Steelers linebacker James Harrison said Sunday that a controversial news report alleging he used human growth hormone drugs is "disappointing."
He also called it a "compliment," saying some are "too weak-minded to understand what it takes to get to this level."
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After Pittsburgh's 20-17 loss to the Ravens, the 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the year and five-time Pro Bowler wanted to set the record straight Sunday afternoon.
"It's disappointing because now, all the work I've put in, ya'll are going to say, you know what (maybe he uses)," Harrison said, via ESPN. "But the ones that know me, they know.
"You have to check your facts before you write something like that. Just because somebody says it doesn't mean it's true. Now I have to fight it because I look like I could be (doing it)."
Harrison was one of several top athletes, including NFL stars Peyton Manning and Julius Peppers, and MLB players Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman, allegedly tied to illegal HGH use in a story in The Huffington Post. The news site had viewed an advance copy of the documentary, "The Dark Side," produced by Al Jazeera. The documentary used British hurdler Liam Collins as an undercover investigator. Collins secretly taped Charlie Sly, an Austin, Texas, pharmacist who supposedly worked at an Indiana-based anti-aging clinic in 2011.
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Sly claimed the athletes in question had used Delta-2, a human growth hormone banned by the NFL. However, almost immediately after the story broke Saturday night, Sly recanted his statements in the secret video, saying he'd been trying to "determine whether this guy (Collins) was legitimate or just trying to steal some knowledge about the business.”
"He has never supplied me with anything," Harrison said Sunday, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I never took steroids — point, blank, period, end of discussion."
Within the past 24 hours Manning and several other athletes named in the story issued strongly worded statements denouncing the report. Manning called it "complete garbage."