QB Vince Young
that resembled a damn wrestling move.
The blow left Young on the field for a few seconds,
but no flag was thrown.
Nonetheless, a few days later,
the NFL hit Harrison with a $5,000 fine.
The fine wasn't surprising
with the NFL attempting to crack down on hits to the head,
but it was strange that Harrison alone had to pay the price.
To him, the sack was just another tackle
he could add to his montage
that wasn't worthy of coming out of pocket for.
That hit was only the beginning.
In a week six game against the Browns,
Harrison led with the crown of his helmet
and collided with receiver Josh Cribbs, knocking him out.
Then later that same game, launched himself like a torpedo
and sidelined receiver Muhammad Massaquoi.
Neither hit was penalized and after the matchup,
Harrison felt proud of his performance.
He never went out on the field to purposely injure anyone,
but it was his mission to hurt people.
There's a difference.
Harrison believed the hits were textbook tackles
and thought it would be an outrage for the NFL to fine him,
which is exactly what they did.
His outing that week
and the increase in the amount of concussions in the NFL
sparked Goodell to send out a league-wide memo
announcing that players could face hefty fines
and potentially suspensions for illegal tackles
to the neck and the head area.
Less than halfway through the season,
Harrison had been fined twice,
and with the rule changes contemplated retirement.
Harrison for sure put a target on his back
by taunting the league with comments about hurting people,
but it was a one-sided convo.
As commissioner of the league,
Goodell was proud of enforcing the rule changes.
It wouldn't be the best look for him
to openly fire back at Harrison,
but what he could was continue laying down the law.
By Harrison's third fine of the season,
he got called to the principal's office
for a meeting with Goodell.
According to Harrison, their linkup was semi-productive,
giving him the opportunity to voice his opinion
and better understand the rules.
Although by most accounts, the meeting was a disaster
and Harrison finished the season
having to pay a record-breaking amount in fines.
Despite building a reputation
in the league office as a malicious player,
Harrison finished his heavily fined 2010 season
as a Pro Bowler and appeared
in the second Super Bowl of his career.
The Steelers wound up losing the big game
and Harrison spent the off season outraged,
not because of the outcome,
but because he was stripped of the opportunity
to trash Goodell to his face.
Harrison's hatred for the commish ran so deep
that he spent nearly an entire feature-length profile
in Men's Journal dedicated to ripping Goodell.
During the scathing piece, Harrison pushed back
on the idea of him being a dirty player
and the person steering that narrative was Roger Goodell,
who he considered a crook and a puppet.
If dissing the commish with harsh labels wasn't enough,
Harrison presented the strange image
that if Goodell was on fire,
he would rather let the man burn than take the opportunity
to piss on him to put out the flames.
More than having to cut checks for the league,
what enraged Harrison the most
was Goodell's lack of knowledge
in knowing the ins and outs of the game.
During their initial meeting, Harrison found it pointless
to try and describe the proper way to tackle
to someone who's never been in the trenches,
and when he did try to break it down for Goodell,
that devil wouldn't listen to him.
Clearly still fuming, Harrison later accused Goodell
and the league of targeting him
and his Pittsburgh teammates,
going on to call Goodell a number of things,
including punk, dictator, and an anti-gay slur.
In response to his claims,
a league official pointed out that a number of other players
had been hit with fines,
but didn't comment further past that.
It may not seem like much,
but the NFL offering even a crumb of info
regarding Harrison was telling.
The Men's Journal piece was published
during the 2011 NFL lockout, meaning outside of the draft,
there were no league events
for the NFL to speak on said matters.
They purposely chose to acknowledge Harrison.
But the commissioner called the shots
and once the 2011 season kicked off,
it appeared that as much as he despised Goodell,
Harrison had cleaned up his act. At least until week 14
when Harrison set a new mark for himself.
During a matchup against the Browns,
after quarterback Colt McCoy got flushed out of the pocket,
Harrison leveled him with a thunderous hit to the helmet
that left McCoy lying flat on his back.
This time, Harrison did receive a penalty,
but after the game, he insisted the tackle was clean
because McCoy became a runner.
The NFL clearly disagreed.
