Jan. 21, 2026, 3:07 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
Najee Harris just dropped a bombshell on why he chose to leave the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> in 2025 \u2014 and it apparently had everything to do with head coach Mike Tomlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n On a recent episode of the Get Got Pod with Marshawn Lynch and Mike Robinson<\/a>, Harris opened up about leaving Pittsburgh, claiming Tomlin told him it was time to leave the Steelers<\/a> behind.<\/p>\n \u201c[Tomlin] said, \u2018Najee, I always talk to you, not as if you are a player, but as if you are my son\u2019\u2026 He was like, \u2018If you was my son, I would tell you not to come back here.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Alright, bet,\u2019\u201d Harris told Lynch and Robinson.<\/p>\n Yikes. It’s almost as if Tomlin was preparing for a departure of his own \u2014 oh, right.<\/p>\n Selected by the Steelers with the 24th overall pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, Harris produced four straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons to begin his career, a consistent contributor who was poised for a big Year 5 with the Los Angeles Chargers before an Achilles tear in Week 3 derailed his season.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n For up-to-date\u00a0Steelers\u00a0coverage, including any offseason moves, follow us on X\u00a0@TheSteelersWire<\/a>\u00a0and give our\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 21, 2026, 3:07 p.m. ET Najee Harris just dropped a bombshell on why he chose to leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[942,73,75,74,29044,38167,543,46363,8759,46362,2533,952,8757,14298,544,535],"class_list":["post-94472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-accessfree","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sstssportsnflsteelers","tag-sstsnsteelers","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagmarshawn-lynch","tag-tagmike-tomlin","tag-tagnajee-harris","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagpittsburgh-steelers","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}