Even NBC analyst and former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, widely considered one of the dirtiest players during his career, thinks the Rams are ... dirty. On Sunday, shortly after Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a concussion on a questionable hit from Rams cornerback Lamarcus Joyner, Harrison recalled how Rams coach Jeff Fisher once laughed at him while he was injured on the turf.
"I wasn't surprised because it happened to me in 2006," Harrison said during NBC's Football Night in America. "[Titans receiver] Bobby Wade came and chopped my knees and tore my knee up. I'm lying on the ground, and I look at Jeff Fisher and he's smiling and laughing. So this is typical of Jeff Fisher-type teams."
On Monday, Fisher responded.
"I think you have to consider the source ... You're talking about a guy that had a great career," he said, via PFT. "I mean, the guy played a long time. He was hard to defend. He was a really active defensive player. But this is coming from a guy that had 18 unnecessary roughness penalties, seven personal fouls, four roughing-the-passer penalties, a total of 77 penalties in his career and was voted three times the dirtiest player in the National Football League and was suspended for a hit, a helmet-to-helmet hit on Jerry Rice in 2002. Okay? ...
"I'll just say this: Since 2000, it's been a privilege and honor for me to be on the Competition Committee. Our main focus, as you guys have followed this league for a long time know, our main focus is player safety. So, for Rodney to come out and say that I did something like that is absolutely absurd. So, that's all I have to say on that."
On Tuesday, Harrison responded to Fisher's response to Harrison.
"The bottom line is this, all I did was I spoke on an experience that I had," Harrison told Seattle's KJR Radio, via PFT. "Bobby [Wade] came and hit me on my knee, I looked up to the sideline and those guys were laughing and joking. You don't laugh and joke at anybody's injuries because it can happen to any football player at any point in time. That's what I saw and I just spoke about it. He took things personally and made it what it was and then he started naming all these personal fouls and penalties and stuff like that. Basically saying, 'Look at the source.'
"Well, look at the source: A two-time Super Bowl champion, a guy that played in four Super Bowls, a guy that had a heck of a career, a guy that loves the game. And did I play on the edge? Yes, I did play on the edge. But if you're calling me dirty and you assume that I am a dirty player. ... Well, if I am a dirty player then guess what, I should know what a dirty hit is. That's why I called it what it was. It was a cheap shot, it was a dirty shot, and I think everybody else that saw that tape saw that."
It's certainly fair for Fisher to wonder how much credibility we should give to a player widely known for being dirty, but Harrison makes a pretty good point: If anybody knows what dirty looks like, it's him. And in his eyes, the Rams are dirty.
