“It’s a big issue as far as what happened and everything, it’s a sad story. But the fact of it being part of the guns, they want to say it’s guns and all this other stuff. It’s ridiculous. (Belcher) did it. And he alone is responsible for it. It has nothing to do with the guns. Somebody goes out and kills somebody with a knife, you going to blame the knife? Somebody goes out and kills somebody by pushing somebody in front of a train, you going to start cutting off the guy’s arms? You going to start blaming people’s arms now? It’s the person who did it who is responsible.” – Steelers Linebacker James Harrison [via app.com]

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45 COMMENTS

  1. I better not hold my breath waiting for Bob Costas to interview James Harrison at half-time this Sunday.

    • Linebackers (like Harrison) and Offensive Linemen (believe it or not) actually tend to have above average IQ’s. They have a physical job, but they also have to rapidly process a lot of information. Middle Linebackers are like the quarterback of the defense, they read the offense and call defensive plays. Offensive linemen have to know every play.

      When I was a kid the Patriots had an offensive lineman who was a Dentist in the offseason, he still practices in Boston.

    • Alan Page played defensive end for Notre Dame, graduated and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. Played defensive tackle for the Vikings and the Chicago Bears. Earned his law degree (J.D.) while playing for the Vikings, went to work in the legal profession when he retired from pro football. Currently is an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

      He certainly does not fit the stereotype of a dumb jock.

    • As a guy that was/is athletic (although I guess since I did solo sports I’m not a jock?) and whose brother is a jock, that stereotype always bothered me.

      Yes, I lift big heavy weights and have done martial arts.

      That doesn’t mean I can’t read, write and reason, or that I’m merely a felon-in-waiting.

      • Yeah, it’s funny how willing the “tolerant, diversity loving” news media is to perpetrate stereotypes of people who do things the media doesn’t like – such as athletes and gun owners.

  3. Its a little ironic how oftentimes football players are portrayed as musclebound brutes (often by liberal media types).

    I wonder how many liberal media types can wrap their heads around the basic common sense (clearly and concisely stated too) encapsulated in this man’s statements.

    • Sorry but it seems most liberals and anti gun idiots I’ve met or open their mouth fail and refuse to use or understand “Common Sense”, it seems like a lost cause sometimes. I usually keep my mouth shut around them, I already deal with enough stupidity as it is.

      • No, you have it wrong. Anything that does not result in heavier restrictions on guns is not common sense. Up to and including any/all studies showing that gun laws have little to no effect on criminal gun use.

        Seriously though, no gun grabber worth their salt is going to let facts cloud their overly emotional issue. Think of the antis as 13 year old girls – emotions are everything. Scary = bad.

      • Well said. Of course, the NRA and conservatives can respond all they want, but you won’t hear the response in any mainstream channels. Oh wait, if Rush or Ann Coulter shoot their foul mouths off, you’ll hear that.

      • Dammit! THIS is the man the Republicans should have run for President! ZONATION spoke more truth and real common sense in under five minutes than we heard in the whole 2 year Presidential Campaign we just suffered through.

        His comments about Planned Parenthood being a Democrat plot to control the African American population fits right in with my belief that the Democrats don’t actually want to help Black People, just keep them on the dole, let them keep killing each other in the urban ghettos, and keep them voting for Democrats. It’s the biggest Con Job of the last Century and this one.

      • Well spoken, but I could have done without the liberal vs. conservative gibberish as well as the Planned Parenthood tangent. I understand that on the gun issue liberals tend to be on the wrong(er) side, but that doesn’t mean that so-called conservatives are any less attractive from a broader standpoint.

        • You do understand that Planned Parenthood was founded with the almost singular goal of reducing “undesirable” populations right? That’s not a secret, the founders and even some executives there today are fairly honest about it, if you look at some of the things they say.

          Nazi Germany borrowed eugenics from us, now we’re borrowing it back. I do not like Republicans but the way Dems stand up as this force for equality against racism makes me sick because they are just as guilty as everyone else in power of being afraid of the unknown and what that unknown might do to them if sufficiently provoked with tyranny.

        • Your understanding is more simplistic than reality. While Sanger was a noted proponent of eugenics, and thought whites were superior to blacks (though according to Wikipedia she still prohibited bigotry in her facilities), her motivations were clearly based on caring for the victims of botched abortions and witnessing the boom of venereal diseases in the wake of the first world war. Furthermore, her focus was always contraception, not abortion.

          I agree that the woman’s views were wrong, but this guy’s postulation that planned parenthood as it exists today is there as some kind of underground plan to cull blacks is ridiculous. I choose life, and I think there’s almost always a better choice than abortion, but this guy’s approach is wrong, and his little piece on it was, as I said, tangential.

