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Circuitous Route To Stardom

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By ROY CUMMINGS

rcummings@tampatrib.com

Published: January 26, 2009

Updated: 01/26/2009 06:56 pm

TAMPA - James Harrison can't tell you precisely when it happened. He can't even tell you what game it was. All he knows is that at some point late last season, opponents started paying more attention to him.

All of a sudden, Harrison said, entire offensive lines started sliding his way on running plays; chip blockers began appearing in front of him on passing plays; where there was once just a single blocker, he now saw double teams.

"Actually, I kind of liked it better when they didn't focus on me so much," the Steelers linebacker said. "I could get through a lot easier. But that's football. You just deal with it."

Few have dealt with it better than Harrison. After years of wallowing in relative obscurity as a regular on special teams, Harrison seems to have been spurred on by the increased attention he's received.

Either that or he's finally found his comfort zone on the defensive side of the ball. Whatever the reason - and it may be that he's just taken full advantage of a long-awaited opportunity - Harrison has emerged from the shadows.

After producing at a Pro Bowl level last year, Harrison broke through the sliding protections, the chip blockers and the double teams again this year to make 101 tackles, record 16 sacks and force seven fumbles.

It was a season so special that not only did Harrison earn his second straight Pro Bowl berth and team MVP award, but he was also named the AFC Defensive Player of the Year by The Associated Press.

Not bad for a player who went undrafted out of college (Kent State), who spent his first two years toiling on the Steelers' practice squad and who nearly quit the game out of frustration at age 26.

That's right. It was 2004 and Harrison had just about had enough of football. He'd been cut twice by the Steelers and once by the Ravens and were it not for an injury to Clark Haggans in training camp, Harrison might be treating dogs today instead of dogging quarterbacks.

Joey Porter deserves some credit for Harrison's emergence, too. After all, if Porter doesn't get kicked out of a Nov. 14, 2004, game against Cleveland for fighting with Browns running back William Green during the pregame warm-ups, then Harrison never gets the start and he never flashes his true potential.

It was quite a flash, too. Harrison made six solo tackles and recorded a sack that day in a 24-10 victory. Of course, he'd flashed like that before, in high school and in college.

Harrison was such a standout at Coventry High in Akron, Ohio, that Notre Dame, Ohio State and Nebraska all wanted him. He wound up going to Kent State, though, largely because of his involvement in an incident his senior year in which he was charged with assault for shooting a BB gun in the Coventry locker room.

At Kent, Harrison saved his best for last, sacking then-Miami (Ohio) quarterback Ben Roethlisberger five times in his last game for the Golden Flashes. Still, it wasn't until Mike Tomlin took over as Steelers coach that Harrison really got a chance to flash that kind of skill with the Steelers.

With Bill Cowher in retirement and Joey Porter in Miami, Tomlin pegged Harrison as a starter. It was considered a risky move at the time, but Harrison made it look brilliant. He had 28 tackles, two sacks and two pass defenses in the five games before the bye that year, which was just a prelude of things to come.

In his first five games following the 2007 bye, Harrison recorded 39 tackles, 5.5 sacks, a pass defense and a pass interception. It was shortly after that when opposing coordinators started game-planning against him.

As you can see, the game plans really haven't worked.

"I think he's had an even better year this year and he was a Pro Bowl player last year," Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said. "Every game he's doing something for us."

The one that seems to stand out the most was against the Patriots at New England's Gillette Stadium on Nov. 30. Despite a steady rain, Harrison recorded 10 tackles and strip-sacked Pats quarterback Matt Cassel twice to lead the Steelers to a 33-10 victory that day.

"He basically took over the game," teammate James Farrior said afterward. "He imposed his will."

He's been imposing his will all year. It's one of the reasons the Steelers are in the Super Bowl, where the attention paid to Harrison is sure to get ramped up a bit. Not that any of that will slow him down.

"I still haven't seen too many guys who can block him one on one without holding," Farrior said, alluding to Harrison's speed and quickness, the two attributes that put him ahead of most everyone else in his class.

"When you watch him on film, he never stops running," teammate LaMarr Woodley said. "When he's rushing the passer, he never stops his feet."

Harrison has good reason to keep those feet moving. Soon to be 31, he's trying to make up for lost time. Even now, as he prepares for his second Super Bowl, he has a sense of trying to make up lost ground.

"This Super Bowl does mean a little more to me than the Super Bowl in 2006 because I have a bigger role," Harrison said. "I'm a starter now instead of a special teams player. But other than that, I'll go out and play this game just like I do every other one."

If that's the case, then special attention is required.

From everyone.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979. Information from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was used in this report.

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