Should Harrison Be Taking Heat for Skipping White House Visit?

Steelers linebacker James Harrison is his own man. That we know. He’s not a very talkative guy, and maybe it’s the fact he was cut three times in his career that has made him seem a bit unhappy when it comes to dealing with the media and the such.

Which at the end does not surprise me that he’s taking heat for saying he is not going to be with the team this Thursday when they go to the White House at the request of President Obama. Harrison, who also did not go with the club a few years back when they won Super Bowl XL, said it doesn’t really matter to him to go.

“I don’t feel the need to go, actually,” Harrison told Pittsburgh station WTAE-TV. “I don’t feel like it’s that big a deal to me.” The Steelers today declined to comment on Harrison skipping the ceremony, even though he was a key player in their Super Bowl run, making what many still think was the play of the game, a 100-yard interception return on the final play of the first half of the teams 27-23 win.

So the question bears asking – is this much to do about nothing? So Harrison doesn’t want to go – so what? Is it really disrespectful to skip a meeting with the President, or should Harrison do his duty and be there as a leader of the defense and a player that the young players on the team looks up to?

Harrison also said the following about not wanting to go to the White House: “This is how I feel — if you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers, invite us when we don’t win the Super Bowl,” Harrison said. “As far as I’m concerned, [Obama] would’ve invited Arizona if they had won.”

Kind of a weird statement, and one that Pro Football Talk quickly took him to task on, ripping on Harrison for the statement:

James, are you OK? Have you suffered any recent blunt trauma to the brain box?

It’s a ritual in this country that the major-league teams winning championships are invited to the White House for a visit.

So, yeah, the invitation applies only to the Super Bowl champs. It’s one of the things that make the accomplishment special.

And, no, the President doesn’t have the time or the desire to invite the 31 teams that didn’t win the Super Bowl to conduct seven-on-sevens in the Rose Garden. (After all, that might cut into the time he has allotted to work on his NCAA brackets.)

But, hey, at least we now have a better understanding of how the Steelers got Harrison to sign a long-term deal worth only $51 million.

I won’t go so far as to say that Harrison is out of line for that statement, or also for not wanting to go at all. The only concern is the team, end of story. If Harrison not going to the White House is a distraction to the team, then he should go. At the end of the day though, it probably is not that much of a big deal.

Harrison is his own man, and if he doesn’t want to attend the White House ceremony, fine with me. As long as he’s on the field, focused and ready to go on September 10th vs the Titans, at the end, that’s really all that matters – isn’t it?