During his Tuesday press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made it clear that he’s ready to move past what happened Saturday night in the AFC Wild Card game against the Cincinnati Bengals and especially what transpired with linebackers coach Joey Porter during the final minute of play.
On Wednesday, Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Twitter that the media will not be allowed to talk to Porter this week as the team prepares to play the Denver Broncos in the divisional round of the playoffs.
This is not an overly shocking development and while the media is surely to take issue with the team’s decision to make Porter off limits, it’s probably the right one on the Steelers part in order to avoid distractions.
Porter is under fire for being near the middle of the field Saturday night after Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown was injured by an illegal hit from Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict during Pittsburgh’s final offensive possession of the game.
Several Bengals players took issue with Porter being out on the field during that break in play and it resulted in the Steelers coach first being bumped from behind and then surrounded by several Cincinnati players. Ultimately, Bengals cornerback Adam Jones was flagged for a 15-yard personal foul penalty for going after Porter and that extra yardage wound up costing them the game as Steelers kicker Chris Boswell drove home the game-winning score immediately after that penalty was enforced.
At some point Porter will be asked about what took place Saturday night, but that isn’t likely to happen until the Steelers season is over.
