Joey Porter

'They're trying to make me to be the super-thug bad guy. I'm getting shot one week and next week I'm trying to fight Ray Lewis?' Joey Porter, Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker, on ESPN's Chris Mortensen, who reported that Porter knocked on the Baltimore Raven team bus after Sunday's game

He made the most spectacular defensive play in Super Bowl history, as well as the most notorious hits of this NFL season. Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison prefers to look at both of those things the same way ? yesterday's news. Asked Tuesday about his 100-yard interception return in Super Bowl XLIII against Arizona, Harrison brushed it off. "That was then," he said. "This is a totally different year. " And it's a season in which he's been a little lighter in the wallet, as he was fined a league-high $125,000 for helmet-to-helmet hits ?

PITTSBURGH -- Don't let their own talking fool you. The Pittsburgh Steelers miss Joey Porter, and a lot. They miss his motor mouth, which constantly runs at 100 miles per hour and has distracted, if not deterred, countless NFL players. His talking once led to Porter being thrown out of a game before it started and to dominating the attention at a Super Bowl for two days. "He tries to intimidate other people," Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke said. "He tries to make them scared."

Cameron Wake might know the short way to the quarterback, but the Miami Dolphins outside linebacker sure took the long way to the NFL. Wake, whose sack-strip of Brett Favre last Sunday led to an instant Dolphins touchdown, took one of the more roundabout routes imaginable to get where he is today. Strong play from Wake on Sunday night will be key to contain the visiting New York Jets and quarterback Mark Sanchez. "When a guy can beat you with both his legs and his arm, it puts more stress on your defense," Wake told the Palm Beach Post last week, referring to Sanchez, the former USC quarterback.

Pittsburgh Steeler Coach Bill Cowher wants on-the-edge linebacker Joey Porter to pull his punches, even if it means walking away from a confrontation. Cowher said Porter's pregame fight Sunday with Cleveland Brown running back William Green couldn't be condoned, even if Porter was provoked. Porter and Green were ejected after fighting briefly about 45 minutes before the Steelers' 24-10 victory at Cleveland.

Cameron Wake might know the short way to the quarterback, but the Miami Dolphins outside linebacker sure took the long way to the NFL. Wake, whose sack-strip of Brett Favre last Sunday led to an instant Dolphins touchdown, took one of the more roundabout routes imaginable to get where he is today. Strong play from Wake on Sunday night will be key to contain the visiting New York Jets and quarterback Mark Sanchez. "When a guy can beat you with both his legs and his arm, it puts more stress on your defense," Wake told the Palm Beach Post last week, referring to Sanchez, the former USC quarterback.

Guys like Joey Porter are the reason sports books should take prop bets on the week leading up to the Super Bowl. The smart money for Player Most Likely to Go Off in a Press Conference would have been on Porter. And the Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker would have been easy money. All it took was a little comment by Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens -- that the Jerome Bettis homecoming story would not have a happy ending because he would walk away a loser -- for the wraps to come off Porter.

Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter was fined $15,000 for remarks made to a member of referee Tony Corrente's officiating crew during the Steelers' 20-13 loss at Oakland on Oct. 29. Porter was fined for unsportmanslike conduct on the play, two plays after linebacker Larry Foote drew the same penalty. The two penalties led to a field goal by Oakland during the Raiders' upset victory, one of six Steelers losses in eight games.

Jerramy Stevens' 15 minutes of fame lasted closer to five. The Seattle tight end, who found himself in hot water with Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter after making a relatively innocent comment two days earlier, clammed up Thursday. "I'll be ready to play on Sunday, just like my team will be ready to play on Sunday," he said. "I know Joey's a great player. I look forward to the challenge. I have since we found out we are playing Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter has been fined $10,000 by the NFL for what league spokesman Steve Alic called "vulgar, inexcusable statements" to Cleveland's Kellen Winslow after the Steelers' 27-7 win over the Browns last Thursday. Incensed by a late hit on one of his teammates in the fourth quarter by Winslow, Porter made a derogatory slur questioning the Cleveland tight end's sexual orientation after the game. The fine was announced Thursday.

Times NFL writer Sam Farmer poses the big questions as each team readies for training camp: Rex Ryan is going to have to be part coach, part chemist this season. The New York Jets coach, whose team surprisingly came within a victory of the Super Bowl last season, let three locker-room fixtures go — Thomas Jones , Alan Faneca and Leon Washington — and made some high-profile and dicey additions, including Santonio Holmes , Antonio Cromartie , LaDainian Tomlinson and Jason Taylor . The whole football world will get an up-close view on what unfolds, as the Jets are the featured team on HBO's reality series "Hard Knocks."

While the sports world was busy trashing the trash talking of hockey's Sean Avery this week, there was something more compelling to note beyond his potty mouth: The muzzling of trash talking. Or maybe it's what in this Jerry Springer world constitutes an attempt for "clean trash talking," a sporting oxymoron along the lines of "fun run" and "draft expert." There's a line being drawn out there, somewhere, and it began before Avery's tasteless comments regarding a former girlfriend dating an opponent.

PITTSBURGH -- Don't let their own talking fool you. The Pittsburgh Steelers miss Joey Porter, and a lot. They miss his motor mouth, which constantly runs at 100 miles per hour and has distracted, if not deterred, countless NFL players. His talking once led to Porter being thrown out of a game before it started and to dominating the attention at a Super Bowl for two days. "He tries to intimidate other people," Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke said. "He tries to make them scared."

Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was accused of punching Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones after Las Vegas police said the players exchanged trash talk at a casino blackjack table. Porter was issued a summons on a misdemeanor battery charge after the Sunday altercation that began inside the Palms, police said. Porter could face up to a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine, police said, but no court date was immediately available.

Joey Porter, the linebacker cut last week by Pittsburgh to save salary-cap room, Tuesday agreed to a five-year, $32-million contract with Miami, highlighting a busy day in the NFL. Porter is guaranteed $20 million in the deal. In other moves: * Quarterback Trent Green was seeking a trade that would mark the end of his career in Kansas City. The former Pro Bowl quarterback's agent, Jim Steiner, said that the team is seeking to restructure Green's contract, which will pay him $7.

Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter has been fined $10,000 by the NFL for what league spokesman Steve Alic called "vulgar, inexcusable statements" to Cleveland's Kellen Winslow after the Steelers' 27-7 win over the Browns last Thursday. Incensed by a late hit on one of his teammates in the fourth quarter by Winslow, Porter made a derogatory slur questioning the Cleveland tight end's sexual orientation after the game. The fine was announced Thursday.

Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was accused of punching Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones after Las Vegas police said the players exchanged trash talk at a casino blackjack table. Porter was issued a summons on a misdemeanor battery charge after the Sunday altercation that began inside the Palms, police said. Porter could face up to a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine, police said, but no court date was immediately available.

"If you talk and lose, you're still losers. They talk like a different team, but in reality they are not. They had all the breaks, all the bounces. But when it was nail-biting time and you've got to make plays, who made them?" Joey Porter, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, on the Cleveland Browns, who lost for the sixth consecutive time to their division rivals, 24-20 on Sunday

The hurtin' curtain The Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-6, but they're headed for a victory today against New Orleans. Joey Porter, Pittsburgh's outspoken linebacker, guarantees it. "You know me," Porter told reporters, "I want to put some of the pressure on my shoulder for us to go out and get this victory: We will come back with a victory on Sunday." The Steelers are tied with the 1999 Denver Broncos and 1987 New York Giants for worst midseason record by a defending Super Bowl champion.