James Harrison: Why Apology to Goodell Won't Save Him from Punishment

James Harrison decided it would be a good idea to publicly apologize to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the recent negative comments he made. 

In an interview with Men's Journal, Harrison called Goodell the "devil," a "crook" and the "F" word that is very offensive to the gay community. He did apologize for using the gay slur on Facebook but chose not to apologize to the commissioner for anything else.

Harrison also posed for the magazine holding two hand guns, which was heavily criticized.   

The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker had an opportunity to apologize to Goodell for the hateful comments, but he opted not to do so.

The title to his Facebook apology was, "This statement will be my only response to the Men's Journal article." 

Well, that was a complete and total lie. Good job Mr. Harrison.  

That is exactly why when he says he regrets saying the hateful words to Goodell, I don't believe it for one second. Harrison is trying to not get a hefty fine or a suspension thrown his way.

Harrison told James Walker of ESPN.com that he was mad when he made the original comments. 

"

The interview that I did and the comments that I made about Roger Goodell were inappropriate, at the least, Harrison said. They were way out of line, and I was speaking out of anger and frustration at the time. Any comments that I made that offended anyone, I apologize.

"

What a joke. 

He acted all tough in the interview and is now backing down from all his comments. How does that make him look? 

Harrison already apologized once for the article, and now he wants to do it again and make it specifically for the commissioner? He claimed he wasn't going to publicly talk about the Men's Journal piece again, yet here he is a few weeks later talking about it.

Goodell will make a note of this, and I'm sure he will accept Harrison's apology. However, this apology doesn't change the fact that Harrison still said very harmful words during the interview.

He may have patched things up with his teammates, but Goodell is still going to come at him. Goodell isn't the type of guy to just let this matter go, especially since it's a guy like Harrison.

Unless the NFL lockout changed his outlook on the league and the players, I highly doubt James Harrison is walking away from his summer incidents without some form of punishment.