Pittsburgh Steelers Roethlisberger, Harrison Take Different Paths to Respect or Loss of It
By Matt Shetler
"A big part of playing team sports is being a good teammate. Throughout time several guys have made mistakes and have had to take a long path back to earning their teammates respect."
Take the Penguins Matt Cooke for example. His selfish acts last season made him miss the first round of the NHL playoffs. Cooke just didn’t act selfishly on his own behalf, he let his teammates down as well. The Pens could have used one or two more goals in the first-round series loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning a season ago. Cooke might have been able to help do that if he were in uniform.
Way too often in sports these days athletes don’t respect the jersey. Gone are the days where athletes play for the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back of the jersey. Wearing a certain teams colors used to be an honor and a privilege, now it’s simply a paycheck.
Yet a guy like Cooke seems to have learned his lesson and has been a model teammate this season.
The same can be said for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Everyone knows the story about Roethlisberger’s past, which forced him to sit out the first four games of the 2010 season and no one could fault anyone in that locker room who didn’t respect him the way a franchise-player should be respected. But since that time he’s not only re-gained the respect of knowledgeable football fans, but also the guys in that locker room.
You can say what you want about Roethlisberger, but you could never doubt his toughness. He’s displayed that his whole career and it was on display again in the Steelers win against the Cleveland Browns. Roethlisberger’s gutsy performance was a big reason the Steelers are still competing for the AFC North Division title.
Again, here is a guy who’s learned to become a good teammate.
One guy who apparently won’t learn that lesson in Steelers linebacker James Harrison.
Harrison’s success went to his head quick and for the course of the past two season’s has shown nothing except being a selfish player.
I don’t agree with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell often but in the case of suspending Harrison, he hit the nail on the head.
Harrison’s hit on Browns quarterback Colt McCoy was nothing more than an attempt to injure. Maybe six or seven year’s ago that would have been considered a good football play, but that was then and this is now. Harrison is one of the only players in the NFL unwilling to play by the rules, so good for Goodell in suspending him. Apparently fining him just doesn’t get the message through properly.
The Steelers have a big game against a good San Francisco team Monday night where a loss could put them two-games behind the Baltimore Ravens and they must do so without the services of one of their top defensive players.
It’s crunch time of the NFL season and once again Harrison put himself ahead of the team. Good teammates don’t do that.
So while the Steelers will be battling to stay in the AFC North race, Harrison will be watching. At least for him it will give him plenty of time to mouth off on Twitter or throw his teammates under the bus during interviews.
At the end of the day football is still a team game and Harrison doesn’t get that.
If it was a “Me,” game he would be the leagues best player.
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