Monday morning NFL recap week #17

Steelers:

• Big hype all week long was the release of Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Deebo has been wearing the black and gold for 14 years. In 2013 after releasing a pay cut, he was released and picked up by the Bengals. When Cincinnati chucked him to the curb a year later, Harrison asked to retire as a Steeler and did so in September 2014. Two weeks later he was back in the uniform after the Steelers suffered multiple injuries. He played until this year when he was signed for two more years but didn't see much action. The Steelers released him prior to Christmas Day for a roster move and the New England Patriots picked him up. Cue the drama. Harrison had expressed, via a reporter, that he was dissatisfied a few weeks ago from his lack of play. Turns out he was also misbehaving like a child because he wasn't playing. Steelers players, tired of the fans expressing outrage at his release, fessed up that Harrison was showing up late for practices, refusing to ride the team bus, and skipping meetings or sleeping through the ones he did bother to show up for. I disagree with a lot of Harrison's beliefs, but I appreciate what he has done for the game. This, however, is unacceptable, and I think Harrison will be sorry down the road. Or maybe not if the Patriots get him another ring. Either way, it's another Belichick rewarding the wrong behavior. Typical.
• Ryan Shazier in the house. Always an uplifting thing to see him and his big smile.
• We didn't play the three B's as this game didn't mean much with the Patriots playing the Jets. Our defense played but had a lot of trouble without Shazier. The secondary suffered. Looked a lot like the beginning of the year, despite our couple of sacks, with the missed tackles, missteps, allowing the quarterback to run to make big plays. Ugh.
• Our young receivers got a chance, however, to make some big plays. JuJu Smith-Schuster was on fire finishing with 265 all-purpose yards. His total for the year gave him the Rookie Record for most yardage in Pittsburgh, breaking the record set in 1958 by Steelers rookie Jimmy Orr. 
• A record was set for the most sacks in a year with 56 after Tyson Alualu recorded his second sack of the game for the Steelers early in the fourth quarter. That fired up the sidelines and the defense and in the next play the defense stripped the ball and recovered the fumble.
• And just like that 17 weeks are gone and the Cleveland Browns won zip. 0-16. Yikes! Somehow Cleveland needs to get LeBron James into that organization just to spice it up.

Other:

• What was that trick play the Jets attempted? The quarterback hot potatoed the ball to Natson who totally misses it. Like, he wasn't even watching. Thank goodness it was ruled an incomplete pass, although how that was even considered a pass is beyond me. That right there shows why the Jets finish their season today.
• And then the Jets have to kick and guess what? They miss it. Sigh. Shouldn't the last games be against better teams to make things interesting? 
• The laughs kept coming in this game with the Jets Anderson getting pushed out of bounds. He fell, rolled, jumped up and spiked the ball. The ball bounced off the turf and hit a Patriot, not in the game who was standing on the sideline. The ball hit him in the chin and with a bit of a hesitation he then pretended it was a huge hit, shrugged off his long winter coat and fell to the ground hoping for a penalty. I mean, come on! Hilarity. He did not receive the flag.
• The rumor mill was in full swing on who would lose their coaching jobs come Black Monday. Looks like the Colts will part ways with Chuck Pagano and the Chicago Bears will fire John Fox. The big question is what will happen in Cincinnati with Marvin Lewis. The rumor is he will retire, but Lewis has not confirmed that. If he doesn't plan to retire, he most certainly will be done with the Bengals. And then there is the yearly John Gruden whispering. Will he return to coaching or not? For a few seconds, our paper toyed with him returning to the Bucs, but really, if Bucs fans thought that they were just stupid. Why would you hire a guy you fired? Why would a fired guy return to an ownership that didn't trust him? Tampa chose to stay with their guy and now the rumor mill has turned to the Raiders taking Gruden. 
• The Giants won at home and Eli Manning left the field to a rousing (as rousing as it could be with mostly an empty stadium) standing ovation. His future is up in the air in New York. Never thought we would say that, huh?
• Seattle's Tyler Locket and Steelers JuJu Smith Schuster both ran punt returns from one end of the field to the other. Both fell down in the end zone. New Orleans' Alvin Kamara then ran 106 yards on a punt return, but instead of falling down he ran around chest pumping his teammates and showing up the other two.
• And the call of the day? Tampa Bay's Godwin who bobbled the ball as he reached into the end zone for a touchdown. He didn't cross the plane, bobbled the ball, and it was called a complete catch. WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How is that a complete catch but Steelers Jesse James' catch was ruled incomplete three weeks ago? NO, NO, NO.
• Terrible hit on 49ers Marquise Goodwin by the Rams Countess. Man oh man after Ryan Shazier's situation this year these hits are even more horrific.