I know Joey Porter. I've seen the video. He antagonized the situation.
So, the fact that one of the players involved says the exact opposite means nothing? A player for the opposition that has nothing to gain by defending him, by the way?
I never claimed that Joey Porter is a saint. In fact, he has almost always been one of those players/coaches that has had some issues around him. However, this one situation most fans have many of the facts backwards.
Am I the only one that thinks it doesn't matter WHAT Porter said (Jones admitted he didn't know what was said anyway, so it was irrelevant to HIM) but the fact he was there and not acting like a COACH but rather like the PLAYER he was - part of the Stillers "gang" - is the problem.
You either have rules or you don't, you either enforce those rules or you don't. It's that simple.
This is purely speculation on my part, so take it with a grain of salt. Jones can truthfully admit that he didn't know what was being said. However, I think that he assumed that JP was trying to start a fight. The reason that I say this is the quote from Burfict that I posted previously. He admitted in the interview that Jones got it wrong.
To summarize, what Jones "thought" that JP was saying was very relevant. Otherwise, he doesn't react the way that he does.
As far as JP acting like he was a part of the "Stillers gang", that's all a matter of opinion. What exactly is a gang in this instance? He's in the immediate vicinity of 3 trainers/doctors and a player being escorted off of the field after being injured. The rest of the players in the area are all Bengals players. There are no other Steelers in the area until DeCastro and Villanueva come into the picture to pull him out after the situation went down. None of them make aggressive moves towards any of the Bengals players. In fact, JP keeps his arms down to his sides throughout the entire confrontation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wysECduSPfkThe video is only a few minutes long.
On a side note, there's a ton of things to go after Joey about. It's low hanging fruit. He's not a model citizen, and I'll never claim that he is when he steps out of line. And I completely agree that he shouldn't have been on the field to begin with. However, I will always maintain that his role in this particular incident has always been mischaracterized by a vast majority of the public, and I think that watching the video with a dispassionate eye would back up my claim.
There's a sentiment that the Bengals got screwed over in this situation by many people. All they had to do was exercise a little bit of personal responsibility/self control, and they would have come out much better in the situation. They screwed themselves whether JP antagonized them or not, and hardly anyone wants to admit that.
As a life-long Steeler fan I can confidently say that Joey Porter should not be a coach of any sort on this team.
You'll not get any argument from me. There needs to be a shake-up, or serious threats of job loss to the entire staff. It seems odd to say that about a team that just made it to their conference championship game, but opportunities are being squandered. If I were the ownership, I wouldn't immediately get rid of Tomlin, but I would put it in plain terms that certain things need to get cleaned up right now.
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