From undrafted and unwanted, James Harrison willed his way into the NFL to become one of the most intimidating edge rushers in league history.
His career arc was a story of perseverance. After being cut numerous times by the Pittsburgh Steelers (and once by the Baltimore Ravens), he earned a roster spot in Pittsburgh in 2004 only after outside linebacker Clark Haggans broke his hand in a weightlifting accident. After securing the team’s trust as a special teams daredevil, Harrison finally got his first start later that year when Joey Porter was ejected because of a pre-game fight against the Cleveland Browns.
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“Thank god Joey got in that fight,” Steelers owner and president Art Rooney II said with a smirk.
But for a player who earned his keep thanks to a tireless dedication to building his body behind the scenes, Harrison’s greatest moment came on the biggest stage: Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1, 2009 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.
To cap the season in which he would be named NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Harrison produced one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history, intercepting Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner on the goal line and returning it 100 yards for a touchdown.
“That’s the most outstanding defensive play I’ve ever seen,” former Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said. “And it’s certainly my favorite play, backed up. Only a close second would be Ben (Roethlisberger’s) pass to (Santonio) Holmes to win the damn game.”
The Cardinals had a chance to take a lead right before half.
Then… @jharrison9292.
(Super Bowl XLIII: Feb. 1, 2009) @steelers pic.twitter.com/3b98YltR5O
— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) January 28, 2020
“Coach LeBeau said, ‘If you look at the play, it embodies who we were as a defense,”’ defensive lineman Aaron Smith said. “He made the interception and he ran, but you look at how many guys helped him succeed and what they had to do to help him get in the end zone, collectively as a defense. I think that sums it up right there.”
This weekend, the Steelers will induct Harrison and Smith into their Hall of Honor, along with Ray Mansfield (a star center from 1964 to ’76) and Gerry Mullins (an offensive lineman from 1971 to ’79). In the spirit of the play itself, which took all 11 players on the field to achieve, here’s the story of Harrison’s pick six in the words of the people who made it possible.
Favored by seven points, the Steelers jumped out to a 10-0 lead before the Cardinals, led by Warner, began climbing back into it. After they cut the deficit to 10-7, Karlos Dansby intercepted a tipped Ben Roethlisberger pass, leaving Arizona at Pittsburgh’s 34-yard line with two minutes to play until halftime. Seven plays later, Warner and the Cardinals faced first-and-goal at the 2-yard line with 18 seconds left in the half.
Dick LeBeau (Steelers defensive coordinator): We figured they were gonna throw the ball.
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James Harrison (Steelers outside linebacker): They didn’t have any timeouts left. It was (18) seconds left. They couldn’t be tackled outside of the goal line, because time would run out.
LeBeau: I didn’t think anybody was going to take that risk. I’m still shooting to hold them to three points. We need to have a negative play here. So I called a blitz.
LeBeau’s call was 6-1 Blitz 0, an all-out blitz with no safety deep. The Cardinals, meanwhile, lined up in the shotgun with receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin in a stack to the offense’s left.
The Steelers show blitz just before the snap, with Fitzgerald (11) and Boldin (81) stacked at the bottom of the screen. (Courtesy of the NFL)Harrison: That whole half, we were just getting there a step too late. Like, we’d hit (Warner) right as he was releasing the ball. He was reading the defense well and getting the ball out of his hands.
Larry Fitzgerald (Cardinals wide receiver): The ball was going to Anquan from the jump. I remember that. We anticipated them rushing. We thought it would be a pretty safe play to get a touchdown.
Deshea Townsend (Steelers defensive back): Me and (cornerback) Ike (Taylor) had the stack formation over to the (defense’s) right.
Harrison: It’s my job to step at the tackle to get the tackle to come toward me so (linebacker Lawrence) Timmons can come inside, have a free run at the quarterback.
LaMarr Woodley (Steelers outside linebacker): Both outside linebackers are supposed to rush the quarterback.
Harrison: I decided that I was gonna drop and play for the quick slant in, because I felt like he was going to read it and get the ball off fast enough before we can get there. … That was something that coach LeBeau allowed us freedom to do.
LeBeau: As long as our guys were not reckless, they were allowed to think on the field. I don’t think anybody would argue that he did the wrong thing on that play.
Woodley: He was a veteran where he can make that decision on dropping back in coverage. Me (a second-year player), I’m doing what they say to do.
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Brett Keisel (Steelers defensive lineman): We harp on always doing your job and fulfilling your responsibility. But sometimes the great ones know how to improvise.
Woodley: I’m glad he was over there on the right and I was on the left, because if I was on the right, f—ing they probably would have scored a touchdown.
