{"id":857839,"date":"2026-04-07T00:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857839\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:17:14","slug":"joey-porter-jr-refutes-report-about-how-he-reacted-when-mike-tomlin-stepped-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/857839\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Porter Jr. Refutes Report About How He Reacted When Mike Tomlin Stepped Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Tomlin shocked the world when he stepped down as the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 head coach, despite rumors of his departure swirling beforehand. He held that title for almost 20 years, and he became a fixture in the NFL. He felt it was time for the two sides to part ways, though. Players didn\u2019t see it coming, with one report indicating that<\/a> Joey Porter Jr. was hyperventilating when Tomlin delivered the news. However, Porter set the record straight, refuting that report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever said I was hyperventilating on the [internet], on my life I was not,\u201d Porter said recently on The Blueprint Podcast.<\/a> \u201cThere was someone who came on the [internet] and said I was hyperventilating. I was sick, I ain\u2019t even gonna lie. Definitely shed a tear, but hyperventilating is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter\u2019s sadness over Tomlin leaving is understandable. While the whole team loved their coach, Porter\u2019s relationship went a little deeper.<\/a> Tomlin and Joey Porter Sr. are close, which means their families often interacted together. So the younger Porter saw Tomlin as an uncle long before he played for him.<\/p>\n

Porter is entering a contract year, making this season highly important for him. He was solid last year, looking like he could be a legitimate No. 1 corner. Therefore, if he doesn\u2019t get an extension this offseason, he could earn a big payday next year.<\/p>\n

Tomlin stepping down likely added uncertainty to Porter\u2019s future in Pittsburgh. Their close connection probably helped the young corner end up with the Steelers. At the time, it was unclear who the team\u2019s next head coach would be, or what kind of defensive system he\u2019d want to bring in.<\/p>\n

Porter offered more details on what he did after Tomlin dropped that bombshell, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat shit definitely blew me. Nobody expected that. I didn\u2019t even do eval meetings, I went straight to the car. That shit blew my whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering that almost the entire coaching staff was let go after Tomlin stepped down, Porter likely didn\u2019t miss much by not having an end-of-year evaluation meeting. The Steelers have a brand-new defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. They\u2019ll likely do things differently from Porter\u2019s previous coaches.<\/p>\n

While things hadn\u2019t been great for Tomlin\u2019s Steelers recently, he still brought the organization success. Porter isn\u2019t the only one who will miss him. However, the world doesn\u2019t stop spinning. The Steelers are entering a new era, and Porter is one of their best young pieces. Things will be different this year, but hopefully, he can continue on an upward trajectory.<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Tomlin shocked the world when he stepped down as the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 head coach, despite rumors of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[117023,7,7582,1255,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-857839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-blueprint-podcast","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-joey-porter-jr","11":"tag-mike-tomlin","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116360553884969703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857839","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=857839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}