Joey Porter Sr. recently said that Ben Roethlisberger was “not a good teammate” and “not a good person,” and that he doesn’t think Roethlisberger should be speaking publicly about Steelers business.

Quick Scoop: What Joey Porter Said

Core comments about Roethlisberger

Porter’s remarks came during an appearance on Cameron Heyward’s “Not Just Football” podcast during Super Bowl week, where he was asked about former Steelers criticizing ex‑coach Mike Tomlin. In responding, he turned his focus to Roethlisberger and James Harrison, accusing them of breaking the Steelers’ “brotherhood” by publicly taking shots at Tomlin and the organization.

Key points Porter made:

  • He called Roethlisberger “not a good teammate” and “not a good person,” even while acknowledging they won a Super Bowl together.
  • Porter said “out of anybody that should talk, he should never grab a microphone and really talk Steelers business,” arguing Roethlisberger lost that right by how he acted when he was playing.
  • He claimed “we protected him” inside the Steelers building despite those issues, because he was the quarterback on their Super Bowl team.

Specific examples Porter gave

Porter didn’t keep it vague; he cited concrete stories from Roethlisberger’s early years and later tenure.

He described:

  • Refusing to sign for teammates’ families: Porter said that as a rookie, Roethlisberger refused to sign autographs for the families of veteran teammates like Chris Hoke and Aaron Smith, which led Porter, as a captain, to confront him.
  • Being “too cool” for teammates: Porter said Roethlisberger acted as if he was “too cool” to sign for teammates, something Porter called “foul of all foul.”
  • Protected status later in his career: When Porter returned to the Steelers as a coach, he said Roethlisberger was basically “off limits” and could operate however he wanted without being challenged.

In one of the more quoted lines, Porter said that what Roethlisberger did was “foul of all foul” and repeated that “he’s not a good teammate,” adding that everyone in the Steelers building knew it.

Captaincy and leadership criticism

Porter also questioned Roethlisberger’s leadership credentials and how he became a team captain.

He claimed:

  • In Porter’s era, captains were voted in by teammates, and you had to “do captain stuff” and earn it.
  • Roethlisberger, by contrast, came in an era where, according to Porter, the team “just gave you the ‘C’” and that if he hadn’t been named captain he would have “a hissy fit.”
  • Porter insisted that “nobody’s going to vote for him as captain because he don’t have no captain quality.”

He contrasted Roethlisberger’s attitude with veterans like Jerome Bettis, who, in Porter’s telling, went out of their way for fans and teammates.

Why Porter is speaking now

Porter’s comments are part of a broader, very current Steelers drama around Mike Tomlin’s departure after 19 seasons and the way former stars talk about the franchise. Roethlisberger has used his own podcast and media appearances to question whether the team has lost the “Steelers Way,” which Porter clearly resents.

From Porter’s point of view:

  • Roethlisberger and Harrison are helping shape a negative narrative about Tomlin and the organization.
  • That frustrates Porter because he believes Tomlin played a major role in Harrison’s success and oversaw Roethlisberger during Pittsburgh’s most successful modern era.
  • He sees their public criticism as violating an unwritten rule that “Steelers business” stays in‑house.

How fans and media are reacting

The story has quickly turned into a trending topic on NFL Twitter, Reddit, and fan forums because it reopens long‑running debates about Roethlisberger’s off‑field reputation and locker‑room presence. On meme and rivalry subreddits, many posts focus on Porter bluntly saying Big Ben “wasn’t a good teammate” and joking that no one is shocked by that claim.

Sports outlets from ESPN and Yahoo to Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports have highlighted the most explosive quotes, especially:

  • “He’s not a good teammate.”
  • “Do I love my quarterback? Yeah. But is he a good person? No.”
  • “[Roethlisberger] definitely broke the brotherhood.”

Many writers also note that this is unlikely to be the last word, and that it adds another chapter to the complicated legacy of Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh.

TL;DR: Joey Porter Sr. said Ben Roethlisberger “broke the brotherhood,” was “not a good teammate” and “not a good person,” accused him of being too big‑time to sign for teammates’ families, and argued he didn’t truly earn his captaincy, all while insisting that, despite their shared Super Bowl win, Roethlisberger shouldn’t be publicly talking about Steelers business now.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.