Townsend: When they ran the play, I just remember us getting picked. After the fact — armchair quarterback — we should have did something where we passed it off.
Harrison: I stepped. The tackle stepped to me. Timmons got through free.
Kurt Warner (Cardinals quarterback, speaking to Harrison on NFL Network in 2020): I saw his first step and I thought, “James is coming. Get my eyes to the receiver, let it go.” And as soon as I let it go, I see big No. 92.
Harrison: He threw it straight to me.
Harrison (92) undercuts Boldin (81). (Doug Benc / Getty Images)Keisel: You see it hit him right in the chest.
Woodley: I just hear the crowd go “aahhhhhhhh.” As I look, f—ing James Harrison has the ball and he takes off running.
Keisel: I just remember, like, “Let’s go, Deebo (Harrison’s nickname)!”
LeBeau: I started hollering, “Get on the ground, James! Get on the ground!”
Harrison: I’m thinking, “I’m gone.”
LeBeau: In every practice, when we’d get the ball intercepted, everybody had to run to the ball and get in front of the ball.
Ryan Clark (Steelers safety): The week leading up to the game, we were getting interceptions or getting turnovers at practice, and we weren’t returning them.
Mike Tomlin (Steelers head coach): I put them on a reel. … I didn’t see an appropriate effort. The plays kind of oozed to a finish. I challenged them to organize our return efforts to get out in front of return men to try to extract all the meat off the bone, if you will.
Clark: We basically had an entire meeting, showing us getting interceptions or turnovers at practice and not returning them.
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Tomlin: I told them a story about the last time I had been in the Super Bowl, the defense scored (three) touchdowns in the game when I was a secondary coach of the Bucs. I challenged them in that way. And they took it to heart.
LeBeau: Once James took off, all those guys, including the left corner and the left outside linebacker on the other side of the field, they all got over into the fracas.
Keisel: I was just trying to get out in front and find people.
Townsend: I was right next to (Harrison). I was trying to get the ball from him. But he didn’t want to share it with me.
Harrison: I’m hand-fighting with ‘Shea, which seemed like 20 to 30 seconds.
Townsend: If he had given it to me, it would have been a touchdown quicker. It would have been less dramatic, because I would have out-ran the quarterback for sure.
Townsend (26), and later Ike Taylor (24), both wanted to take the ball from Harrison (92). (Al Bello / Getty Images)Harrison: By the time I look up, it’s a sea of red jerseys, and I’m like, “Ah s—. I ain’t gonna make it.”
Tomlin: I kept looking at him and the clock. I was trying to get three (points) out of it initially. To be quite honest with you, I didn’t think he had a chance of going all the way back with it.
LeBeau: He kind of broke out, and I was still hollering, “Get down! Get down!” Well, he got some open field … and I started hollering, “Run, James! Run! Run!”
Fitzgerald: Ironically, it’s a play that we really worked on. Because the year before, in 2007, we had given up the most points off of turnovers in the league. It was actually a point of emphasis in spring that year. If we do turn the football over, we have got to f—ing tackle. It was a demoralizing play based on all those facts.
As Harrison neared his own 30 by the sideline, Warner was directly in his path, and about six other Cardinals in pursuit.
Woodley: I’m looking to block somebody. I looked at Kurt Warner, and I’m like, “Man, he’s too f—ing slow. I don’t need to block him. Don’t waste a block on him.”
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Warner (to Harrison on NFL Network in 2020): I’ve always said when I throw an interception … don’t try to make the tackle. Just force him back into everybody else and let the convoy come get him. And nobody came for me! Nobody helped me out, James!
Townsend: We just went back to what we were drilled to do. … I had the opportunity to get the first block on the quarterback to make sure he got started.
Townsend (26) blocks Warner as teammates eye of a host of Cardinals. (Courtesy of the NFL)Clark: I was able to pick off a guy early, but I wanted to stay on my feet in order to try to get another block. So I didn’t sell out totally.
As Townsend blocked Warner at the Steelers’ 40-yard line, Harrison got slowed by the traffic. Arizona tight end Leonard Pope came from behind and had a shot at tackling him. However, there was Ike Taylor, directly to Harrison’s left.
Ike Taylor (Steelers cornerback): The first thing I told him: “Give me the ball. Give me the ball. Give me the ball.” And while I’m saying “Give me the ball,” he’s running and I wind up blocking like two people off of default, asking him to give me the ball.
LeBeau: A couple guys kind of touched him, but nobody was going to get him down with one arm. And then he ran.
