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James Harrison is afraid of flying, white mansions

James Harrison saves a lucky Browns fan from flying away

First Kornheiser, and now this.

Steelers LB James Harrison took a lot of heat for electing not to join his teammates when they visit the White House on Thursday to meet with President Barack Obama.

But the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that it isn’t politics or any devious motives that will keep Harrison from attending.  Rather, it is his paralyzing fear of flying.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of truth to that,” confirmed Bill Parise, Harrison’s agent. “When James was in college, his mother had to drive him to all the away games. That’s the absolute truth. The transition for him into the NFL was real difficult at first.

“He can get on airplanes and fly, obviously, but he doesn’t like to.”

Harrison also chose not to visit the White House three years ago after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, and doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal this time around.  But then again, three years ago he wasn’t the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

At least Harrison’s got a sense of humor about it:

He added, seemingly in a joking manner, that the White House is not in the safest area of Washington, D.C. “It’s not a good neighborhood over there either,” Harrison said. “It’s a bad neighborhood.”

Harrison said he was surprised at the reaction to his declining an offer to visit the White House. “They’re making a big deal out of this: ‘Oh, my, James Harrison is not going to the White House, he must be a devil worshiper!’”

That’s exactly what I was thinking.  Exactly.  Infidel.