Jan 14, 2017 5 min read

Why will Joey Porter be on the sidelines tonight when the Steelers play the Kansas City Chiefs?

In case you missed it, Porter was involved in a beef with a security guy and an off-duty cop Sunday night outside a bar on Pittsburgh’s South Side. He was handcuffed, arrested and taken to the Allegheny County jail, charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest, public drunkenness, unnecessary roughness and terroristic threats.

OK, I made up the unnecessary roughness.

After further review, the charges were reduced to disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. He was released on $25,000 bond.

On Monday, the Steelers placed Porter on leave. After the charges were reduced, they reinstated him Friday.

Porter has a rap sheet from multiple run-ins with the law, nothing serious enough to keep him in jail any longer than it takes to raise bail, but serious enough that it makes you wonder if he’s mature enough to be a coach.

Former Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe, who had plenty of run-ins with Porter on the field, told Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports 1 that it’s obvious to him that Porter still thinks like a player.

Porter is 40 years old. Maybe going to bar to celebrate a playoff win with the players isn’t such a good idea, especially for a guy with a track record of getting into trouble when he’s been drinking. Maybe you’ve noticed that the NFL has had a problem with players getting into trouble with the law. Head coaches are constantly telling players to stay out of trouble when they’re away from the team, so why would a coach, in this case Mike Tomlin, want a guy like Porter as an assistant?

Wouldn’t this have been a good time for Tomlin (and his boss) to send a message to his players? You can be pretty sure that the players gave Porter a hero’s welcome when he came back.

I’m having trouble imagining former Steelers coach Chuck Noll having a guy with Porter’s problems on his staff in the first place, much less welcoming him back after embarrassing the organization and causing such a distraction.

• Any time it’s suggested that the modern day Steelers aren’t as tough as they used to be when it comes to upholding a standard of conduct, it’s inevitable that someone will bring up Ernie Holmes. He’s the former defensive tackle and member of the original Steel Curtain, who was reinstated after shooting at state troopers in a helicopter in the Spring of 1973.

Holmes wasn’t suspended by the Steelers or the NFL. Dan Rooney bailed him out for $45,000. The guy had a nervous breakdown as a result of financial problems created by a divorce. He thought trucks on the Ohio Turnpike were after him and he started shooting at them with a shotgun.

After getting out on bail Holmes spent two months in a psychiatric ward, paid for by the Rooney’s.

Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne mentioned the incident in their book, “The Ones Who Hit The Hardest: The Steelers, the Cowboys, the ’70s and the Fight For America’s Soul.” They wrote: “A police helicopter swirled overhead and Holmes, surrounded by state police, began shooting at it, hitting an officer in the ankle. Moments later, surrounded and exhausted, he was finally in cuffs. Said one officer afterward, ‘We could have killed him a dozen times.'”

Art Rooney Jr., who oversaw the personnel department at the time, told the authors, “We thought he needed mercy.”

Holmes went to Ohio and pled guilty. A psychiatrist testified that he suffered from acute paranoid psychosis. Holmes got five years probation and was back on the Steelers defensive line to start the 1973 season.

Did he get off easy because he was a Steeler? Maybe.

Should he stand forever as the standard for the Steelers’ tolerance of bad behavior?

No.

But he will.

• The next time you use GAA – goals against average – to make your case for either Marc-Andre Fleury or Matt Murray being the Penguins’ No. 1 goalie, keep the last two games in mind. There were eight goals scored against the two goalies and they probably had no chance on seven of them.

• I watched “Bret Favre: A Football Life” on the NFL Network a few nights ago. He and Terry Bradshaw are the two best naturally talented quarterbacks I’ve ever seen.

• The Chiefs lead the NFL in takeaways. They’re playing at home. Ben Roethlisberger has eight interceptions in his last five games and hasn’t played well on the road. There’s a good chance that it will be raining. In his last seven playoff games, Roethlisberger has seven touchdown passes and nine interceptions.

I’ll still take the Steelers, 24-21.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.