Joey Porter Sr. now watches his son follow his footsteps with the Steelers, and that includes living the rivalries with the Browns, Bengals, and Ravens. While things may not always be quite as intense as they were 20 years ago, you still see sparks fly. And that isn’t just on the field, but in the stands, as well-and spouses aren’t off-limits.
You see, the players know that, but the wives don’t—not until they learn the hard way. After the Steelers’ win over Cleveland, Browns G Wyatt Teller’s wife took to social media to complain about her treatment at the hands of Steelers fans. While it doesn’t excuse anybody’s behavior, Browns fans treated Joey Porter Sr’s wife even worse.
Christy Porter—also the mother of Joey Porter Jr.—talked about it on last night’s episode of Hard Knocks. And it’s serendipitous timing, since it was clearly recorded earlier—evidently on Thursday. Porter and his son broached the topic of division rivalries while watching the Lions and Packers. So Mom shared her story about the one time she attended a divisional game in Cleveland—in a Steelers jersey.
“I remember all the wives, we took a limo to Cleveland”, Christy Porter said, though who knows which Steelers-Browns game it might have been. “Your dad said to me—because all the wives, we always wore our husbands’ jerseys—he was like, ‘Christy, don’t go to Cleveland with my jersey on. That’s not gonna be a good idea’”.
“I was like, ‘Everybody’s wearing their jerseys! All the wives are wearing their jerseys! I want to wear my jersey!’”, she insisted, and evidently Porter Sr. couldn’t dissuade her. She went to the game in her No. 55 Steelers jersey, and quickly regretted it. “I didn’t make it to halftime. I had to be escorted out the stadium, because the Cleveland fans were like, ‘Joey Porter’s wife!’. Popcorn, hotdogs, drinks. That was the last time I went to a divisional game”.
At least Wyatt Teller’s wife managed to make it through the game around hostile Steelers fans. The Browns fans chased Porter Sr.’s wife right out of the stadium, never to return. But to his credit, Teller himself pretty much said that that’s just the nature of rivalries. For better or worse, wives are not off-limits—or are meals, apparently.
“I don’t even eat in Cleveland, I never eat in Cincinnati, and I never eat in Baltimore”, Joey Porter Sr. said, his Steelers obviously having no love from Browns, Bengals, and Ravens fans. “They’re gonna spit in Joey Porter’s sandwich. They’re gonna spit in my pasta”.
Fan is short for fanatic, and there is good and bad to that. Nobody who is minding their own business should be made to feel uncomfortable at a sporting event. Even if somebody is wearing a Browns jersey in the Steelers’ stadium, they should be treated with a basic level of human respect. But the Porter family knows as well as anyone that what happened to Mrs. Teller is hardly a Pittsburgh thing.
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