Joey Porter Sr. is not whispering, he is not hinting, he is not being subtle as he grabbed the microphone, chose chaos and went after Ben Roethlisberger.
The former Steelers linebacker recently said Ben Roethlisberger was not a good teammate, not a good person either. Yes, he said both. And he did not blink.
Porter also took aim at James Harrison. Why? Because he and Harrison decided to air out team business on their podcasts. According to Porter, that move “broke the brotherhood.” That is football language for “you crossed the line, my guy.”
Apparently, what happens in the locker room is supposed to stay in the locker room. It is not supposed to end up sponsored by a microphone and a YouTube ad.
“[Harrison] broke the brotherhood,” Porter said. “Then 7 [Roethlisberger] definitely broke the brotherhood. Out of anybody that should talk, he should never grab a microphone and really talk Steeler business. Because if we talk Steelers business, his a– is foul of all foul. The s— that he did is foul of all foul. He’s not a good teammate.
“Won the Super Bowl with him, but the person, he’s just not a good teammate. He knows that. Anybody in the Steelers building knows that, but we protected him because I’ve only won one Super Bowl and that was my quarterback. So do I love my quarterback? Yeah, but is he a good person? No.”
Porter continued that;
“He was telling people, ‘No, I’m not going to sign that,'” Porter said. “So once he did that, who they come and tell? The captain. When he first did it to Chris Hoke, I was like, ‘Damn, that’s messed up, man.’ I grabbed it from Hoke, took it over there and told him to sign it. But then when he did that to Aaron Smith, now I got to have a meeting [with Roethlisberger]. Like, you’re a rookie, you’re a young guy.
“You can’t tell my vets you’re too cool to sign for my vets. Who the hell is too cool to sign for your teammate? I’m not a fan.”
Porter also added that Roethlisberger’s captaincy wasn’t earned through locker room votes.
“We voted to be captains,” Porter said. “You had to be voted in. He came in the era where they just gave you the ‘C’ — because if he wasn’t a captain, he’d probably have a hissy fit. But nobody’s going to vote for him as captain because he don’t have no captain quality.”
Now Steelers fans are split. Some agree with Porter, keep it in-house, and protect the brand. Others say, hey, they are retired. They can talk if they want.
Either way, the Steelers brotherhood is trending and not because of a playoff run.
One thing is certain: the drama did not end when the helmets came off, it just moved to Spotify.
