'Cried My Eyes Out,' Jaire Alexander Reacts to Rodney Harrison Criticism amid 2025 Knee Injury

Former Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander says he was heartbroken by public criticism of his play by two-time Super Bowl champion Rodney Harrison in his second-to-last NFL game before stepping away from the league.

Alexander opened up about how he took Harrison's criticism in an article published Wednesday in The Players' Tribune.

After undergoing knee surgery in January 2025 and getting released by the Green Bay Packers that June, Alexander made his return to the NFL last season by playing for the Baltimore Ravens in a Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Harrison criticized Alexander in an NFL on NBC appearance after the loss, during which the former All-Pro safety said Alexander was "not ready" and "looked bad."

Alexander wrote in his Players' Tribune article that he was dealing with swelling and knee pain at the time, but "what hurt the most" was Harrison's words.

"Believe it or not, the most heartbreaking thing for me was what Rodney Harrison said about me afterward," Alexander wrote. "He'd definitely been one of my idols as a young player. Someone I looked up to. And look, I get that I played horrible, obviously. But for him to basically rip me to shreds on TV after the game…. That just really hurt, you know what I mean?

"He wasn't wrong about how I played. He was right! But like, just hearing him talk about me like that, like I was basically the worst player in the league … it truly messed me up. It had me completely down about everything. That night, no joke, I went home and cried my eyes out."

Alexander ultimately played just one more game for the Ravens that season before he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, for whom he practiced with for one week before announcing he was stepping away from the NFL.

The cornerback opened up about what he described as "a bunch of internal battles with myself" in an April post on Instagram.

"I didn't have that confidence in my abilities I once did," Alexander wrote in April. "At corner you need ultimate confidence in your abilities and I felt it slipping away."

Alexander expanded further on his mental battles in his Players' Tribune article, which he described seeing the news of his stepping away from the NFL break as "the biggest feeling of relief I've ever experienced."

"I'm not gonna lie, I actually do sometimes miss being on the field and competing... But I'm proud of myself for recognizing that something wasn't right with me, and then doing something about it before it got any worse," Alexander wrote.

Alexander, a former 2018 first-round draft pick who earned Pro Bowl nods during his 2020 and 2022 campaigns with the Packers, stepped away from the NFL having appeared in 80 total games with 292 tackles and 12 interceptions over eight seasons. He wrote in the Players' Tribune that he would "never say never" to returning to football, but that for now his priority remains his mental wellbeing.