James ‘Deebo’ Harrison Extended By Super Bowl Champion Steelers

James ‘Deebo’ Harrison Extended By Super Bowl Champion Steelers

James Harrison, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL, has agreed to a new contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harrison, who is referred to as Deebo by his teammates in homage to the bully in the movie ‘Friday‘, had been ridiculously underpaid prior to reworking his contract. His new deal will pay him $51.175 million over the next six seasons, a huge increase from the roughly $1.5 million he was scheduled to earn Harrison joined The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday to talk about the new deal, his record setting INT return for a TD during Super Bowl XLIII and other things.

On how he handled being cut by the Steelers after getting a meager $5,000 signing bonus as an undrafted rookie free agent:

“The bonus, that was the most money I’d seen in my life. I thought I was rich then but on getting cut, I didn’t take it hard or cry about it or anything. I figured I’d go back and try to improve whatever it was that I felt got me cut.”

On who should be the highest paid defensive player on the Steelers:

“James Harrison [laughing]“

What does Troy Polamalu think about that:

“Troy, he doesn’t care about money. He likes to sit back, go to church and read the Bible so he doesn’t really care about money. He’s just happy to be here, as I am. Troy could have gone out and gotten a whole lot more money than he did, but a lot of the guys just want to stay here.”

On who is more intense, Coach Tomlin or former Steelers head guy, Bill Cowher – at least in terms of emotional outbursts of rage:

“Rage?? Coach Cowher. There’s no hesitation about that one.”

After DP joked that Cowher would probably run out there and try to be a wedge buster on special teams even at this age:

“Oh yeah, easy. I don’t know if he’d go bust a wedge but he’d go try though. He might get bounced back up out of there.”