The tension between former NFL stars and rivals James Harrison and Chad Ochocinco was palpable on Super Bowl Radio Row in New Orleans a couple weeks ago.
Harrison, the two-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker, threatened Ochocinco as their ongoing verbal beef escalated.
“Listen, man, I accepted my Lord and Savior in August of this past year when I was baptized, and what you’re about to make me do is go totally outside of what I said I was gonna do,” Harrison said on The Nightcap Show with Shannon Sharpe and Ochocinco. “I’ve been trying to hold this thing inside of me. Ever since I got fined by Roger Goodell for $75,000, I’ve been wanting to kill somebody.
“I think you might be the person,” Harrison seethed. “I think God done brought you to me. I think that’s what he did.”
Ochocinco refused to back down.
“That’s fine,” the two-time Bengals All-Pro receiver snapped back. “Matter of fact, I’ll add $75,000 to your purse if you beat me. How about that? So you get your money back. That’s how serious I am.”
Shawne Merriman, another former NFL All-Pro, watched the trash talk from afar and had a better idea than Harrison vs. Ochocinco:
Merriman and Harrison should fight instead.
“I’ve got respect for both of those guys. Chad’s my boy. I’ve got a ton of respect for James Harrison. But I don’t think they’ll ever fight,” Merriman, 40, said on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast of the muscular, menacing Harrison and the slender, sweet-footed Ochocinco. “I think it’s more of a social media beef. So I threw it out there: if he’s looking for a real fight, I would love to fight James Harrison.”
Merriman’s Lights Out Xtreme Fighting MMA organization would host the cage match, and he would stream it live for free on his Lights Out Sports TV, which carries a lot more than fighting, such as the exclusive feed of the East-West Shrine Bowl practices back in January. It also will carry the Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans fight on April 12.
Merriman, a former Chargers star, said he prefers to arrange events in private first. But Harrison did not return a few different texts, so Merriman now has started calling him out publicly.
The WWE has reached out to Merriman, who has been training himself for years, about fighting, he said. But Merriman would love his first ever professional fight to be against Harrison, who is also known as “Deebo.” Merriman thinks the event “would be massive.”
“Somebody’s not leaving the cage, to be honest,” Merriman predicted. “Somebody’s not leaving. If they do, it’s gonna be five or 10 minutes [later] but after somebody wakes up. Neither one of us is walking out of there clean. I think the NFL guys would watch. I think it would be a big hit.
“We’d go three, three-minute rounds in an MMA cage. Obviously Deebo is still in great shape. We’re seeing the videos he’s posting. He’s strong as hell. I think the fight makes sense. And if he was into it, I would make it worth it … make sure he’s paid. But let’s give people what they want to see.”
Merriman, who racked up 17 sacks in his All-Pro 2006 Chargers season, also remains locked into pro football and sports across the board. So he stayed with the Daily News to discuss the Cowboys’ Micah Parsons, the Eagles’ Zack Baun, the Browns’ Myles Garrett and the Chargers’ 2025 game in Brazil.
On Parsons, Dallas’ star pass rusher, who is overdue an extension entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract: “I don’t believe a guy like Micah Parsons, he should never have his hand in the dirt on one side of the football. This guy runs a 4.4 at 245 pounds. You move him all around the field … I would like to see Micah Parsons go somewhere where he’s used appropriately. I think the last couple years of him putting his hand in the dirt, staying on one side of the field and not being able to move around — the defensive coordinator there now [ex-Bears head coach Matt Eberflus] came out in the media and said, ‘Hey, we’re moving Micah around. He’s not gonna be in one spot.’ That’s the mindset you [have to] have.”
Merriman said Parsons is obviously worthy of a huge contract but it will be a huge salary cap hit, “and if you’re planning on rebuilding the team for the next four or five years, you might want to look at — and this is not a knock on Micah, this is a positive … Dallas has so many holes to fill … if you’ve got so many holes to fill, I don’t think signing a big deal [wiht] Micah Parsons is gonna make the overall team better.”
On Garrett’s best fit if the Browns grant their star pass rusher’s trade request: “I would love to see him come out to the Chargers knowing Khalil Mack probably has another year left if he decides to come back. Obviously Joey Bosa’s getting up there. And [Garrett] and Tuli [Tuipulotu], the other young pass rusher coming up, I think they’d make a great combination.
“But when you’re talking about team needs, [it’s the] Commanders,” Merriman added. “I would like to see him out there with the Commanders, because I think they’re one or two guys off on the defensive size of the ball. Their offense is put together: running back, quarterback, wide receiver … Their offense can go.
“But they’re one or two players off on that defense from really taking that next step,” Merriman said. “And if they want to make a real run at the championship, you need a Myles Garrett on that team. I think he can put you over that hump.”
On Baun’s successful position change under Eagles DC Vic Fangio to inside linebacker: “This is why coaching matters. This is why certain guys bounce around team to team. You have coaches who come in and have a scheme: ‘This is what I want to run. You’re gonna play this position, and I don’t care what else you can do. This is what I want you to do because this is what I know.’ Most of those coaches get fired and ruin guys’ careers.
“Fangio is gonna go down as one of the best D-coordinators ever, along with [Chiefs DC Steve] Spagnuolo and some of these other guys,” Merriman continued. “I played for a great one in Wade Phillips. And Wade Phillips had this saying: ‘you’re gonna do 80% of what you’re great at and 20% of what you’re not.’ And what that meant is I wasn’t great at covering tight ends and running backs out of the backfield and running down the field and dropping into coverage. That’s not what I was great at doing. I could do it, but I wasn’t great at doing it.
“So he knew I had to get after the quarterback,” he said. “Whether that’s coming off the left side, right side, blitzing down the A or B gap. They always had me going because that’s what I was great at doing … The [Eagles] put Zach in a position to be successful, and that’s what great coordinators do.”
On the league announcing the L.A. Chargers will play the second-ever NFL game in Brazil: “It’s outstanding. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of Chargers fans in Brazil. I have a really good friend who was at ESPN Brazil, and he was sending me videos and Facetiming me going to local bars and motorcycle shops, and they had my jersey in those places. So there’s a lot of Chargers fans. I think for the Chargers fan base, it expands what they’re doing. And it’s great for the NFL.
“And you know who else played their game in Brazil that went to the Super Bowl,” Merriman said with a smirk of the Eagles, who beat the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paolo in Week 1 of last season. “There’s gotta be a little something there.”
