I have to admit that I was mildly surprised to hear that 35-year old Rodney HGHarrison was coming back for his 15th year of NFL action as a safety for the New England Patriots. I had no doubt that he wanted to play. I was just surprised that Bill Belicheat would want him back after he was constantly frustrated by HGHarrison's (lack of) on field play last year. “Everyone’s asking me about retirement," said Harrison. "I don’t know what to say about it. I haven’t said anything publicly about wanting to retire or anything like that. I’m very hungry to get back to working out and be a part of this team, and try to win another championship.”
I for one, am glad he's coming back because no one likes late hits more than me. I just wish he'd make his late hits a little less obvious. I mean, if he were any later on some of his hits, he'd have to hit some of the guys as they walked back to the huddle. And it's always fun to root for a guy that everyone outside of New England hates. Heck, after last year, there are even some people in New England who hate him.
After missing the first four games last year and changing his last name to HGHarrison, he managed to have 70 tackles, 56 of which were solo, two sacks, one forced fumble and one interception. I don't know if they keep track of this type of thing or not but I would be interested to see how many penalties he got last year, too. My guess is at least 20 and that's a low estimate.
My concern with HGHarrison coming back is that he's down right old for an NFL defensive player, especially considering that the entire defensive unit is aging pretty quickly. Let's also keep in mind that since joining the Patriots, he's played in a lot of regular season and postseason games and has been injury prone the last three years. And if you saw his tackling in the last half of the year, it was also apparent that he's not on any type of steroids, which may not be a good thing for him because he looked like he was constantly beat to the ball, out muscled on some plays and run over by power backs coming up the middle. But I guess all the late hitting evens things out a bit.
Just as a side note on HGHarrison, it's interesting that all the news reports I've heard on Rodney's return have failed to mention that he missed the first four games last year because of his drug suspension. When confronted with the issue of his own HGH use in training camp last year, Rodney admitted his use, apologized, served his suspension, paid his fine, asked for forgiveness and moved on. Just wondering what Roger Clemens would be doing right now if he took a similar path with this steroid scandal. He could have gone the Andy Petite route and admitted he tried it a few times and didn't like it and then never used it again. Instead, Clemens has now dragged his own name through the mud and now his wife's name, as well. I just thought it was interesting that Harrison admitted the truth and it's worked out for him just fine. By all accounts, Clemens has pretty much screwed himself over the last few months and now one has to wonder if he'll ever be elected to the Hall of Fame. Kind of ironic for a guy we thought would be debating which hat to wear on his Cooperstown plaque. Turns out, he may never have a Cooperstown plaque.
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