Though most of the focus with rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. has been about what he’s done on the field, especially as he’s 24 hours away from making his NFL debut, there was one off-field story with him during training camp: a back-and-forth between Porter Jr. and former Cincinnati Bengals’ LB Vontaze Burfict.
It all started when Porter Jr. was asked by NFL Network to name one player he couldn’t stand growing up. A Pittsburgher whose dad played and coached for the Steelers, the latter in the height of the Burfict’s football career, Porter Jr. said Burfict was the played he hated most.
That got back to Burfict, who posted an Instagram story captioned “f**k your daddy,” becoming the main character on NFL Twitter for a day.
Until today, the only person we hadn’t heard from in all of this was Joey Porter Sr. The great folks at The Pivot Podcast, Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor, had Porter Sr. and Porter Jr. on the most recent episode of their podcast and brought up the moment. Porter Sr. defended what his son said, noting that being hated is a good thing around the AFC North.
“That whole Vontaze thing, you tried to give the guy a compliment,” Porter Sr. said, in reference to his son’s comments. “He couldn’t take it…don’t nobody like me in Cincinnati. Don’t nobody like me in Baltimore or Cleveland. I was telling someone on the way up. We were playing New England. They were so mad at me, they put me on the Jumbotron. Said I had no tackles that day. Do you know how they hate you if they’re going to go out there and put you on the Jumbotron?”
Pittsburgh and Cincinnati had a fierce rivalry in the mid-to-late 2010s. If the Steelers and Ravens’ rivalry was built on mutual respect, the Steelers and Bengals on hatred. That came to boil in a 2015 AFC Wild Card Game. With the Bengals seemingly set to win, RB Jeremy Hill fumbled the ball away, recovered by Pittsburgh. An injured Ben Roethlisberger moved Pittsburgh’s offense into the fringes of field goal range when Burfict laid out WR Antonio Brown over the middle of the field.
That drew a penalty, and in the ensuing discussion, Porter Sr. – then the Steelers’ linebacker coach – made his way onto the field. It led to Pacman Jones going after Porter Sr., drawing another flag, and leading to a very makeable field goal for K Chris Boswell, who sent Pittsburgh home victorious.
During his playing days, 2012 to 2019, Burfict was among the most hated players in the league and routinely considered one of the dirtiest. His suspensions were as common as tackles. But to Porter’s point, being hated by rival fan bases is a term of endearment. If you don’t make plays, no one cares enough to know who you are, let alone dislike you.
“I wanted to be the most hated in every stadium I walk into,” Porter said. “That means you’ve whooped enough ass where they don’t like you.”
Porter Sr. certainly had that type of reputation. Combine his physical playing style with trash-talking to go with it and few outside of Pittsburgh liked him. But they had his respect, something Burfict’s never obtained. It’s why the Steelers/Bengals rivalry never reached the same level as the Ravens. With Pittsburgh and Baltimore, they knew how each side operated. There was a code, a respect, an understanding by each franchise. Cincinnati was no-rules guerilla warfare, a physical team but an immature one. It’s shown in responses like Burfict’s most recent shot across the bow.
Check out the entire episode below. It’s a fantastic episode full of tremendous stories from the entire group but especially Porter Sr. Give it a listen tonight.
