Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules - Dudes on James Harrison

Episode Date: January 3, 2026

We've got a bonus mini-episode for you this week! We're covering legendary Steeler, and former New England Patriots teammate, James Harrison! Gronk and Julian Edelman discuss what makes James Harrison so great and some of their favorite stories.Support the show: https://hoo.be/dudesondudesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers, but it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught. The answers were there, hidden in plain sight. So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York, since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, I'm Jorge Ramos. This week, on the moment, we take a look at Venezuela's uncertain future in a conversation with two people who have directly advised U.S. presidents. Juan Gonzalez, during the Obama and Biden administrations, we're really good at invading countries. We're very bad at nation building. In Carlos de Rosillo, during Trump's, two terms. I can guarantee you that nobody in the Trump administration likes Delsi Rodriguez.

Listen to the moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves. I'm Mike Delarocha, a host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release.

If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Deloach on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyankawali. And I'm Hurricane DeBolu. It's a new year.

And on the podcast, Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG.

But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you.

I was a spy. Listen to the Secret World of Rolled Doll, starting January 19th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, let's get into our last Halloween edition of dudes on dudes. Guy that we are going to talk about. You know what? I'm looking at this, and it's pretty gnarly. That every one of the scariest guys that we're going over is from the AFC fucking north.

another Kent State Golden Flash, another man that scares the living shit out of you. He sure does. His name is Debo, but his birth name is James Harrison. James Henry Harrison, Jr. Oh, Hank, I will not call him that to his face. He'll probably beat my face in. I've seen him doing that volleyball shit. What is a...

Let's see what AIS to say. All right, ladies. AI for James Hank. I was probably too scared to write anything about. Holy smokes. Oh, that's blank. AI was scared. AI is fucking scared.

I'm scared. Did not want to get it wrong. Start the clock. No. Now. Now. James Harrison. James Harrison was a tenacious and a hard-hitting linebacker.

Tenacious. Tenacious. Thank you, Jules. Gotcha. I'm hairy. I didn't read any books growing up, okay? You know, and a hard-hitting linebacker. known for his relentless work ethic and physical style of play.

Off the field, he was dedicated and resilient, overcoming numerous setbacks to achieve success. Harrison had a significant impact on the Pittsburgh Steelers, on the Pittsburgh Steelers, helping them win two Super Bowls and earning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2008. Jesus. Notably, he set a then-Steeler's single-season record

with 16 sacks in 2008, and is the only undrafted player to win defensive player of their year award. He was also a five-time pro-baller and twice named the Steelers MVP. He should have been a Super Bowl MVP. Yeah, but San Antonio Holmes with that cat, toe tapping catch to end the game. They should give out like two MVP's award, a defensive MVP if deserved, and then an MVP award as well. Or an MVP award, and if it was a defensive guy, then if someone played on the Offense aside, you know, on the offense side of the ball very well, they should also have the offense of MVP.

You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying by that? Oh, Andy. Yeah. They can get a better sponsorship group out of the NFL too if they did that. You could have, you know, Chevy for, you know, the offense and Ford for the defense. We're not business guys. Debo. Hey, Lloyd, you're smarter than I thought. Harry. Your hands are freezing. James Harrison

absolute scary motherfucker like he's look at him you look at his pictures it's like one degree outside he's got his shirt off and his baggy ass sweats

doing a pregame warm up looking like he wants to just I fucking kill every single person on the other side of the team like we played against him and he's got a notion and it's so fucking crazy

that he didn't get drafted because he's about six feet tall, but he's also six feet wide. This guy is a fucking fridge. His arms are literally like 30 inches big. I remember he came and played with us in 17. It literally, when he would walk in the locker room, it felt like the scene in Friday when Debo would roll,

everyone would put their chains away. And he was like a nice guy, but he just had that scary or. Nice guy. Great guy. Scary aura about him. We're like, no, hey, oh, shit. What's up? No one wanted to joke with them because you didn't know if he was going to take it or if he could be joked with it.

But he was honestly a great teammate for that one year. And he's made so many incredible fucking plays in his career. Like, it's insane. Have you seen him do the shock put? No, I never seen that. I guess he's a huge fucking shock putter. Like, he's a fuck. I love him.

