After being fined $75,000 for his hits on Cleveland Browns wide receivers Joshua Cribbs and Mohammed Massaquoi, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison is mulling retirement.

"I'm going to sit down and have a serious conversation with my coach tomorrow and see if I can actually play by NFL rules and still be effective," Harrison said on Tony Bruno's FOX Sports Radio show on Tuesday night. "If not, I may have to give up playing football."

The 32-year old Harrison is currently earning a $755,000 base salary, meaning his $75K fine represents 9.9%, or 1.7 game checks of his 2010 compensation, which also included a reporting bonus of nearly $3 million this summer.

Harrison plans to appeal his fine, which was more than the $50,000 that New England Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather was fined for a flagrant helmet-to-helmet hit on Baltimore Ravens tight end Todd Heap on Sunday due to Harrison's status as a repeat offender.

"I really truly hope it's something that can be done," Harrison added, "but the way that things were being explained to me today and the reasoning for it, I don't feel I can continue to play and be effective and, like I say, not have to worry about injuring someone else or risking injury to myself."

Harrison is in the second-year of a six-year, $51.175 million contract extension. If he were to retire, which should be considered a highly unlikely scenario, the Steelers would assuredly seek to recoup the prorated portions of his $10 million signing bonus, as well as a portion, if not all of Harrison's $2.8 million reporting bonus from this summer.