  4. Its better that the players speak up, because I saw an interview with “Roger Goodell” yesterday asking him to “do something”. To his credit he is setting up a way for players to get Psychiatric care and remain on the roster but he also wants to do away with kickoffs and while the interviewer pushed him on why so many players have guns (USA Today this morning had the same meme) he stuck with getting his players help but I can see the anti-gun crowd trying to make him ban players from having guns (at least make noise about it)

  8. Maybe the NFL should ban helmets and pads to reduce injuries. After all, it’s the personal protection equipment, not the players that are hurting each other.

    • You kid, but I think players would be quite a bit more reluctant to turn themselves into human cruise missiles with less/no protective gear which would slow down the speed of impacts and might very well reduce or at least change the types of injuries these guys get.

      • There is some research that suggests head injuries increased when football went from leather to plastic helmets, and increased again when face masks were added.

        The thing most people don’t realize is just how fast the average NFL player is. There are 280 lb dudes who run 4.5 40’s. When guys like that hit other guys helmet on helmet it can’t be doing their brains any good.

        Before modern protective gear guys were much more careful about not spearing folks with their heads, now they use their helmet as a weapon.

  9. I’m a New England Patriots fan through and through. But I just became a fan of James Harrison. Well done, sir. Well done.

  10. Once again I am a Steelers fan!!! The man is awesome. Thank God someone in the sport spoke up with the real reason that shit happened.
    Hey Costas…can you interview Mr James Harrison this weekend?? Maybe tell him what you think about fun control and Javon Belcher??
    @Drama why would you put something that nasty in your jockstrap??? 🙂

    • And it’s a sad day when a professional football player — let alone a Steelers player — is the voice of moral wisdom and personal responsibility….

      • Actually like stated earlier on here most players have fairly high IQ. Yea I understand what you are saying but on the same note I have a lot of respect for him because he does have the cajones to stand up and tell the truth regardless of what Costas and them other dipsticks would have us believe in the MSM’s puking out lie factory.
        And just a little addendum to this..I got an email this morning from MAIG wanting me to support Bob Costas and MAIG and to donate to them so they can stop the senseless violence brought on by so many unneeded guns and illegal firearms in the United States!!!
        Sent them a reply kindly thanking them to stay away from my Constitutional Rights and to please quit spreading lies and falsehoods for the proliferation of their fascist agenda!!
        Haven’t heard back from them yet!!!

        • Here is a copy of the email I got from MAIG this morning. What a bunch of dipsticks!! Hope it copies right on here!!

          Dear Mark,

          NBC Sportscaster Bob Costas never planned to be in the spotlight for talking about common sense gun laws. But if his critics think they can scare him into being quiet, they are sorely mistaken.

          Even after people like Glenn Beck and Ted Nugent tried to discourage him, Costas has done interview after interview making it clear that he stands by what he said on Sunday Night Football.

          On the O’Reilly Factor on Wednesday night, Costas shared the hard truth: roughly 40% of gun sales in this country don’t have to go through a background check under federal law.

          And on MSNBC, he said that even if people disagree with him, talking about gun violence is a conversation our country needs to have.

          Can you help keep this conversation going by sharing the following infographic with your friends and family?

          Click here to share the image on Facebook.

          Or, click here to post it to Twitter.

          If we don’t have this national conversation, our leaders will not do what it takes to prevent the 34 gun murders in America every day, even though respecting the Second Amendment goes hand in hand with keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

          Please keep the conversation going by sharing this image today.

          Thanks for spreading the word,
          Mayors Against Illegal Guns

  12. Disclosure: I am a lifetime Steelers fan.

    Kudos to Harrison. I remember when Mike Tomlin was picked as the new coach, and all I knew was obscure assistant with the Vikings? I was worried. Needlessly.

    I heard he has one rule for player behavior. ” Don’t be the guy.”

    They have been and are a character team. It doesn’t always show in their record, but on average you can tell. Nitwits and misfits never stay. I am proud of them.

      • He was a problem, they had several meetings with him to discuss his future and told him to straighten out and even threatened to trade him off in the draft and since then he hasn’t been an issue.

        If he was a nitwit or a misfit, he’d have kept being one and been gone.

  13. Disclosure: I am a stark-raving mad Packers fan.

    However, I respect the work ethic and attitude of a certain James Harrison all the more.

  14. “Somebody goes out and kills somebody by pushing somebody in front of a train, you going to start cutting off the guy’s arms?”
    — No silly. It is the trains that must be banned.

  15. “Its a little ironic how oftentimes football players are portrayed as musclebound brutes (often by liberal media types).”

    Its been my observation that liberals often aggressively and angrily ‘covet’ what others have that they don’t posses (and in this case it is possibly athletic abilities). I’ve also observed that liberals rationalize their right to ‘steal’ from others whether it is physical property and wealth or the theft of beliefs, values, and liberties. I’m not a religious man yet I do respect the traditional teachings for their values about ethics and morals.

  17. This made me even more proud to be a Steelers fan.

    By the way, I think we need to start banning trains now, especially high passenger capacity trains.

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