I absolutely loved him. I remember when he played that game in 2008. I was at Kent State, the Super Bowl, where he had that big 100-yard run in the Super Bowl. And I was just so excited to see a guy like him, you know, dominating the NFL from where I came from. I mean, it was, it's crazy. Was Prime's James Harrison faster than you?

Yes. Was he? Yes. I'm not going to say he wasn't. I had to think about that. And I was like, wait, if I am faster than him, I should not say I was faster. That's like me saying I'm stronger than him as well,

which obviously I am not stronger than James Harrison. I don't think anyone is. But I'm going to talk a little football, you know, a little technician on the football field here. I mean, in the blocking aspect of the game. And who you're going versus,

what type of guy you're going versus, what type of player you're going versus, who you're going versus. Because in the NFL, you scout the player you're going versus. You scout them. You see what type of player they are. You see how they react,

to, you know, the type of blocks that they're receiving and all that good stuff. And what size he is, what height the defender is that you're going versus. You get in his chest, you throw your shoulder. There's so many different techniques depending on who you're going versus. And I love blocking a guy that's like 6'5,

my height, who stands up. Because then I can get in his chest, driving backwards, and a guy that doesn't have that mean look, that mean attitude, and a guy that's not going to get pissed off because I came flying off the ball and absolutely drilled him and drove him back five yards and embarrass him. That was the last thing I was trying to do with James Harrison.

What were you trying to do, James? First off, with James, I knew I couldn't get into his chest. The guy is like a bowling ball. Like, you know that 28-pound bowling ball that everyone wants to throw down the freaking lane and just trying to knock down all the pins and like you kind of like do it granny style and it's so heavy. You blow out your back. Well, those are the hardest guys to block in the NFL, especially at my size, six-foot-six.

hard for me to get low. It's hard for me to move that type of guy because they have so much leverage. Built in pad level. Yes, exactly. That's what he has. And with a guy like that and how scary and intimidating he was, and I seen it on film, you do not want to piss James Harrison. Why? What did you see on film? Yes. What do you see on film? What do you see on film? I've seen them take defenders, offense alignment, toss them. I seen him absolutely level defenders and put him out of the game with a concussion. Dude, he knocked out Josh Criss, one of his teammates from college. Literally knocked his ass out.

Therefore, when I'm blocking him, it's a guy that you just kind of want to get in his way. I'm not going to come off the ball and crush his skull. I'm not trying to do that because if I piss him off, you know, if I hit him hard and I trigger him, man, I'm going to tell you he's going to pick me up and throw me to the next play. So I never wanted to trigger him. I always just try to get in his way, you know, with my shoulder, with my hands. So then when the running back came around and you try to make a play, you know, just get in his way again, you know, so.

Could you feel his strength? I could feel his strength. Because if I started going strength for strength, that's when I lose. Yeah. No doubt about it. That's when I lose the block versus a guy like that in leverage. So every time I just try to just kind of play patty kick, you know, try to let him absorb me. So if I did fly off the ball, he would fly off the ball too, then I would go backwards and he would have that separation.

And the guy would pass. So I just try to stick on him like a like a sponge, you know, and just always didn't let him out of my rear view mirror. just always staying in front of them, never trying to piss them off, never trying to give them a cheap shot. That was the way I blocked James Harrison. And it was a whole different style when you go versus a player like him. That's crazy. See, we're here talking about, like, Rob's, Robb used to block the biggest, baddest dude on the defensive line. That's fucking, you know, it's rarely seen, you know, a matchup with the tight end and the nine technique fucking D-end or what, you know, the outside linebacker that's playing down.

Like that doesn't that's usually not the point of attack a lot of times is it you watch that film? Yeah, you always want to get the tackle on those guys. But when you have a tight end in that situation, that's willing to do it, willing to get dirty. That's what expands your offense. That's what expands the run game. That's what expands the play action game as well. And I kind of use that to my advantage. And that's actually what helped me get open plenty of time on the play actions when the linebacker step up because they thought, you know, I'm coming out the block.

But James Harrison was a terrifying pocket pressure. player. Low. He got so low. He's just like, like, yeah, he would have that shoulder dip and he would just get right by to off of the tackle, even though the offensive tackle is twice his size, kind of like, it looks like twice as height, but he would get right underneath him and he was so strong. He would just rip through, right through his arm and then get to the quarterback.

