William Gay has been through the good and the bad. He has won two Super Bowls. He has lost in the AFC Championship and in a Super Bowl. He knows how hard it is to get there, and how tough it is to get back.
And he knows, the closer you get to that goal, the tougher it is to lose.
The disappointment of the loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional playoff game is something he knows younger players on the team have to get past, but at the same time he wants to make sure they use it as motivation. There is a simple message he would deliver, one that every player should take to heart. "Just think about everything you went through to get to this point, remember the feeling of losing that game," said Harrison on Monday. "When you prepare in the offseason keep all of that in mind. Don't forget everything it took to get to that point. It's not a guarantee you will get back to that point."
For Harrison, there definitely isn't a guarantee. At 37-years old he isn't sure what his future will hold, whether he will come back for a 14th season or not. He is in incredible physical shape, but that work isn't easy, even though he makes it look that way.
"I am getting older. That is an understatement," said Harrison. "It's a lot harder on my body to recover and repair. The hardest thing for me is the offseason, the workouts, getting ready to prepare for the season. Once I get into season that is the easy part."
Harrison didn't give a timetable on when he will make a decision.
"If I knew that I wouldn't be sitting here trying to figure out what I am going to do," said Harrison. "I'm not ready to make a decision. When that time comes, you guys will hear about it I guess."
Harrison, who capped a strong season with seven tackles and a sack against the Broncos, didn't finish up to the standard he set.
"Nobody plays as well as they want to," said Harrison. "Everybody wants to play perfect. Nobody plays as well as they want to.
"There is no acceptable standard. We are not holding up the Lombardi (Trophy). We didn't meet what we needed to."
