But the accusations came again Sunday after cornerback Lamarcus Joyner knocked Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater out of the game with a diving elbow to the head. Zimmer blew by Fisher on the field after the game and later said he believed the hit was a cheap shot. Though not addressed by Fisher, Harrison was also the person that took out former Rams quarterback Trent Green with a low hit to the knees.
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Joyner was penalized for unnecessary roughness on the play. Fisher also mentioned that Harrison was suspended once for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Jerry Rice, the beloved San Francisco 49ers wide receiver.
Fisher did not take too kindly to Harrison’s comments, and during his Monday press conference did that whole, “yeah but you did too!” thing.
Trumaine Johnson intercepted Bridgewater in the end zone on the second play from scrimmage of the second half, but the Vikings forced five straight punts by the Rams while doing an admirable job of containing the relentless rookie Gurley. It appeared dirty but watching the replay I honestly feel, my opinion, that he didn’t target him. So, for Rodney to come out and say that I did something like that is absolutely absurd. After the game, Minnesota Coach Mike Zimmer called out St. Louis defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and referred to the latter’s “BountyGate” suspension.
“I wasn’t surprised because it happened to me in 2006”, Harrison said. “Because I got a lot of stuff that I could say, OK”.
There are few men with the gravitas to offer direct advice to an National Football League head coach (aside from us savants in the media, of course), and the tone sounded awfully similar to that of Bill Parcells, the Hall of Fame coach with whom Zimmer has been close since their days in Dallas, who still talks with Zimmer regularly and who once famously said, “You are what your record says you are”.
Harrison attempted to bite his tongue somewhat Tuesday. While I certainly don’t think there was a “bounty” placed on Bridgewater, Joyner’s hit was definitely dirty and he can expect a fine from the league. He has been under fire by Vikings fans before as the New Orleans Saints’ defensive coordinator during the Vikings NFC Championship hunt in 2010.
“If we were out on the street, we probably would have had a fight”, Zimmer said. Just like I’m not going to let anybody take advantage of him.
“They’re having to both be physical and think about where they need to be on the field and what the play is, so that’s doing many things at the time which really strains the brain or exercises the brain”, garrigues said. “It was real close so I can see why opinions would sway to be it being intentional”. When I launched, he slid, and we connected. “We’re gonna play fast, we’re gonna play physical, we’re gonna play furious and we’re gonna play contact football”, he said.
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Next the Vikings travel to Oakland and the 4-4 Raiders. There was an opportunity there for Joyner – leading with his shoulder – to put Bridgewater down, to let him know that running the ball against his defense wasn’t the best idea going forward.
