{"id":760100,"date":"2026-02-18T10:27:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T10:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/760100\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T10:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T10:27:20","slug":"ex-steelers-star-defends-ben-roethlisberger-after-pure-out-attack-by-joey-porter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/760100\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Steelers star defends Ben Roethlisberger after \u2018pure-out attack\u2019 by Joey Porter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Ben Roethlisberger in a black and yellow jacket and beanie, with a football trophy in front of him, Image 2 shows James Harrison #92 of the Pittsburgh Steelers walking onto the field, Image 3 shows Joey Porter Sr. speaks on SiriusXM at Super Bowl LIX on February 05, 2025<\/p>\n

Joey Porter Sr.\u2019s blistering attack on Ben Roethlisberger\u2019s character isn\u2019t the belief of all his former teammates.<\/p>\n

James Harrison, who was Roethlisberger\u2019s teammate from 2004-2012 and again from 2014-2017, defended the quarterback during his podcast that was posted this week, saying that \u201cI do not think Ben is a bad teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s reply came after Porter went scorched earth on Roethlisberger<\/a>, calling him \u201cjust not a good teammate\u201d and saying that he was not a good person.<\/p>\n

Porter also went after Harrison with his comments, accusing both players of breaking the \u201cbrotherhood\u201d over their criticisms of former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a pure-out attack on Ben\u2019s character, and what I said about Mike was an attack on his coaching,\u201d Harrison said on the \u201cDeebo and Joe\u201d podcast<\/a>. \u201cTwo different things. That\u2019s more breaking the brotherhood than what Ben said. Ben said, \u2018I think I feel like maybe Tomlin should move on.\u2019 Like, come on, bruh. That\u2019s what he said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers walks onto the field before the start of the game against the Oakland Raiders at Heinz Field on November 8, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Roethlisberger, former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback participates in a ceremony at halftime of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in Pittsburgh, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI went way harder than that,\u201d Harrison added. \u201cBut [Porter] went on [the attack] because he, obviously, has a personal issue with Ben that hasn\u2019t been resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the scathing commentary against Roethlisberger, Porter specifically mentioned instances where the QB refused to sign gear for teammates.<\/p>\n

Harrison acknowledged that Roethlisberger\u2019s ego may have impacted the way he handled himself early on in his career.<\/p>\n

\"Joey<\/p>\n

Joey Porter Sr. speaks on SiriusXM at Super Bowl LIX on February 05, 2025. Getty Images for SiriusXM<\/p>\n

\u201cHell yeah, that\u2019s going to stroke my ego and give me delusions of grandeur. But over time, [Roethlisberger] has matured and grown up,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cYou don\u2019t value the same things you did at 23 as you do at 30. Hell, I\u2019m a different person at 47 than I was at 45. And I\u2019m a far worse person at 40 than I was at 45.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roethlisberger has not publicly responded to Porter\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Ben Roethlisberger in a black and yellow jacket and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[6594,108574,7,2710,18740,251,1255,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-760100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-ben-roethlisberger","9":"tag-blistering-attack","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-james-harrison","12":"tag-joey-porter","13":"tag-miami-dolphins","14":"tag-mike-tomlin","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","18":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","19":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116091162696607654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}