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May 23, 2008

Porter sounds off on Patriots

Former Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter, who is now with the Dolphins, taped an interview with ESPN's "NFL Live" today and went off on the Patriots, saying that when it comes to Spygate, the team deserves an asterisk next to its accomplishments, and that the NFL tried to cover something up by destroying the tapes and evidence the team submitted as part of last fall's investigation.

"They cheated, there should be an asterisk. They cheated and they got caught," Porter said.

Then he brought the league into the discussion.

"Why, if you have nothing to hide, would you destroy [the evidence]? That's how I've looked at it from the beginning. Why destroy something that doesn't have to be destroyed? Let everyone know what was on the tapes. Why would you destroy them so fast?"

Among the tapes that former video employee Matt Walsh submitted to the league last week was one made during the 2002 AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh against Porter's Steelers. New England won the game, 24-17, and went on to its first Super Bowl win.

"If you're to tell me that happened, there's no way I can look at it and feel like I didn't get cheated," Porter said.

According to the veteran linebacker, he's not the only one that feels this way: "Anybody I know that lost to them in big games, they're very upset about it," he said.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young at 7:05 PM | Permalink

Comments

My heart bleeds for Joey Porter and everyone else who needs to find someone or something to blame their losses on, even losses from many years ago. The league concluded that the Patriots were not using tapes to gain an advantage in the game being played. Way too much has been made of this Spygate thing, simply because it was the Patriots. If it were the Steelers or Dolphins we probably wouldn't even remember it by now. The Patriots paid their dues, and the story won't die because of crybabies and Patriot haters who can't man-up and beat them on the field, so they try to beat them up in the media. That's really cheap and even cowardly at this point, continually beating a dead horse because you lost the race six years ago. People need to get over their own failures and stop crying foul at this point. Arlen Specter increasingly looks like a fool and draws criticism for his poor judgment and inability to move on.

Posted by: art at May 24, 2008 8:41 AM

MAYBE THE STEELERS SHOULD OF CHEATED. IF THEY DID THAN PITTSBURGH WOULD OF WON .BILL COWER AND THE WHOLE STEELER FAMILY WERE TOO MUCH OF A CLASS ACT. THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN WITH SUCH A CLASSEY ORGANIZATION .JOEY SHOULD RANT BECAUSE SINCE THE PATRIOTS CHEATED THAT COST HIM A GREAT SHOT AT ANOTHER RING .THERE IS NO WAY ANY TRUE SPORTS FAN CAN DEFEND SUCH A DESPERATE ACT FROM SUCH A CLASSLESS ORGANIZATION..THIS IS HOW THEY TEACH THEIR YOUNG FANS? THEY ARE A TRUE DISGRACE

Posted by: MD at May 28, 2008 3:49 PM