Ben Roethlisberger was the QB. But it’s Joey Porter who is throwing stones from a glass house

When it comes to any off-the-field or personality-related debates, it would take a lot for me to side with Ben Roethlisberger over Joey Porter Sr.

Unfortunately, Porter just said a lot. As he so often did.

On the field, or off of it.

I really enjoyed covering Porter. Roethlisberger was … hmm … an excellent quarterback. And I’ll leave it at that.

During a recent appearance on Cameron Heyward’s podcast, though, Porter didn’t leave it there. He went way beyond.

“He’s not a good teammate,” Porter said of Roethlisberger. “Won a Super Bowl with him. But a person? He’s just not a good teammate. He knows that. Anybody in the Steeler 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’s comments spilled over from a larger conversation about some things that fellow retired linebacker James Harrison said about Mike Tomlin. Porter didn’t seem to like how Roethlisberger (or, “No. 7”) and Harrison have been critical of Tomlin and the franchise’s performance while hosting podcasts in recent years.

“He (Harrison) broke the brotherhood. Then Seven definitely broke the brotherhood because the (stuff) that Seven did, that we don’t talk about, is crazy,” Porter said. “Out of anybody that should talk, he should never grab a microphone and really talk Steelers business. Because if we (are) talking Steelers business, his (butt) is foul of all foul. Like the (stuff) that he did is foul of all foul.”

The former All-Pro told stories about Roethlisberger refusing to autograph items for veteran teammates when he was a rookie, and generally talked about how Big Ben would big-time people when he was young and how that attitude blew up when he became older and more established.

Porter didn’t specifically reference the sexual misconduct allegations that got Roethlisberger suspended at the start of the 2010 season. But since Porter’s comments started to gain traction online, many have assumed that’s part of what he meant. And the public discourse about Porter’s statements has definitely gone in that direction.

If Porter didn’t mean to go there, he probably should’ve couched his comments differently. Because when you start talking about “foul” behavior and “covering” for people, folks in the public aren’t going to assume that you are just talking about signing footballs.

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But if Porter is going to talk about how behavior got in the way of being a good teammate, and how people had to cover for you, he needs to stop throwing rocks from his glass house.

This is the same guy who got himself ejected before a game in Cleveland because of a pregame fight. That’s not being a good teammate.

This is the same guy who wandered onto the field in Cincinnati as coach and helped touch off a fracas with the Bengals during a playoff game that — fortunately — got the Bengals penalized. But the NFL had to reinforce a rule about certain coaches coming on the field during stoppages after that.

Don’t forget, it was Porter who trash talked Seattle’s Jerramy Stevens before Super Bowl XL, even though head coach Bill Cowher specifically told Porter (and the rest of the team) not say anything inflammatory in advance of the game. Again, it worked out for Porter when the team rallied around (or “covered” for) him for firing back at Stevens for making comments about Jerome Bettis’ return to Detroit—and Stevens was a mess in the game.

If Porter was referencing off-the-field behavior, well, as a coach with the team, Porter got arrested during an incident with a doorman at a bar on the South Side in 2017 before charges were dropped.

He was also arrested for suspicion of DUI and other (eventually dismissed) misdemeanors relating to a vehicle stop in California when he was with the Cardinals in 2010.

Even though Porter was largely regarded as great teammate and the emotional fulcrum of those Steelers teams in the early 2000s, those examples are the opposite of being a good teammate — regardless of which team he was on at the time.

Of course, no one likes it when mommy and daddy fight, especially in public. And all of this airing of dirty laundry is not a comfortable place for Steelers fans, especially when it involves some of the best players from one of the best eras in the franchise’s history.

This isn’t media meddling or intervention, by the way. These are comments made by ex-players on their own podcasts or on podcasts hosted by current Steelers.

Maybe they’ve all been away from the locker room too long to remember what the “brotherhood” they are attempting to defend is really about.