In a reversal of form, Antonio Brown interrupted a gaggle around James Harrison in the Steelers locker room Tuesday by posing a question.
“How’s business?” Brown asked his teammate.
“Boomin!” Harrison responded.
And indeed it is for the 38-year-old linebacker. He is ready to start his 14th NFL season and says he feels, well, like a 30-year-old.
That was his age when he earned NFL Defensive Player of the Year and authored what many believe to be the best defensive play in Super Bowl history, his 100-yard return of an interception for a touchdown against the Cardinals.
He feels so good right now, in fact, that Harrison said he could see playing beyond 2016.
“I’m not ready to say anything” about this possibly being his final season. “Could I extend it? If you would ask me now, yeah. That’s something I’ll deal with when I get to that.”
Only two linebackers in NFL history have played the game into their 40s — Clay Matthews II and Junior Seau.
“I don’t know if I want to go that far even though it’s only a couple of years away,” Harrison said. “I can’t answer those questions right now because I feel good.”
Harrison certainly has to feel good about the way he played last season. He graded better than any other Steelers linebacker. At 37, he played more defensive snaps, 611, than any other outside linebacker on the team, even though he started just once.
His five sacks led the outside linebackers, his two forced fumbles tied for the team lead and he also intercepted a pass.
“He’s the ageless wonder,” Ben Roethlisberger declared. “I don’t know if he’ll ever be done. He might outlast us all.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to have him back. He’s fun to watch. At his age, he’s not just hanging on, I mean, he’s thriving. He had a great year last year, and we expect bigger and better things this year.”
Harrison would not discount that. He left some doubt initially whether he would return this season because he wanted to see how his body responded to his annual, grueling workout routine he goes through in Arizona.
It went swimmingly.
“It was actually easier. I didn’t have anything hurt, I guess, to heal from at the end of the year.”
He believes he could play more snaps this year than he did in 2015. He thinks he could play 80 percent of the defensive snaps.
“I am sure you could pull James off of a couch at 60, and he would tell you he could play 80 percent of the snaps,” Mike Tomlin said. “That’s James’ mentality. ... You like guys with that mental approach.”
Yet Harrison stated that he has no problem with backing up Jarvis Jones at right outside linebacker again, even though Jones played in 157 fewer snaps than Harrison.
“He is the starter. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
Not even if it might hold back his statistics, numbers that could ultimately make a case for him as a Hall of Fame candidate?
“I need another ring, that’s about it,” Harrison said. “That’s the only number I care about.
“The goal is to win the Super Bowl. If that’s not your goal, you might want to get out of the game.”
And Harrison is not even thinking about doing that.
First Published: June 14, 2016, 7:45 p.m.
