PITTSBURGH -- The well-worn stories of James Harrison highlight his unreal weightlifting routines, his penchant for late-career sacks, and his general distaste for commissioner Roger Goodell.

Get past the uninviting facial expressions, friends and family say, and Harrison is chasing laughs more than sacks.

"Deebo's funny as hell," Steelers linebacker Jarvis Jones said.

That leads to Jones' favorite tale. During meetings, Steelers linebackers shoot paper into a waste basket to loosen up. After Jones missed a few shots one day, Harrison told him the bricks just cost him $100. Jones figured Harrison was just talking aimlessly.

After practice, Jones couldn't find the keys to his truck. He looked everywhere, no success. He caught a ride home and to practice the next day, when he found the keys hidden in a glass bowl in the locker room.

"[Harrison] said he forgot to tell me," said Jones, shaking his head. "He knew what he was doing. Deebo crazy as f---. If you know him, he's funny as hell. You've just got to be around him to get comfortable. You've got to get past the [flex]."

Harrison is looking for an edge on the field, but at home he's looking for "Teen Titans." Harrison admits he doesn't watch football at home, mostly "cartoons with my kids, whatever they want to watch."

And when his kids go to bed, it's more cartoons -- "Family Guy" or "American Dad!"

When asked for Harrison's best joke from the linebacker room, linebacker Arthur Moats said, "it's not anything I could say on the record."

And when players surprised 33-year-old DeAngelo Williams with 700 balloons in his training camp dorm room (it wasn't really his birthday, but a chance to tease Williams about his age), Harrison was front and center with a camera phone and directions for Williams.

Harrison is known as a giver, recently delivering coffee and bagels to a local fire house, but that soft touch won't stop him from teasing teammates about their lack of muscles.

"I don't know that people get to see that side of him -- completely compassionate and hilariously funny," said Bill Parise, Harrison's longtime agent. "He's always doing something to get a response from people."

When it comes to lobbing mud at Goodell, Harrison has home-cooked fuel for the vitriol: His mother, Mildred, who jokes her son "has been charged more money than anyone in the history of football" for physical play.

Mother and son have one-liners fully stocked at all times.

"Tell Goodell to leave my son alone," Mildred said. "He doesn't want to answer to me."