Defensive Tackle Damon Harrison
November 9, 2017
Q: When you hear people criticizing your coach, why do you think that’s happening?
A: No idea, sir.
Q: When you watch the film, do you think guys gave full effort on Sunday?
A: Yes. Were there mistakes made? Yeah, there were a lot of mistakes made, but the effort was there. Could some guys have done something differently on the play? Yeah. But to sit down there and to say that guys weren’t playing hard or gave up, that’s false. Completely false.
Q: Do you think the criticism that Ben McAdoo is getting…
A: I have nothing to do with that.
Q: Ben McAdoo is under fire…
A: I have nothing – no comment on that, sir.
Q: You don’t feel the need to support him?
A: Anybody else?
Q: What’s the mindset of the team going to San Francisco?
A: We’re going out there to win. We expect to win just as we do every game. We can feel how we want to feel during the week, but we just got to go out there and execute the game plan. There’s just been a lot of mistakes made, which are all correctable. We just got to go out there and put what we put on the practice field on the game field.
Q: What’s the state of the locker room?
A: I mean, I don’t understand why anybody would think that – to address your point why Coach McAdoo has lost the locker room – that’s false. To answer your question that you’re so adamant about getting a response from me on. Whoever was anonymous, whoever said it is a coward. Flat out. I mean, if you’re not man enough to put your name behind something that you feel because that hasn’t been echoed to anybody in this locker room. I mean, we could have talked it out if you feel that way. It could have went differently, but point blank, whoever said that is a coward.
Q: How disappointing is it to see someone from your team do that?
A: That’s about all I got to say on that.
Q: Will you talk to the team about it?
A: No, sir.
Q: Why not?
A: There’s no need to make a big deal out of it.
Q: You don’t think it could spread.
A: No, sir. Only the media thinks that. Locker rooms don’t work that way.
Q: How do they work when something like that happens?
A: You’ve been around a while?
Q: Yeah.
A: Have you seen a lot?
Q: I’m not a player.
A: Have you seen a lot? Could you feel the temperature of the locker rooms you’ve been in where you’ve seen that?
Q: I guess.
A: The way that you all see leaders. I hear a lot of people speaking up on it. Everybody doesn’t lead that way. Don’t need a rah-rah guy and a vocal leader. We got a lot of great guys in the locker room who are self-motivated. Things just aren’t going our way right now, so it’s easy to criticize or even formulate an opinion when you’re not in this locker room. You don’t know the men in this locker room and I challenge anybody who says otherwise.
Q: Ben McAdoo said he has an open door policy. How much do you use it and how much had you seen other guys use it?
A: That’s not usually something that’s talked about. I’m not going to just sit down and tell anybody I went upstairs and talked to coach McAdoo today. He said that from day one, from the very first day I’ve been here and it’s still the same now. If you got a problem, go talk to coach McAdoo. It’s just – it’s cowardly for you to go sit there and tell a reporter who’s only doing her job something that has to deal with the guys in this locker room.
Q: Do you think he has become an easy target because of the record?
A: Who are you talking about?
Q: Coach Ben McAdoo.
A: (Inaudible).
Q: Have you been in a situation where you felt that you had to get a message out through the media in terms of saying what you feel about a coach?
A: No. No. I mean, that’s going to be addressed internally. I would hope whoever told you what they told you don’t tell you the outcome of what’s going to said, whether it’s by a coach or by a player. I have no idea. But, it’s going to be addressed.
