James Harrison, already lead quote-dropper of the 2011 Super Bowl and its associated media days, has kicked it into high gear according to the mothership, giving Roger Goodell several pieces of his mind, most of which related to Goodell’s apparent lack of professional football experience.
I’m all for criticizing the NFL—it’s one of my favorite things to do!—but Harrison takes a wrong tack here by assuming that one of the requirements for being the commissioner in 2011 is to have played football at some level. This is the Super Bowl Experience argument writ large, and it’s no more right here than it is anywhere else. In any case, I doubt Harrison thinks “basketball” or “baseball” when he sees David Stern or Bud Selig in a police lineup.
If football players made the rules in football, as Harrison seems to hope, the 2011 Super Bowl’s major question would be how many fatalities we expect to see by the end of it. Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers would probably decide the coin test by having a swordfight.