Understandably, former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter’s rant on former teammates James Harrison and Ben Roethlisberger stole the show from Cam Heyward’s most recent podcast episode of Not Just Football. But Porter’s time with the show wasn’t restricted to that one-minute clip.
Porter also shared the couch in a separate episode with former NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, who played with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2010 through 2017. Porter, then a linebacker coach for Pittsburgh, and Jones famously got into an altercation on the field during the rivals’ 2015 Wild Card matchup that effectively helped the Steelers squeak out a last-second victory.
Despite Pittsburgh winning that matchup, Jones tried to tell Porter and Heyward that the Steelers were “soft” in those days, and that he and the Bengals had their number. Unfortunately, history doesn’t agree with Jones's stance in the slightest.
Pittsburgh Steelers legends Joey Porter and Cam Heyward watch history mercilessly prove Adam 'Pacman' Jones wrong
“Y’all was soft, bro,” Jones told Porter.
“We whooped that (expletive). What are you talking about?” Heyward sat up and said.
“(Expliteve), we whooped y’all’s (expletive), too,” he turned and said to Heyward. Heyward quickly chimed back, saying, “Not enough.”
Jones told Porter and Heyward to look up the record during his time in Cincinnati, and said he’d bet that Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh more.
The Steelers were 13-3 against the Bengals from 2010 to 2017. Jones played in all three of Cincinnati’s wins, which came in 2012, 2013, and 2015. While neither Porter nor Heyward gave Jones that stat directly, they were quick to tell him how wrong he was.
“Cincinnati has never been that, bro,” Porter said.
“You’re little brother,” Heyward said.
Jones has always been a character, and even when he and Porter were reminiscing over the 15-yard penalty that Jones drew in that Wild Card game that set up Chris Boswell for the game-winning kick, both assured the other that their trash talk was just that and nothing more.
READ MORE: Porter’s Roethlisberger take hits at the heart of longstanding Steelers dilemma
While the Bengals are still a thorn in the side of the Steelers, the rivalry has certainly changed since the late Marvin Lewis era, when players like Jones and Vontaze Burfict made life difficult for the black and gold. Jones said they played a ‘hard’ brand of football, but accusations of dirty play came from both sides at the time.
There once was a violent nature to the Steelers-Bengals rivalry that has since faded, with hits coming in many of those matchups that helped frame player safety rules, including Ryan Shazier’s hit on Gio Bernard and Burfict’s hit on Antonio Brown in that aforementioned Wild Card game. Even if Cincinnati had Pittsburgh’s number a few times in those days, neither team could accurately be described as ‘soft.’