If the NFL is going to enact a Joey Porter rule, then Joey Porter is going to have to abide by it.
The Steelers assistant coach reacted with a shrug to the league’s edict that assistant coaches stay off the field during games, which he did in last year’s wild card game against the Bengals.
“A rule’s a rule,” Porter said, via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. “Doesn’t really bother me. “That’s a rule they have in place, that’s a rule we will play by.”
“That’s a rule they have in place, that’s a rule we will play by.”
The rule tweak wants to make sure only head coaches can go on the field of play, and then only to check on injured players.
That’s not what Porter was doing in the playoffs, when he went on the field to argue with Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones. Jones ended up shoving him, earning a penalty which set up the Steelers’ game-winning field goal.
Porter was fined $10,000, a de facto admission from the league that Porter should have been penalized himself. But Porter wasn’t feeling nostalgic when asked about it this week.
“I didn’t learn nothing from that experience,” Porter said. “That was last year. We didn’t make it to the Super Bowl. That doesn’t really matter to me.”
It will from this point forward, and every coach in the league can thank Porter for bringing it to the league’s attention.