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R. HARRISON15 NFL seasons |
Patriots notebook
Harrison a return man?
Safety sounds ready to retire
TAMPA - Safety Rodney Harrison wouldn't close the door on playing again, but he certainly sounded as if he were leaning toward retirement rather than a 16th NFL season, and a seventh with the Patriots.
At the Super Bowl Media Center yesterday, he used the term "they" when talking about the Patriots, and said he could walk away from the game now with no regrets.
"Right now, I'm doing a lot better, and I can't honestly say if I'm going to play or not right now," said Harrison, who suffered a season-ending right quadriceps injury Oct. 20 against the Broncos. "I'm up in the air. Right now, I'm focusing on being able to run up and down the bases with my son, so once that's established, then I'll decide if I want to play or not."
Harrison, 36, who is a free agent, said when he does make a decision it will be final.
"There are a lot of things that go on with a guy when he's deciding his future in football. You realize that once you say, 'I'm done,' I'm done," said Harrison, who is working for NBC during the Super Bowl. "I don't want the circus. I don't want the back-and-forth circus [of], 'Well, do I want to play? OK, I'm going to retire; I'm not going to retire.' I don't want the Brett Favre situation.
"I need to be fair to myself, and I need to be fair to my family from a personal standpoint, so when I decide what I want to do, I'm going to do it; I'm going to move forward, and I'm going to stick to it. I've been playing football for 30 years. I've done everything. The message I want to convey to young players is do everything you can within your power and you have no regrets. So, if you have to walk away from the game, you have no regrets."
Harrison did not say he'd only come back with the Patriots. "If that door is open, if they want to move forward, if it's something I want to do and Bill [ Belichick] allows me to do it, then maybe that's the choice. If not, we'll have to look at other things," he said.
If Harrison retires, he would exit the game with a Hall of Fame-worthy career.
"I don't play for the Hall of Fame," he said. "I try to win championships and help my team win championships. I will not trade my championship ring over a Hall of Fame any day because it took 53 guys to sacrifice, to work, to come together and achieve a goal, and to me that's a lot more special than what Rodney Harrison did individually for 15 years to go to the Hall of Fame. If they vote me in, fine. If they don't, so what? I got Super Bowl rings, which is most important."
Game of tag
Quarterback Matt Cassel was asked for his reaction on the $14.65 million franchise tag for quarterbacks, which means if the Patriots tag him, his cap charge will be higher than Tom Brady's ($14.62 million). "That's crazy," said Cassel, who was doing radio interviews at Super Bowl XLIII. Cassel would have the second-highest cap charge of any NFL quarterback, trailing only Peyton Manning's scheduled 2009 cap charge of $18.7 million. The Patriots have from Feb. 5-19 to tag Cassel and prevent him from becoming an unrestricted free agent.Outside linebacker?
Linebacker Rosevelt Colvin was also making the rounds on "Radio Row." Colvin, who came off the couch to play in the final four games of the regular season for the Patriots, said he hasn't retired and is considering his options - playing again, managing his UPS store, or getting into radio.Colvin said he was proud of the way he performed in 2008.
"Everybody else on the outside didn't necessarily know what the situation was," he said. "I honestly probably worked out once or twice in two months, so I felt very positive about coming off the couch and being able to play a professional football game."
Mike Reiss of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
