The whole debate around the Pittsburgh Steelers and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. trade came to something of a head on Sunday when Porter Jr. made his Dallas Cowboys debut after being traded to the team on Wednesday. This is after Porter Jr. had feigned a back injury for weeks to avoid being on the field after contract negotiations fell apart.
Porter Jr.'s situation has created a divide among fans and critics as to who is to blame and who to be mad at. But Steelers beat writer David Todd said the quiet part out loud about what most reasonable Steelers fans are thinking about why there is so much vitriol toward Porter Jr.
Todd's comments were in response to former Steelers Breiden Fehoko who has turned his attention post-football into being an edge
content creator and following the current trend of appeal to authority arguments intended to shut down counter arguments without any actual proof of their point.
Any #Steelers fan who is mad is mad because Joey Porter faked a back injury & quit on his team while under contract. He gets traded & is magically able to play, w/o a new contract, btw. Let's just be honest about the facts. https://t.co/5t5CS7esx2
— David Todd (@DavidMTodd) October 4, 2026
It isn't hard to say that had Porter Jr. just come out and said that contract talks stalled, he didn't feel like the offer was fair and he wants to be traded, this all would have gone much more smoothly. But instead him and the team put up this facade, of which we don't know how much the team was even aware and instead of handling it professionally, forced the team's hand.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers beat writer says on the quiet part out loud about Joey Porter Jr. situation
