It looks like the fallout from Week 13’s Cam Heyward-Josh Allen flare-up did not end with just the $11,593 fine. Within Pittsburgh circles, the incident even caught the attention of franchise icon Joey Porter Sr. The former linebacker said on the Not Just Football podcast that he was upset with Heyward over how he handled the altercation.
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Heyward’s confrontation with Allen, which included the chest bump, the jawing, the shove, and the taunting flag, stemmed from one claim. After Allen’s touchdown throw to Keon Coleman, Heyward said the quarterback “kneed me in my stomach.” That explanation clarified his anger but also led to league discipline.
What set Porter, however, was not the physical exchange or even the fine. It was the fact that Cam publicly shared why he was so angry.
“I was so mad at you,” he told Cam, without hiding how he felt. “I’m glad we got to talk this week. I was going to call you ’cause I was so mad at you last week. Not how we played… just your interview.”
The moment Porter Sr. heard Heyward explain that Allen kneed him in the stomach, the ex-LB said he replayed the clip several times in disbelief: “‘He kneed me in the stomach.’ I said, ‘What the fu*k he say?’ I rewinded… ‘He kneed me in the stomach?’”
For Porter, the issue with Heyward’s wording was that it violated something he considers sacred among defensive linemen… that you don’t hand a quarterback ammunition.
“Me and my fu*king D-tackle talking about a quarterback who kneed’s you in the stomach,” he said, annoyed not at Heyward’s public admission of it. “I don’t give a damn if he kneed your stomach, we gonna kill him.”
The Super Bowl winner meant it in a literal, heat-of-battle sense. He explained that, in his era, he would have gone after the quarterback on the very next snap instead of telling the public what happened if he had been the one kneed.
“You’ll never know why I killed him… The only thing can save him is Cowher has to burn a timeout to get me out of the game,” Porter said, before delivering the line that summed up the whole rant: “So I was mad at you for snitching. We too big to be snitching on a quarterback. I did not like that. Not my D-tackle.”
Heyward, for his part, didn’t escalate. He simply clarified that the media asked him why he was so heated, and he gave the truth because that was the only way to answer. Porter still wasn’t satisfied. “I don’t give a damn how we got there… I did not like it… Not my D-tackle. Not you,” he said.
After unloading on the Steelers captain, Porter Sr. revealed he isn’t angry anymore, thanks to Pittsburgh’s 22-27 win vs. the Ravens. “But then we come back and beat Baltimore, and that sh*t is all forgiven. They are the team that you beat that heals wounds,” he said with a grin.
In Pittsburgh, beating Baltimore is the universal cure, but this one had even more impact for two reasons: First, it allowed the Steelers to bounce back after consecutive losses to the Bears and the Bills. Second, the win elevated the team to a 7-6 record, making them first in the AFC North.
