James Harrison: Tomlin 'never paid me for hurting someone'

James Harrison denies the rumors that Mike Tomlin paid him to hurt other players after saying the head coach handed the linebacker an envelope following a fined hit during the 2010 season.

"Mike T. has never paid me for hurting someone or trying to hurt someone or put a bounty on anybody!" the former Pittsburgh Steelers defender said Friday in an Instagram post.

"Again at no time did Mike T. ever suggest anybody hurt anybody or that they'd be rewarded for anything like that," he added.

Harrison received the biggest fine of his career ($75,000) for the tackle, which gave former Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi a concussion.

The 2008 Defensive Player of the Year also says the league fined him for a legal play because it was "getting pressure because the first concussion lawsuits were starting."

View this post on Instagram

Wow y'all really comparing what I said to BOUNTYGATE?!? Mike T. Has NEVER paid me for hurting someone or TRYING to hurt someone or put a bounty on ANYBODY! If you knew the full story of what happened back then you'd know that BS fine for a Legal Play wasn't even penalized during the game. The league was getting pressure because the first concussion lawsuits were starting and they had to look like they cared about player safety all of a sudden. Before that they had been SELLING a photo of THAT SAME PLAY FOR $55 on the NFL website with other videos of the NFL'S GREATEST HITS that the league Profited On back then. When the league had to start pretending like they cared about player safety they took all those things down off their website and they started fining guys ridiculous amounts for the same plays they used to profit off of. EVERYBODY knew it - even these same media people and all the fans that were sending money to me and the team to cover the fine. AGAIN AT NO TIME did Mike T. EVER suggest anybody hurt anybody or that they'd be rewarded for anything like that. GTFOH with that BS!!! #receipts

A post shared by James Harrison (@jhharrison92) on May 15, 2020 at 7:40am PDT

In an interview on Barstool's "Going Deep" podcast, Harrison said that Tomlin "handed him an envelope" following his hard hit on Massaquoi. Harrison didn't specify what was in the envelope.

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton then said Thursday he doesn't believe the NFL would investigate the envelope claims, referencing his 2012 suspension. Payton and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams were banned for a full year after an investigation found they paid out bonuses to players for injuring opponents.

Steelers president Art Rooney II, who said in 2010 that Harrison's tackle was "a legal hit," denied the defender's envelope claims through a statement Thursday.

Copyright (C) 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.