Should Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther ever become a head coach you probably don’t have worry about him ever adding Pittsburgh Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter to his staff.
One day after the Steelers beat the Bengals in an AFC Wild Card game, Guenther took a shot at Porter for him being on the field in the middle of several Cincinnati defensive players after Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown was injured late in the contest by linebacker Vontaze Burfict.
“To me that’s not what an NFL coach is as a professional,” Guenther told the media Monday, according to Paul Dehner, Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I think it’s an embarrassment to the coaching profession.”
Guenther went on to say that he’s approached Porter before about him not talking to his players.
“I asked him nicely, said, ‘Joey, this is supposed to be a clean game, two divisional opponents, a playoff game. I told my guys I don’t want any talking or any bull on the field. Do me a favor, don’t talk to our players I won’t talk to your players,’” Guenther said. “Well, at the end of the battle that son of a (expletive) is standing in the middle of the field.”
Guenther wasn’t the only member of the Bengals to take a shot at Porter on Monday, however, as tackle Andrew Whitworth also let loose with his thoughts on the former Steelers linebacker turned linebacker coach.
“I respect all opponents,” said Whitworth. “I always have. I have a ton of respect for the Steelers. (Coach Mike) Tomlin and I had a big hug at the end of the game, just apologizing for everything that happened. I’ve got a ton of respect for those guys. Joey Porter is not one of them. He’s not one of the guys I respect very much. He’s a guy that has always run his mouth. He’s always been disrespectful to people. In the first game here, he was out at midfield M-Fing everybody, wanting to fight. And then doing that in this game. He’s not a football player anymore, he’s a coach, so he’s got to be held to a higher standard. I think the unprofessionalism he’s shown is just ridiculous. It really is. So that’s unfortunate.”
It will now be interesting to see what kind of fallout, if any, comes from Porter being on the field Saturday night. His presence obviously perturbed Bengals defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry and cornerback Adam Jones with the latter receiving a crucial personal foul penalty after trying to go after the Steelers coach after the former purposely bumped into him from behind. NFL rules indicate that Porter shouldn’t have been on the field, but if look at the tape from the game, several members of the Bengals coaching staff were also between the white lines at the same time, albeit not as far out on the field as Porter was.
After the game was over, a report surfaced that Porter received a game ball, however, that has yet to be completely verified. Guenther took issue with that possible notion.
“Well,” he said, “then that goes to show you what kind of organization they’re running.”
I fully expect Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin will be asked to comment on several of these quotes Tuesday during his weekly press conference and it will be interesting to see if Porter is allowed to talk to the media as well.
In conclusion, however, the Bengals players should’ve just ignored Porter completely even if he may have been trying to get underneath their skin. Had they taken that course of action they’d likely be preparing to play the Denver Broncos on Monday instead of bitching to the media about Porter as well as other calls they felt went against them.
