MINNEAPOLIS -- Wearing his white New England Patriots windbreaker, James Harrison was all smiles Monday night during the opening night ceremony for the Super Bowl here at the Xcel Energy Center.
The 39-year-old former Steelers outside linebacker said he holds no ill will toward his former employer or even the co-workers who seemingly kicked him out the door following his release two days before Christmas.
He's come a long way from being the guy I spoke to in early December who said he wouldn't have re-signed with the Steelers had he known what his role in Pittsburgh was going to be. That James Harrison was surly. That James Harrison was obviously unhappy. That James Harrison didn't want to be in Pittsburgh any longer.
"I just kind of got back into enjoying what football was," Harrison said Monday night as he prepares to play in his fourth Super Bowl and first one not in a Steelers uniform.
How jovial was Harrison? Here's an example as he answered questions about where he worked out after joining the Patriots, just the sort of question he would have bristled at in previous years:
That wasn't the case in Pittsburgh. Harrison sulked through the 2017 season, lost on the team's depth chart at outside linebacker. He played just 40 snaps in five games for the Steelers before his release, something about which he was obviously unhappy.
Following his release and signing with the Patriots, a number of his former teammates let loose on Harrison, saying he was everything from a bad teammate to a player who would fall asleep in meetings.
"He wanted that," said center Maurkice Pouncey. "James Harrison wanted that. It wasn’t like the team came out and said we wanted to cut James. He wanted that. He needs to come out and admit that. It’s funny to read the stories. This is something he wanted to do. … He erased his own legacy.”
Harrison didn't deny falling asleep, at times, saying, "who doesn't?" but denied claims made by former teammate Bud Dupree that he was asleep in a recliner during linebacker meetings.
"We don't have recliners, so it's not possible," he said.
Obviously, there were some bad feelings among his former teammates when he signed with a hated rival. But Harrison said he harbors no such ill will on his side of things -- at least for his teammates.
"They're talking from emotions. They were hurt," Harrison admitted. "You don't get surprised when someone is talking from emotions of being hurt."
As for his legacy in Pittsburgh -- where he still plans to live once he finally retires, whenever that might be -- Harrison isn't concerned.
"I don't know," he replied when asked if he wondered if his legacy with the Steelers had been tarnished. "Ask Franco, I guess."
The Franco to whom he referred is Franco Harris, who was released by the Steelers in 1984 following a contract holdout. But, unlike Harrison, who signed with a hated rival, Harris signed and played one more half-season with the Seattle Seahawks, a team on Pittsburgh's pay-no-mind list.
And the Seahawks didn't go to the Super Bowl after signing Harris. In fact, he rushed for just 170 yards in eight games for Seattle that season.
Harrison, meanwhile, has been a contributor for the Patriots, recording two sacks in the regular season finale against the Jets and then recording six total tackles in playoff wins over Tennessee and Jacksonville.
It's made Harrison want to come back and play again next season at 40 -- and perhaps beyond that. Maybe even for New England, just further rubbing salt in the wound for Steelers fans.
"I think I might want to give it at least another year, maybe two," he said. "If that's (with the Patriots) what it happens to be, great. If not, not. I'm just sitting back and enjoying the ride. If that's the plan for me to be here or not be here or not to play another year, so be it."
Ten years after making perhaps the greatest defensive play in Super Bowl history in a win by the Steelers over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, he's back in the Super Bowl once again. It could have been as a member of the Steelers. But it's not. And Harrison seems OK with that.
He just wants to play football, just like he did when he signed a two-year deal to return to the Steelers after the 2016 season and was told, according to him, he would play 20 to 25 percent of the snaps.
But that was before the Steelers selected T.J. Watt in the first round of the draft and then chose to allow Harrison to sit on the bench behind Watt, Dupree, Anthony Chickillo and Arthur Moats.
I asked him if he could have contributed playing that much for the Steelers or they could have found a way to play him that much.
"I feel like they could have," he said. "But they didn't."
So here we are, with the Steelers' all-time sacks leader about to perhaps win a third Super Bowl ring with the hated Patriots after winning his first two in Pittsburgh.
Harrison seems to have moved on easily enough. In fact, he's already envisioned what his possible third Super Bowl ring will look like.
Heck, he even likes Bill Belichick -- a guy he once openly said cheated him out of a possible Super Bowl win in 2004 -- now.
"Good guy. Very good," Harrison said of his new head coach. "He's a real talkative guy, actually."
Kind of like the new James Harrison.
