Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter says that as he prepares to face New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Sunday, he has to prepare for a particularly difficult challenge: A quarterback who gets protected by a special set of rules.
Asked by Rich Eisen on NFL Network’s Around the League whether Brady has a special set of rules to take care of him, Porter went off.
“No question,” Porter said. “When a guy can tell a ref when to throw a flag, and he gets it, he’s got his own rules. They made the rule that you don’t go at the legs for Tom, so when he feels that someone is going at his legs, he just points to the ref and he gets a flag. So I can honestly say that he gets his own rules.”
The comments come a day after Porter said he had “a natural hate” for the Patriots. When pressed by Eisen about why he feels that way, Porter said it all goes back to the Patriots’ practice of videotaping defensive coaching signals.
“I still don’t care for New England,” Porter said. “The hate’s been there for a while, especially after all the cheating they did back in the day. . . . They can sweep it under the rug if they want to, but just like anybody else that’s cheating that gets caught, you put an asterisk by it. But nobody puts an asterisk by those championships they won.”
Porter also claimed that when the Dolphins visited New England last year, players and coaches on the Patriots disrupted the Dolphins’ pregame warm-ups in violation of league rules.
“Kicking balls while we’re stretching, over our heads, out of the end zone that we’re stretching in -- certain stuff they did that you can’t do, but they did it when we were in New England and somehow they got away with it,” Porter said.
Eisen pointed out to Porter that he’s been accused of violating some rules himself, having been named the second-dirtiest player in the league in a Sports Illustrated poll of NFL players. Porter said it’s just a matter of guys he’s played against having a personal problem with him.
“That’s just the nature of people not liking me,” he said. “I would hate me too if I was on the other side.”