{"id":179501,"date":"2025-07-04T00:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T00:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/179501\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T00:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T00:08:10","slug":"taylor-lewan-ignored-advice-not-to-trash-talk-james-harrison-he-regretted-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/179501\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Lewan Ignored Advice Not To Trash Talk James Harrison. He Regretted It."},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 long history of intimidating players, James Harrison might take the cake as the scariest person to ever<\/a> suit up for them. An undrafted free agent, Harrison built an incredible legacy as one of the most feared players of his generation. It feels like every offensive player has a story about being on Harrison\u2019s bad side. That includes former Tennessee Titans offensive tackle Taylor Lewan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played him my rookie year on Monday Night Football,\u201d Lewan said on the podcast Bussin\u2019 with the Boys.<\/a> \u201cBefore the game started, all of the offensive linemen were like, \u2018We know you like to chatter a little bit. Don\u2019t talk to this guy. Don\u2019t say a word to him, just leave him alone. Hopefully he stays asleep during the game.\u2019 But it\u2019s Monday Night Football, I\u2019m hyped up, I\u2019m juiced up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to make a name for myself. Three plays into the game, something happens, I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m here all day.\u2019 Whatever dumbass comment I make. \u2018I\u2019m here all fucking day.\u2019 And he doesn\u2019t say a word to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That game came in Week 11 of the 2014 season. The Steelers won that contest 27-24, so Lewan couldn\u2019t even get the last laugh against Harrison. While the Steelers didn\u2019t record any sacks that day, their defense still had a good game, recording one interception and holding the Titans under 50 rushing yards as a team.<\/p>\n

Trash talking Harrison usually didn\u2019t end well for players.<\/a> In 2014, Harrison was 36 years old, and he only recorded 5.5 sacks that season. While he was exiting his prime, that didn\u2019t diminish the fear factor he brought to the field. His reputation spoke for itself.<\/p>\n

As Lewan went on to explain, Harrison didn\u2019t let that trash talk slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, he lines up in a four [technique], and I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m about to cut off this dude so fast.\u2019 I go to cut him off, I go to put an arm up, he drops down to the ground and grabs my ankle and just starts gator rolling. Starts gator rolling me. Right then and there, I thought, it might be over for me. It might be over for this conversation for the rest of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Harrison didn\u2019t get to the quarterback, he clearly made an impact on a young Lewan. However, that lesson must not have stuck. A few years later, Lewan would have a confrontation with T.J. Watt,<\/a> another fearsome Steelers pass rusher. Thankfully, that encounter didn\u2019t escalate too much, but it goes to show that Lewan didn\u2019t quit trash talking players after his incident with Harrison.<\/p>\n

Lewan is also probably lucky that he caught Harrison closer to the end of his career. During his heyday, Harrison was known for inflicting some of the biggest hits in the NFL. He was often on the receiving end of some hefty fines.<\/p>\n

However, rules changed over the years, and by 2014, a bigger concern was placed on player safety. Still, that didn\u2019t stop Harrison from doing what he could to Lewan.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Harrison didn\u2019t play when the Steelers next played Lewan and the Titans in 2017. Pittsburgh came away with the victory again. However, Harrison got another chance to play Lewan later that year as a member of the New England Patriots. Again, Harrison didn\u2019t record a sack, but his team beat Lewan\u2019s Titans in the divisional round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

That was Harrison\u2019s final NFL season, so Lewan didn\u2019t get a chance to get his revenge against Harrison, although even then, that might not have ended well for him.<\/p>\n

Lewan went on to have a fine career, playing until 2022 and making three Pro Bowls. The Titans played the Steelers two more times during his career there, but they never managed to leave with a win. Even after Harrison retired, Pittsburgh continued to plague<\/a> Lewan. We\u2019ll see if Tennessee can beat Pittsburgh next time the two teams meet.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 long history of intimidating players, James Harrison might take the cake as the scariest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6314,7,2710,6,57,9399,394,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-179501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-bussin-with-the-boys","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-james-harrison","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-taylor-lewan","14":"tag-tennessee-titans","15":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114792058297929614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}