It hasn’t taken long for Joey Porter Jr. to get comfortable in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform.
Perhaps that can be attributed to his childhood, as the 2023 second-round pick was a frequent visitor inside the Steelers’ facility during hid dad’s playing days. The son of former linebacker and Steelers legend Joey Porter Sr., Porter Jr. took time to soak it all in during his first minicamp practice Friday.
“I soaked it all in,” Porter Jr. said. “It took me like three minutes to get outside because I was just standing at my locker. I did that whole little scene and prayed. I looked out here through the whole field and was like, dang I used to be out here as a middle schooler, as a person in high school and now I am really out here.”
Porter Jr. attended the first-round of the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City expecting to hear his name called by commissioner Roger Goodell.
Porter Jr.’s name never got called.
31 names came off the board during the first-round, none being Porter Jr., who was one of four players left stranded in the Green Room. Though the former Penn State defensive back was emotional after being passed over, his dad was there to console him.
In retrospect, his draft day slide turned out to be a blessing, as the 22-year-old is back home.
“It was something crazy,” Porter said of his first practice. “Something I checked off my bucket list now that I am an actual Steeler. It was good. I feel at home already. As a young kid I used to come through these doors and work out, and now I am a grown man doing the same thing, so it feels good.”
Joey Porter Sr. overjoyed knowing his son will play in Pittsburgh
Porter Sr. was overjoyed when the Steelers, who drafted him in 1999, drafted his son in this year’s NFL Draft.
“I wanted it to be the Steelers so bad for him,” Porter Sr. recently said, via Pro Football Talk. “But they did such a good job of not letting us know. I have over 50 friends in that building that know me personally… I got nothing from anybody to say, ‘man, be ready, it’s coming,’ or anything. We wanted it. Trust me, that’s what we wanted. But we just didn’t feel like we could say for sure that’s what it was going to be.”