Tomlin: Once they crossed the 50 or so, there was that convoy of people out in front of him, Brett Keisel and all them. That’s when I got really engaged with the potential that they could go with it.
Keisel: The linemen for Arizona were really hustling hard to get to him and had a pretty good angle. It was just kind of interesting how we all picked the right one and got a block. Whoever I hit and collided with (6-6, 325-pound right tackle Levi Brown), it definitely was a good pop.
Harrison: Somehow, we made it through the first cluster of guys. I’m like, “OK, I’m gonna make it.” And as I do that, there’s a running back (Tim Hightower).
Woodley: When I look back, f—ing James is still running my way. Now I know for myself this is the last push I have. This is it. I got one push in the tank. And I pushed Hightower, and when I pushed him, James leapt over my legs.
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Keisel: When he cut back, I was like, “Oh, boy.” Because there’s usually someone always there on the back side, but he tucked the ball.
With 20 yards to go, Harrison had the goal line in sight. The only Arizona players remaining with a chance to tackle him were left tackle Mike Gandy, who had an angle, and Fitzgerald and fellow receiver Steve Breaston, who were closing in from behind.
Troy Polamalu (Steelers safety, speaking after the game): I actually missed the block on Larry Fitzgerald (earlier in the runback, around the Steelers’ 45-yard line). Otherwise, it would have been much easier.
Clark: At that point, every 5 yards, you’re just running like, “Oh my god, he might score.”
Harrison: And I’m like, “OK, I’m gonna make it.” And then I’m thinking like, “Yo, I gotta make it.” It feels like I’ve been running forever. I’m thinking, “The clock is dead. Them 18 seconds gotta be gone by now.”
Warner (to Harrison on NFL Network in 2020): Longest 18 seconds of my life.
Keisel: Fitzgerald had a pretty good angle on him. But one of their players was watching, and Fitzgerald got caught up on the sidelines for just a split second.
Fitzgerald: I would have definitely tackled him. I had a teammate, Antrel Rolle, that actually was on the field of play. When I was running, I ran into him (around the Arizona 35-yard line). Then I had to restart to chase him down. Had that not happened, I think I would have been able to get him down.
As Harrison (92) prepared to hurdle Woodley (56), Fitzgerald (11) ran into Rolle (21) — a Cardinals defensive back who was not in the game on the play — along the sideline.Gandy dove for Harrison’s legs at the 10-yard line. Clark — who had caught up after dropping a Cardinals lineman back at the Pittsburgh 27 — also dove, sliding between Gandy and Harrison.
Clark: Ain’t no dang way I’m running this far and not throwing a block. So I threw that last block. Larry had to kind of bow around me a little bit, and it gave James probably that one extra inch he needed to make it into the end zone.
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Harrison: The rest was just luck and willpower.
Fitzgerald swiped at the ball but hit Harrison’s chest initially. While the Steelers linebacker tucked it, Breaston approached from the other side and hit Harrison, knocking him forward. Harrison’s knees landed on Fitzgerald’s body, as he went head-first into the turf and across the goal line.
LeBeau: He made it by about six inches, because he kind of fell into the end zone. Every block that everybody got paved the way.
Keisel: It was a great, strong finish by Deebo, tucking the ball and holding it after making that incredible run.
LeBeau: Harrison was one of the best-conditioned football players I’ve ever coached. … I don’t know any linebacker that could have made that run in that heat and kept going the way he did.
Line judge Mark Perlman, who had also run the length of the field (albeit at a slower pace), signaled touchdown. At the time, it was the longest play in Super Bowl history. Harrison rolled onto his back, his arms and legs fully extended. Longtime Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, who retired after winning Super Bowl XL and was working for NBC, happened to be in the corner of the end zone.
Bettis: It was an incredible play to see at field level, and to see him coming right to me. When he scored, it was crazy because my immediate instinct was just to run over and celebrate, right? But I’m just out (of the NFL). So I had to kind of contain myself and not go nuts and run into the pile.
Harrison remained down as teammates — including Clark — and the Steelers’ medical staff came to check on him.
Harrison: When I fell down, I landed on my neck, and my neck cracked. So I went to go get up, and it cracked again. So that’s why I just laid there. On top of the fact that I was dead dog tired.
Clark: He’s lying. I asked him. I was like, “Bro, are you good?” He’s like, “Yeah, I’m just tired.” Don’t listen to James. He’s going to make it all sound better, because now he’s going into the Hall of Honor.
