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Patriots 48, Dolphins 28: Porter says Pats 'cheated' him out of two championships

05:05 PM EST on Sunday, November 23, 2008

BY SHALISE MANZA YOUNG
Journal Sports Writer

MIAMI — Joey Porter yesterday shed some light into his many unflattering recent comments about the Patriots, saying he has “hate” for the Pats because he feels they “cheated” him out of two AFC championships while he was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Dolphins linebacker was referring to the “Spygate” controversy, in which the Pats were penalized for illegally taping their opponents’ defensive signals from 2000-06. The Pats beat the Steelers in the 2001 and 2004 AFC Championship Games; Porter played for the Steelers in both those games.

“That’s my dynasty. You know what I mean?” Porter told former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson on EPSN’s Sunday NFL Countdown show, which aired yesterday morning. “I could be sitting up here with three rings,” added Porter, referring to the fact that Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl in 2005.

“Who they got on that team beside Tom Brady?” Porter said. “It’s not like they’ve got a gang of [great players] over there . . . They have a bunch of all-right guys. You know what I mean?”

ESPN provided a transcript of the interview:

Keyshawn Johnson: Is there a big difference in that rivalry of the Miami Dolphins [vs.] New England, and Pittsburgh-New England?

Joey Porter: Yeah, it’s a big difference . . . but I still got hate from when I was at Pittsburgh.

Johnson: Why?

Porter: Because I got cheated.

Johnson: Cheated in what?

Porter: In both of them AFC championship games.

Johnson: What did they do?

Porter: Come on, man. They’ve been videotaping for years, man. You cannot sit up there and honestly tell me if it wasn’t working, why was he doing it so much? You’re not going to sit up there and tell me if I’m a quarterback in my headset I know where the blitz is coming. I know where my hots and stuff is at before it happens. I know what play you’re running on defense. All you got to do is be in the right position . . . just catch the ball.

Johnson: So you feel they were cheating. You don’t feel they were just the better team?

Porter: What? No, no, no, no. Two times we could have blown them people out easily. They say, oh, [coach Bill Belichick’s] so smart. This is the best brainstorming coach. Yeah, because he’s cheating. He got caught . . . If it wasn’t so bad, why did you destroy the tape so fast? . . . We want to see the tapes. When you get rid of evidence like that, there was something in it they didn’t want everybody to see.

Johnson: So you take it personally?

Porter: Maaan . . . That’s my dynasty. You know what I mean? I could be sitting up here with three rings. This is the way I look at it. I played three AFC Championships — won one, lost two . . . Yeah, to me just like they want to put an asterisk on everything else, yeah, I don’t care what they say. They have an asterisk on them . . . At the same time, people that played against them on the field, we know. Who they got on that team beside Tom Brady? It’s not like they’ve got a gang of dogs over there . . . They have a bunch of all-right guys. You know what I mean? Not no just real dogs. They’ve got some beasts on the D line and stuff like that but . . .

Johnson: You can’t possibly think, three Super Bowls . . . You think they cheated in every single one of them games?

Porter: Man, I’m going to tell you, I’m taking that to the grave, man. I don’t care what nobody say . . .

Johnson: What about last year? . . . All the glamour, glitz and glamour, 16-0. You think they were cheating then?

Porter: I don’t know. You know, I don’t know . . . maybe [Belichick] found a new way to do it or not to tell you the truth. The boy cold, man. He showed us, he’s cold. The boy cold, man. Hey, the boy cold, man. (laughs) He showed us man, he cold . . . I don’t trust him . . . (laughs)

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