And he was quick enough to take kind of an outside angle. Run the hump. Yeah, run the hump and then bolt right to the quarterback. He also would have a great change up where he would just use his strength. He'd get right up in that chest of that guy who was about eight inches taller. them and push his ass right back into the pocket and blow up the quarterback. And that's the exact leverage I was talking about. And that's why I didn't go toe to toe with him right off the line because he would get

that leverage and you'd push me back. So I would just try to stay on him and not let him get that force to, you know, to be able to push me back. So just being a smart player. Have you seen his workout videos? His workout videos are freaking ridiculous. He has like 845s on each side when he's freaking benching like 500, like 55 pounds. You see it does.

It's just ridiculous. His conditioning, he gets like a 30 pound or a 40 pound medicine ball. And he plays volleyball with it where you have to catch it and throw it. I have seen that. That's hard. People don't realize that's hard. That's heavy weight. And he does it for a long round.

Like it's so fun to watch his workouts because he does like some world strongest man shit all the time. Or like you'll have like a boulder. He's pushing or he's fucking pulling a goddamn car or throwing fucking. rocks that are like 900 pound like he's just a he's a cool dude man and the one thing about it the one thing would you agree does his voice not match his body i think it does match his body it does because i don't think it's like a low scary voice it's not as low as you expect yeah so i don't think it like you would think with that guy he's like hey how you're doing you yeah you're expecting that low. It's kind of, it's not high, though. No, it's not high. It's kind of like James. I'm not

saying you have a high, which is kind of good because imagine if it was that low, it would be like even scary. Yeah. Like, I remember he, he, he, remember he gave, I got one of his shirts. Remember he had the Debo shirt in the locker room? I still have the Debo's shirt somewhere here. He's like, he can lift like, whatever, 600 pounds, bench, squat, that lift. But, What I love about him is that he always posts his regimen of, you know, recovering. Yeah. Of how he recovers off of those lifts, how he was recovering in the NFL. And he would put like 350 acupuncture needles.

And every day. Like every other day. And he posts about it. Like, you got to be a freak. You got to be intense in order to get 350 needles poked inside of your muscle tissue and just take it like an absolute champ. Like that just shows. He just shows like he's dedicated.

Like he's doing whatever it takes to be at that level that he needs to be at. Who is the Mount Rushmore of strongest guys we played with, do you think? I would say Sebastian Volmer. Volmer. Left tackle. Was Vince Wolfork? He was super strong. He didn't really have to even like work out that much.

He would just walk in the weight room and toss up like 500 pounds of the bench. Yeah. Marcus Cannon. Cannon was the strongest guy I ever saw. In the squatting world. I've never. I remember Kenna would be squatting and there'd be 15 fucking 45. And the thing would be bouncing.

I swear, I think he had like 1245s on each side. Remember that? Yeah, the bar would be bouncing. Like it was a fucking cue tip with fucking rocks on it. It was gnarly. That was a good imitation right there. And then Brandon Bolden for pound for pound. Bolden didn't even work out.

He was like, But he pound for pound when we do all those like, Oh my gosh. I wasn't saying like that was a bad thing to work out. He didn't need to work out. And I'm like, dude, how are you so strong and ripped? He was like, yo, I carry my kids around. And I'm like, I'm like, dang, I got to start having kids.

I got to start having kids. And I still haven't started. And this is eight years later. I would still be playing if I had 10 kids. He would always do those. Remember, we'd always have to do those explosion recordings for some certain things, like the Kaiser's. and he would always be the absolute,

he blow people out by a thousand points because he was just so explosive strong. I'd say that's probably our Mount Rushmore. Yes. His last Kent State game, you know who he sacked five times? Miami of Ohio. Oh, Big Bad.

His fucking teammate. Ben Rothesberger. No one's off limits. No one is off limits. We saw what he did to Josh Cribbs when he was in a Browns uniform. We saw what he did to Ben Rothesburg. when he was in a Miami of Ohio uniform.

Like he is fucking Freddie Kruger, bro. This is a, I mean, this is the perfect guy to have on the goddamn Halloween episode. You know, yeah, we're talking about his, you know, defensive skill set and all that. But what about every time he had an interception? He always almost like brought that ball back to the house. Always. With one of the biggest Super Bowl plays in history,

the 100 yard return versus Arizona Cardinals. And if they scored right on that drive, they were saying the game was going to be over going into half because the carnos had that big of an advantage and that much momentum going in. But he saved the Steelers that game with that interception to the house. It looked like he was about to be tackled eight different times. And he just kept going and kept going and kept going. He's kind of like a fullback mixed with a running back when he's running the ball.