Harrison in the end zone, 100 yards later. (John Biever /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)A flag had been thrown back at the Pittsburgh 9. After referee Terry McAulay announced it was against the Cardinals, the Steelers began to celebrate. But questions remained: Did he step out of bounds? Did he get into the end zone? McAulay announced the play was under review. Meanwhile, NBC game analyst John Madden — obviously unaware that Harrison had ditched his assignment — praised LeBeau.
LeBeau: I’m a great prayer. I’ve been in many situations like that, where you’re waiting on a decision. We couldn’t even tell whether he actually got over the goal line or not. I just was praying.
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John Madden (on the NBC broadcast): Not only a great play by James Harrison, but a great call by Dick LeBeau, because who would think in that situation that instead of rushing your best pass rusher, you would drop him into coverage?
LeBeau: I asked James what he was doing back there, picking that ball off, and he said, “Well, Coach, you have always told us to think, and I was thinking they can’t run the ball here. … So he’s gonna throw it. So I just got my guy engaged, did what I had to do and dropped, and there was the ball.” I said, “Good work.”
During the review, NBC play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels said it would either be a touchdown or no score and the end of the half. However, it’s possible the officials could have put one second on the clock if Harrison was ruled down at the 1-yard line. Finally, while Harrison breathed from an oxygen mask on the sideline, McAulay announced the ruling on the play would stand. The touchdown and ensuing extra point gave the Steelers a 17-7 lead.
Woodley: S—, after that big play, I knew that we won.
Keisel: It was a 14-point swing. They were right there on the doorstep. It ended up being the difference in us winning the game.
Tomlin: In today’s NFL where we talk about analytical things like win probability and so forth — man, from a historical perspective, it is a significant play.
Woodley: After halftime, I brought my camera out and had it on the field. I knew we were winning that game.
It turned out to be much tighter than Woodley anticipated. The Cardinals opened up their offense in the second half. They eventually claimed a 23-20 lead with 2:37 remaining when Warner connected with Fitzgerald for a 64-yard touchdown, his second TD reception of the game and seventh of the playoffs, breaking Jerry Rice’s 1988 record for most in a single postseason.
Warner (to The Athletic in 2019): I think (the pick six) was a blessing in disguise.
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Fitzgerald: We had two coaches that were in Pittsburgh, (head coach) Ken Whisenhunt and (OL coach) Russ Grimm. They wanted to try to beat the Steelers in a Pittsburgh-style game — they wanted to run it and be physical with them. … We came to the understanding that wasn’t going to happen. We needed to do what we do best, to spread them out.
Warner (to The Athletic in 2019): It’s easy to think that if I don’t throw that interception, we win the game. Maybe we do. But I think it was a blessing that the world got to see who we really were as a team in the second half when we let it go. We could have played that way the whole game, and we might have killed the Steelers.
However, the Steelers claimed their sixth Super Bowl title after Roethlisberger connected with Holmes in the corner of the end zone for a toe-tapping 6-yard touchdown with 35 seconds remaining. Fifteen years later, there is a legitimate debate about which play holds a greater place in Steelers history — and whether either one can top the Immaculate Reception.
Art Rooney II (Steelers owner and president): It was described as the greatest play in Super Bowl history, I’ll say it that way.
Keisel: The Immaculate Interception, isn’t that what they call it?
Harrison and teammates at the victory parade. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)Clark: That play alters history for all of us. Coach LeBeau isn’t who he is. Mike Tomlin isn’t who he is. Obviously James as an individual isn’t who he is. Those Steeler teams, or that group of teams aren’t who they are without that play. It’s a play that changed the lives of so many people. … I’m on TV (with ESPN) because I’m Ryan Clark, Super Bowl champion. They have to say that every time they introduce me, and without James Harrison, that’s not a part of my resume.
Keisel: We had such a unique group. We weren’t all first-round picks. … And James is probably the leader in that regard, being a free agent and being cut a few times and working his way up and just never quitting, just sticking to it. And that’s a lot of how that play was.
LeBeau: They were brothers. As much as any team I have ever seen or coached, they didn’t care who got the credit for anything. They were team-orientated. That picture exemplified that.
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Keisel: Your back is against the wall. They were right there at the end zone and you just never quit, you keep going. And they might throw it to you right in the chest.
LeBeau: I used that play the rest of my coaching career, because it was such an example of everybody rallying to the ball. … I’ve shown that many times. To those guys and to other teams, just showing what a defense can do when they all play together, and all just play every play until the whistle blows.
Harrison: It’s not just me out there on that play. It’s 10 other guys out there that were throwing blocks for me to get down the field. So it’s not just me, it’s the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers.
(Top photo of James Harrison, 92, Larry Fitzgerald, 11, and
Mike Gandy, 69: John Biever / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
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