Harrison became the first player to ever be suspended
for an illegal endgame hit,
a suspension that was ultimately Goodell's call,
but one Harrison didn't think he deserved.
However, following the suspension,
things seemed to die down between our beefers.
Sure, Harrison challenged the commissioner
on whether or not he actually cared about player safety,
but Harrison began to approach the twilight of his career
and mostly steered clear of the commissioner's office.
Goodell had other pressing issues to deal with
over the years, but in late 2015,
Harrison once again found himself
in the league's crosshairs.
The Steelers linebacker was among the names
of athletes linked to an Al Jazeera report
with claims of performance-enhancing drug use.
In the report, Charlie Sly,
who is identified as a doctor of pharmacy,
alleged that Harrison received a drug called D-2.
Although, a few days after the initial claim,
Sly walked back his comments
and Harrison strongly denied any involvement.
Doping allegations are something
the league certainly didn't take lightly,
launching a months-long investigation into the matter.
But Goodell digging deeply into a case
with little to no evidence
proved just how much he'd been burnt on major cases
in the past.
In 2011, Goodell was granted the ability to be the judge,
jury, and executioner for suspensions.
After that, he's fumbled some noteworthy decisions.
In 2014, Goodell massively bungled the Ray Rice dispute
after initially suspending the Ravens running back
for just two games after a serious domestic violence case.
Goodell didn't institute a stern domestic violence policy
until after the Rice debacle already occurred.
The severity of the situation was so bad
that numerous people called for Goodell to resign,
and Harrison used it as an opportunity
to get a jab in on the commish.
The following year,
Goodell once again botched another crucial decision
with his ruling on the deflategate case,
further ruining his reputation in the process.
It's because of those mismanaged attempts,
that the NFL Players Association
and Harrison especially, didn't trust Goodell
to properly look into his case.
However, that didn't stop the league
from trying to catch Harrison slipping.
Over the course of the investigation, Harrison found himself
on the wrong side of several random drug tests.
He never tested positive for PEDs
and responded to the randomness of the exams,
taking to Instagram to say
the league insulted his intelligence.
Six months into the investigation,
the NFL advised Harrison to schedule a meeting
to discuss the allegations,
as all players involved were expected and required
to participate.
On behalf of Harrison, the NFLPA shot back
and requested the league provide more evidence
to support their claim.
The head office never supplied such evidence
and Harrison took it a step further,
seemingly mocking the league,
saying he would only do the interview
if it took place at his house
and the commissioner's attendance was mandatory.
Harrison and the league office were at a standstill.
But after clearing Peyton Manning of any involvement,
citing his participation in the investigation,
the NFL issued a threat of suspension
to the remaining players who didn't comply,
something that Goodell ultimately determined
whether and when it could be terminated.
At long last, the NFL officially cleared Harrison
of any PED use.
The NFL found no credible evidence, and in conclusion,
the months-long investigation was nothing but a buildup
of stubbornness from both sides.
Harrison clowned the entire process
throughout the investigation to stick it to Goodell,
but in the end, cooperating with the league
was the final step in clearing his name.
After months of issuing threats of suspension
without any real evidence to back the claims,
Goodell and the NFL kept the investigation afloat
to save face from getting embarrassed
like they did in the past.
It's the exact type of pettiness that sums up this beef.
Harrison's refusal to modify his tackling style
earlier in his career made him an enemy
within the league office,
and instead of bending to the new rules,
he attacked Goodell.
While the commissioner couldn't respond
directly to Harrison, Goodell and the league made it a point
to make him the poster boy for the NFL's crackdown
on hits to the head.
When Harrison retired following the 2017 season,
their issues kind of fizzled out.
Harrison no longer had an authoritative figure to buck at,
and Goodell went back to being hated by the masses.
They no longer had a use for each other.
But when this feud reached its boiling point,
the flames were stoked with savage tackles, fines,
derogatory statements, and a whole lot of beef.
(soft music)
Thanks for watching this episode of Beef History.
If you enjoyed this one, we got plenty of more episodes
for you to check out, so don't forget to like
and subscribe and keep on coming back.
(poignant music)