Like Mike Allstate. Yes, exactly like him. He's Mike Allstott of the defensive side of the ball. Did he hear that he's, is he going to be fighting Ocho Cinco? He will be fighting Ocho. Yeah. Ocho Sink. Ocho Sinkro.

First James Harrison. What are you thinking, Ocho Senko? What the? Fudge, are you thinking? I'll tell you right now, Ojo Sinko's got some ball. He does have some ball. He raced a horse. He's fought a couple times.

And he's lost all the fights, though. Has he? Yeah, he lost a fight. He bought one time. There's something to be said about a man that loses a fight and keeps coming back. He keeps coming back. Oh, Joe Zinko, don't back down. He doesn't.

He doesn't. But what's he thinking? What is he thinking? I don't. Is it, it's UFC, right? MMA style. MMA style?

Yeah. I mean, the only way you'd have to fight James Harrison is if you go box him, if he couldn't bring you down. Ocho Cinco is 6-1-190 pounds about, I would say. He's got it? He's probably like, yeah. He lost a Brian Maxwell in a boxing match?

Did he? Yeah, it wasn't that pretty. I'm not saying they probably beat the shit out of me, but I'm not fucking James Harris. James Harrison is a scary man. Should we go? We should go. I got a what-if scenario.

Do you think we can beat James Harrison if we tag team versus him? You mean if we tag team James Harrison? No, no, like you and I versus James Harrison. I don't, honestly, I really don't know. I consider myself a tough guy. And I consider you a large, tough human as well. We would have to game plan. We'd have to, you have to game plan because you know the Steelers do what they do.

They do what they do. They do what they do. They do what they do. They do it very well, but they do what they do what they do. They don't adjust. They don't adjust. They do what they do. We'd have to game plan James Harrison for that fight.

Time. All right. But what kind of dude is James Harrison? Okay. I have, I have two that I think he is. You know, I don't think he's a dude's dude. No one's, I played with him. And he was kind of a dude's dude, but I was too scared of him.

the whole time for him to me think that he was a dude's dude uh the freak he's i mean he's either a freak or dog to me you know it and i think it's a crazy thing that if he's a freak that he was an undrafted freak that's probably a stat that we'll never say again and the that's freaky i mean he is a freak for sure i would not disagree with a freak he has dog in him there's no doubt about that he's a relentless dog he's a dog that he's a pit bull he just never going to stop it's the pit bull that's untrained yeah that has a lock dog and just never letting go until that jaw finally gets tired after

like 10 hours. You got to put him down. I think you got to put him down basically. You got to kill him to let him. But he's also freak with that interception and the stride, his stride when he's running is ridiculous. I mean, it's freaky to have a stride like that at that size with that much mass and to be able to run like that, that's

freaky. That's freaky tangibles. Dude, no one five, they say he's six foot. That dude's 5.11. He may be 5'10. He bout my height. And he's 260. And he runs just as fast as me. Okay, if you want to call that, not a freak, you're fucking crazy.

Yeah, you are crazy, then. He's a freak. He's a freak. James Harrison, freak. Stamp it. A decade ago, I was on the trail of one of the country's most elusive serial killers. But it wasn't until 2023 when he was finally caught. The answers were there, hidden in plain sight.

So why did it take so long to catch him? I'm Josh Zeman. And this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer, the investigation into the most notorious killer in New York, since the son of Sam, available now. Listen for free on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, I'm Jorge Ramos.

This week, on the moment, we take a look at Venezuela's uncertain future in a conversation with two people who have directly advised U.S. presidents. Juan Gonzalez, during the Obama and Biden administrations. We're really good at invading countries. We're very bad at nation building. In Carlos Dia Rosillo, we're in Trump's, two terms.

I can guarantee you that nobody in the Trump administration likes Deli Zed Rodriguez. Listen to the moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves.

I'm Mike Delo Rocha, a host of sacred lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships and the patterns we're ready to release. If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Delaroach on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally.

And I'm Hurricane Dabolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. The guy was a spy. Listen to the secret world of Roald Dahl, starting January 19th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.