Maybe the best way to respond to incoming flak–verbal flak, that is–is often to just shrug it off, give it no attention, no oxygen and thus, no life. That’s the approach, it seems, of Cowboys cornerback Joey Porter Jr. going back to his Week 5 illness when Dallas was playing Tampa Bay, a game that saw Porter so sick in the locker room that the team decided it was best to have him leave AT&T Stadium altogether and return home. That wasn’t easy for Porter, who had been brought in the previous week in a trade from the Steelers, after he had been unable to come to terms on a new contract with Pittsburgh.
A fellow star cornerback, former All-Pro Richard Sherman, was working the game as an analyst for Amazon Prime. Sherman suggested that Porter, who was eligible to sign a new NFL contract with the Cowboys after the trade, was not really sick, but was trying to get the Cowboys to give him a new deal.
Joey Porter Jr. Blows Off Richard Sherman
On Monday night in Philadelphia, after the Cowboys won, 38-21–the first win of Porter’s Cowboys career–Fort Worth Star-Telegram beat reporter Nick Harris spoke to Porter and asked him about Sherman’s accusation that he feigned illness as a contract ploy. That talk circulated the following week.
Porter Jr. did what he does best: He shut it down.
“Me personally, I know the real,” he said. “I know the truth. I don’t really pay too much attention online to what they have to say. I just got to keep doing my job on Sundays. Once they see the tape, they’ll know. They’ll be quiet soon.”
Cowboys Are ‘So Surreal’
After he was traded from the Steelers, the team for whom his father had played 25 years earlier, it was widely revealed that Porter had actually grown up a Cowboys fan. Fitting, then, that he might be the key piece to getting the woebegone Dallas defense turned around: Porter has allowed a miniscule 39.6 rating in his three games with the Cowboys, and did not allow a catch until a short gain by Dallas Goedert on Monday.
Porter is happy to be doing this for the team he grew up watching.
“It’s just so unreal, so surreal,” Porter said to Harris. “I can’t even really explain it. Sometimes it’s hard for me to be in the moment and realize what’s all going on because everything is moving so fast. I’m happy where I’m at. I’m happy where this team is headed.”
Cowboys’ New Star Joey Porter Jr. Claps Back at Conspiracy Theory