Steelers announce Joey Porter Jr.'s status for Week 2 game vs. Patriots

The Pittsburgh Steelers soap opera with Joey Porter Jr. reached its next act on Friday afternoon when the team officially ruled the cornerback out for their Week 2 game against the New England Patriots on Sunday. 

Porter Jr. took part in a few individual drills on Thursday before leaving with a trainer.

The team continues to maintain that Porter Jr. is dealing with a back injury, but it's becoming quite clear this is all just part of the fight between the team and player after they were unable to reach a contract extension prior to the season.

Joey Porter Jr. will miss another game for Steelers

Porter Jr. is in the final year of his rookie contract and has been seeking a new deal all summer. They were never able to hammer out an agreement, and given the Steelers' self-imposed rule of not negotiating contracts during the season, it leaves the team in a mess where their top cornerback is going out of his way not to play.

After "holding in" throughout most of training camp, Porter Jr. was inactive in the team's 20-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1.

Head coach Mike McCarthy kept trying to push the idea that it was all about ramping Porter Jr. up in his conditioning to be ready for games, and kept insisting that he was going to do more this week to get closer to playing.

All of that went sideways on Thursday when Porter Jr. left team drills.

On Friday, they officially listed him as out due to "NRI/Conditioning/Back."