FOXBORO — When it comes to Joey Porter, the Patriots always know exactly where they stand.
On a conference call with the New England media Wednesday, the Miami linebacker acknowledged that the Dolphins and Patriots have a healthy rivalry, but his feelings toward for New England run a little deeper than most of the rest of his team.
While he wouldn’t mention “Spygate” directly, he intimated he still holds a grudge from his days with the Steelers over two losses in AFC Championship Games because of what he believes happened.
“My feelings toward New England goes back further — it goes back to my Pittsburgh days, so I felt a certain way after some things came out, way back when,” Porter said. “I was in Pittsburgh for some AFC Championships that I’ve lost to them a couple of times … then, come to figure out a month later, why we lost.
“So, yeah, I have a natural hate for them — period. And that’s just going to be with me forever. That’s not ever going to change.”
Asked if he believed what happened “cost him rings,” Porter was characteristically blunt.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. And they know exactly what I’m talking about,” he said. “And that’s not going to change from my thought process on that situation.”
Porter’s verbal blast at the Patriots on Wednesday was just the latest in a line of audio assaults the linebacker has made on New England. Here’s a look at some of the linebackers most memorable quotes involving the Patriots:
May 23, 2008: An angry Porter erupts on ESPN’s “NFL Live,” saying the Patriots cheated their way to championships. In addition, the linebacker hinted the league had something to hide after conducting its investigation.
“They [the Patriots] cheated, there should be an asterisk. They cheated and they got caught,” Porter said. “Why, if you have nothing to hide, would you destroy [the evidence]? That’s how I’ve looked at it from the beginning. Why destroy something that doesn’t have to be destroyed? Let everyone know what was on the tapes. Why would you destroy them so fast?”
Porter also took direct aim at Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
“They went from zero to 60 overnight and [Belichick] went from a good coach to a great, great coach and he got caught cheating,”
What it meant: You kidding me? Big. Even hinting at the S-word and the Patriots in the same sentence is guaranteed to set off alarm bells from coast-to-coast, and Porter knew it. That’s Grade A trash-talk.
Sept. 17. 2008: Last September, he was asked by reporters from South Florida asked about the prospect of facing Matt Cassel instead of Tom Brady — who had suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier in the month — and Porter was typically blunt in his assessment of Miami’s chances.
“I just know he’s not a Tom Brady,” Porter said of Cassel. “So if it’s not Tom Brady, it shouldn’t be that hard.”
Despite the fact that Miami was a couple of games removed from a one-win season, Porter told reporters, “It’ll be good to go out there and get our first victory,” and said the Dolphins were going to go after Cassel.
“You treat him like you treat a backup,” Porter said. “How do you prepare for a backup? He don’t get that many snaps, right? So you throw the kitchen sink at him. That’s what we’re going to do.
“He’s a guy we’ll prepare for, but that was his first start since high school,” Porter said. “So you can take all the reps you want to. This is a totally different game, a totally different league. He’s only had one start in the NFL. Take that for what it’s worth. He won it, but if you compare him to Brady, there’s no comparison. You can say whatever you want to put with it. Those are just the facts. That’s what it is. It means what it means.”
What it meant: As much as it might pain Patriots fans to admit it, Porter was stating the facts. And he and the Dolphins went out and backed it up, hammering Cassel and New England, 38-13.
Nov. 2008: Reflecting on the first matchup between the Patriots and Dolphins in 2008, Porter claimed New England had been “disrespectful” to Miami before the last two Patriots-Dolphins games. That included the Patriots walking through their area during pregame stretching and punting over the Dolphins’ heads during warmups.
“They let us know how they feel about us,” Porter told the Associated Press in the day leading up to last November’s New England-Miami game. “Then they start punting over our heads — like, you want the whole 100-yard field? You don’t do that.
“We don’t like them. They don’t like us.”
In that same session with reporters, Porter also took issue with what happened during a December 2007 matchup between the Dolphins and Patriots when New England ran Laurence Maroney four straight times in the waning moments of a game where the Pats held a 28-7 lead. He said he thought Brady would take a knee.
“I don’t forget things like that,” Porter said, according to AP. “I hope our whole defense and our whole team doesn’t forget things like that.”
What it meant: Porter was clearly reaching here — it’s my guess he feels “disrespected” if someone looks at him the wrong way in the locker room. And the whole idea of someone taking offense at running into the line is a bit much. Regardless, the Patriots came away with a 48-28 win in Miami.
June 2009: Porter and the Dolphins are coming off a 2008 AFC East title, but this past June, the linebacker lashed out at critics who intimated the Patriots were favored to win the division in 2009 because of the return of quarterback Tom Brady.
“I don’t understand how you can put somebody in front of us. We won the championship. We were AFC East champions,” he said after winning the team’s 2008 co-MVP award. “I just don’t think it’s supposed to happen like that. You’ve got to beat somebody to be the champs. We had to beat somebody to be the champs.”
What it meant: In the grand scheme of Porter-speak, it wasn’t all that seismic. Porter sounded more hurt than anything when he said it. Of course, Porter probably wouldn’t have used the same logic last season when he and the Dolphins were coming off a one-win season, but that’s neither here nor there.
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