Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback, Joey Porter Jr. was five years old when his dad's team made a run from the sixth seed to win the Super Bowl in 2005. Led by legends like Jerome Bettis, Hines Ward, and Ben Roethlisberger on offense and Joey Porter Sr., Larry Foote, James Farrior, and Troy Polamalu on defense, Pittsburgh defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos in the AFC playoff bracket to earn a date with the Seattle Seahawks in Detroit. Porter Jr. said his favorite postseason memory of his dear old dad came from a moment in the locker room after a big win over the Colts.
Porter Jr. spoke to the media on Monday and reminisced about the famous speech his father gave the team in the locker room after the team knocked off the Colts in the divisional round to secure a date with the Broncos in the conference championship. In a video posted by DK Pittsburgh Sports, Porter Jr. smiled from ear to ear, talking to reporters about his dad firing up the team with his "They shot me in Denver" outburst.
"I was a kid watching those, but the one I remember most, not really game related, but the speech before the Denver game," he said. "That speech alone and how the locker room reacted. I felt they was ready for that, they was was pumped up."
The Steelers had just come off an emotional win over the Colts. Roethlisberger made a shoestring tackle on Colts' defensive back Nick Harper to save a touchdown, and Bryant McFadden defended a Peyton Manning pass to Reggie Wayne before Mike Vanderjagt missed a field goal that clinched an AFC Championship berth.
Porter Sr. had been shot as an innocent bystander outside a Denver sports bar in the wee hours of the morning in 2003 and invoked the memory of it in an impassioned outburst in the locker room after the game. He missed two games in 2003 after being shot in the buttocks. The Steelers had lost in Denver in 2003 and were looking for revenge, visiting the Mile High City with a Super Bowl on the line.
Porter Jr. acknowledged he was way too young to understand what the speech was about or what it meant at the time. Having rewatched and talked to his father about it, he said it was about the time he reached middle school that he had a full understanding of what he witnessed as a five-year-old kid.
Steelers' Porter Jr. Ready For His Playoff Debut
When the Steelers travel to Buffalo on Sunday afternoon, Porter Jr. will make his playoff debut in a hostile and possibly very cold environment. While he's got plenty of experience around Steelers playoff football and some big games from his college career at Penn State, the NFL playoffs are a new challenge for the 23-year-old.
Porter Jr. said he hopes that his team can find the same kind of energy his dad gave off in that speech when they travel to Buffalo on Sunday. Since he became a full-time starter in Week 8, Porter has started to take on some of the league's premier targets as an island cornerback.
He was tasked with shutting down DeAndre Hopkins against the Tennessee Titans the week after being named a starter. He's since had to deal with Amari Cooper, JaMarr Chase, and DK Metcalf. While he won't be alone in stopping the Bills, his matchup with Stefon Diggs will be an important one.
Porter has shown tremendous growth in his short time in the NFL. The fact that he wants these matchups with the top wideouts in the league and that the coaching staff has trusted him to take them on says it all.
Do you remember seeing Porter Sr.'s "Shot in Denver" speech? How do you think Porter Jr. will do in his first playoff game?
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