Steelers News: James Harrison has been in the news lately after his lashing of the NFLPA

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2019 season is officially over. After finishing the year 8-8, the Steelers, and their vast fan base, has another long offseason awaiting them. Just because the games are done doesn’t mean we stop providing you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over throughout the offseason!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take a look at how James Harrison, yes, Deebo, is not happy with the NFLPA and the labor negotiations.

Let’s get to the news:

• The NFL and NFLPA are working hard to reach labor peace for another decade, but James Harrison isn’t happy about it.

Retired Steelers star James Harrison the latest to come out against NFL CBA proposal

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Seeing as how he has been retired for two years, James Harrison doesn’t have a vote or formal say in the latest NFL collective bargaining agreement proposal. But as someone who was outspoken in his dislike for the previous terms between the league and its union, Harrison expressed a strong opinion against the proposed new one.

In a message posted to his verified Twitter account Thursday, the former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker took aim at NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and said the league’s offer to the union “shouldn’t have even been on the table!”

“The NFLPA has the WORST leadership under (Smith)!” Harrison wrote while quote-tweeting the NFLPA’s social-media announcement that its board of representatives sent the owners’ offer to full player membership for a vote. “The same person who gave us that terrible deal in 2011 (Steelers voted no) just tried the same thing in 2020! This deal shouldn’t have even been on the table! Do what’s best for the players or go work for the NFL!”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Was the Steelers defense lucky in 2019?

Tim Benz: How the Steelers should address the dirty little secret about their defense

By: Tim Benz, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The word “luck” wasn’t often used in connection to the 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Especially relating to injuries.

• The team lost the top two quarterbacks on the depth chart.

• The starting running back sat out six games and parts of four others.

• The starting tight end missed two games and big chunks of two more.

• The perceived top wide receiver was sidelined for four games. The newly acquired free-agent receiver tried to play through a busted finger then got infected with a case of the “drop-rona virus.”

• The starting left guard had his lowest snap count since 2012. The starting center was suspended for two games because he intervened when an opponent committed assault on the field, and he missed much of the last two games because of injury.

Aside from that, the Steelers offense was just chock full of good fortune last season.

So while the offense dragged itself to mediocre on its best days, the unit on the other side of the ball thrived.

It drew wide praise from a fanbase and media contingent excited to watch a ball-hawking, sack-producing, big-play-making defense in Pittsburgh once more.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Kevin Colbert sees the bright side of the Scouting Combine and changes made to it.

Steelers G.M. looking for bright side to Scouting Combine changes

By: Darin Gantt, ProFootballTalk

People on the football side of the football business aren’t known for embracing change happily.

But they also know that the business side of the football business has created a new dynamic for this year’s Scouting Combine, so they know there’s only so much they can do.

Via Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert tried to make the best of the switch to on-field drills switching to late afternoon and nighttime slots, when they used to begin around 9 a.m. The NFL made the change this year to create more television inventory, giving that precedence over the scouting function.

“Everything that is happening is new for all of us,” Colbert said. “Everyone has to adjust. It’s a bigger event. As you can see, it is growing at an unusual pace. We understand that, and we acknowledge that. But we also acknowledge that football is the most important thing we have to get done here. There’s a ton of medical business, football business, character business that we have to tend to while (the Combine) grows.

“We understand that it can grow, but we understand that there will be changes that we have to be able to work through and make it the best Combine we can be.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Social Media Madness