Steelers: Time to Reconsider Joey Porter

Steelers outside linebacker coach Joey Porter has had a wild week, as wild as law can get. Let’s consider what happened, and if Porter is still a good fit for the Steelers.

Many may have found out recently that Joey Porter will be coaching in the Chiefs game. A sizable portion of them probably didn’t realize that was in question. The events of the past week have happened so quickly a few Steelers fans I’ve spoken to didn’t even realize there were “events.” So now that it appears over, let’s review the situation.

So just to summarize, within the span of a work week Joey Porter was Pittsburgh’s outside linebackers coach ascending the stairway to seven, then facing possible jail time and scanning the wanted ads for high school coaching vacancies, and finally ending up right back in the position he started in. Chronological order is the only way to sift through the madness.

It all started mere hours after the Steelers defeated Miami in the wild card game. Joey Porter apparently went to celebrate the win at a bar in southside Pittsburgh. Police were called in to deal with an “unruly customer” who was “assaulting the doorman.” The details are not totally clear but witnesses reported Porter was asked to leave more than once and refused.

Allegedly Porter was too intoxicated to be let in but physically confronted more than one person and let himself in, after which he refused to leave. When the police arrived Porter left but kept up the behavior outside. When it was all said and done he was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, defiant trespass, and public drunkenness.

Porter spent the night in jail and left Monday after posting a $25,000 bond. The Steelers immediately announced they were placing him on leave. For the next couple of days it appeared the Steelers were preparing to move on from Porter.

There was talk of “further review” which seemed to imply they would review whether or not to fire him. The Steelers were using inside linebackers coach Jerry Olsavksy and DC Keith Butler to take Porter’s duties. Keith Butler even talked about how he was excited to get to coach the linebackers more directly.

Then Thursday, things abruptly changed direction. The DA announced they were dropping most charges against Porter. It was apparently based on some “HD quality video” of the incident. He is now only accused of disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

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Though we don’t know what happened at this point some at the scene and the local police union, as opinionated as any police union, have taken issue with this determination. Mayor Bill Peduto even had to speak out about it to assure the public no decision was influenced by football. Still, even if the result is correct it was determined at a speed I doubt you or I would receive.

Friday it came to an anticlimactic conclusion. Porter was reinstated by the Steelers with some vague mention of continuing to look it over and review it, etc. Third verse, same as the first. Right back where we started.

So what are we to make of this? The Steelers have emphasized what a lack of distraction this has been but I can’t imagine that it wasn’t at least a little bit of a distraction. And this is not a fluke, Porter has been in trouble with the law several times before. None of it has been terribly serious, they all tend to be of the drank too much and made stupid decision variety.

But Porter will be 40 years old in a couple months. And he’s a coach in the NFL. He should not have the rap sheet of a cartoon frat boy. It’s not as though the distraction is over either. Porter’s fate will be looming over the players, and Porter most of all, indefinitely.

So we must ask, is Porter worth it? Well, our best outside linebacker is James Harrison, the one Porter has had the least influence on. Jarvis Jones and Bud Dupree are first round picks. Porter has not proven his ability to develop talent despite all that’s been invested in the position.

Obviously, your ability to perform our day job should have no influence on how your are evaluated when it comes to ethics or justice. Though, one could imagine if Mike Tomlin, Mike Munchak, Todd Haley, or Keith Butler had a bit too much to drink you might begrudgingly understand their being forgiven. Maybe not agree, but understand.

When it comes to Porter though, his ability to be a distraction and get in trouble is far more proven than his ability to coach. Don’t get me wrong, we all loved Porter as a player and just as a person, as a personality. I still watch that video of him introducing players with that Dave Chappelle/Howard Dean yell and crack up.

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That’s not enough though.

When the season is up it’ll be time to reconsider the relationship between Porter and the Steelers.