{"id":11059,"date":"2017-01-20T18:01:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T23:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=11059"},"modified":"2017-01-20T18:01:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T23:01:03","slug":"james-harrison-continues-dominant-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/01\/20\/james-harrison-continues-dominant-38\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harrison Continues to be Dominant at 38"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker <\/span><b>James Harrison <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has arguably been the team\u2019s most important defensive player during their win streak. \u00a0He continues to be dominant and strike fear in opposing offensive lineman, and he does it like he\u2019s 28, not 38.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>James Harrison Continues to be Dominant at 38<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Harrison is playing at the same level as he did ten years ago, which is remarkable considering the beating a pass rusher takes. Harrison takes the beating every game, but comes into every game with the same tenacity and anger. When he is at his best it is nearly impossible to block him, just ask Chiefs tackle <\/span><b>Eric Fisher<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Harrison\u2019s longevity can be contributed to his work ethic. Everyone can preach that <\/span><b>Antonio Brown<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the hardest worker on the team, but the old guy is the hardest worker. Did Brown go into the team facility at 5 AM to lift after a road playoff win? Does Brown continually play at such a high level that he is hounded by the NFL with drug tests? No, but Harrison has. His work ethic, tenacity, and anger have led him his entire career as he is the Pittsburgh Steelers career sacks leader and is tied for fifth all time for career postseason sacks.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mentoring the Younger Players<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Younger players are getting the opportunity to play with a legend. What fans see on Sundays isn\u2019t even half of what comes with playing with an all-time great. Young players get to see how Harrison works out, how hard he practices, and how he mentally prepares for games each week. Every young player benefits from this, but the linebackers benefit the most. Young linebackers <\/span><b>Ryan Shazier<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Bud Dupree<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> get a chance to hone their craft with the assistance of Harrison, and when he\u00a0talks, you listen. If the young players had enough sense to emulate Harrison, there will be remnants of him remaining on the team long after he retires.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Harrison is the type of player that every young athlete should look up to. \u00a0Actually, everyone should look up to Harrison, athlete or not. \u00a0After he got released four times, did he quit? \u00a0No, he came back and worked hard to make his dream come true. \u00a0Ever since becoming a Steelers did he slack off because he finally was an NFL player? \u00a0No, he worked hard every single day to be the best he could be. \u00a0James Harrison continues his dominance at age 38 not only because he is a naturally gifted athlete, but he has the type of work ethic that should make him a role model for everyone. \u00a0Hopefully he can continue being great for a little while longer, because it is a treat to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/460879228\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:71.043771% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/460879228?et=HqVtbLlBRQZ7aXi7nk5tyA&#038;viewMoreLink=on&#038;sig=lSGZbiOnd5RQgUEa5qUv4gbjm0vD1FlOlrDy4eyA_l0=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison has arguably been the team\u2019s most important defensive player during their win streak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1803,"featured_media":11071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,9],"tags":[61,723,40,81,588],"class_list":["post-11059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-steelers","tag-football","tag-james-harrison","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-ryan-shazier"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1803"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}