While he never played for the coach, former Steelers outside linebacker Joey Porter is going to bat for Mike Tomlin while taking aim at two former teammates who have been outspoken about Tomlin since he decided to step down as Pittsburgh’s leader.
Fellow former Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison has been extremely vocal in his criticism of Tomlin, going as far as to say he isn’t a Hall of Fame-caliber coach. Former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hasn’t been as extreme, but he did make headlines when he suggested late in the 2025 season that Tomlin should become Penn State’s new coach. Roethlisberger has since said on his podcast that it was probably time for a change regarding the Steelers’ coaching post.
Porter, who also served on Pittsburgh’s coaching staff from 2015-18, was largely diplomatic in terms of his comments regarding Harrison, but things got personal when he discussed Roethlisberger, his teammate from 2004-06.
“Seven definitely broke the brotherhood,” Porter said on Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward’s podcast. “The shit that Seven did that we don’t talk about is crazy. Out of anybody, he should never grab a microphone and really talk Steelers business, because if we’re talking Steelers business, his ass is foul of all foul, like the shit that he did is foul of all foul.
“He’s not a good teammate. Won a Super Bowl with him, but the person, he’s just not a good teammate. Like he knows that, anybody in the Steeler building knows that, but we protected him, because I’ve only won one Super Bowl, and that was my quarterback. So do I love my quarterback? Yeah, but is he a good person? No.”
When asked why he felt Roethlisberger was a bad teammate, Porter mentioned that Roethlisberger did not sign autographs for teammates’ family members during his rookie season. Porter, a team captain at the time, decided to have a meeting with Roethlisberger after he specifically declined to sign something for defensive end Aaron Smith.
“Who the hell is too cool to sign for your teammate?” said Porter, alluding to former teammate and Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis and his constant willingness to do things for teammates and fans. “I always looked at it like this. Look at the team when Joey was a captain, when Jerome was captain, when Hines Ward was a captain. You heard nothing in the locker room.
“Captains have to do captain shit, right? We voted to be captains; you had to be voted in. He came in an era where they just gave you a seat, because if he wasn’t a captain, he’d probably have a hissy fit, but nobody’s going to vote for him as captain because he don’t have no captain qualities.”
Beyond his alleged locker room issues, Roethlisberger was suspended for four games in 2010 amid a violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy, as multiple women accused him of misconduct in 2008 and 2010.
“I got caught up being Big Ben the whole time,” Roethlisberger said at the time. “I lost track of who Ben Roethlisberger was. It’s not something I’m proud of.
“Big Ben just kept building up. It ended up coming off the field. It kept taking over. Superman kept taking over Clark Kent and you just never saw who Ben Roethlisberger was anymore. At the time, I didn’t see it. I was gaining everything, but I was losing a lot of who I was raised to be.”
Roethlisberger himself previously acknowledged that he wasn’t always the best teammate. He did, however, maintain some close relationships during his early years in Pittsburgh with several teammates, specifically Bettis and former tight end Heath Miller, among others. In later years, he developed a close bond with center Maurkice Pouncey, who was inducted into the Steelers Hall of Honor this past year alongside Roethlisberger and Porter.
In 2019, departing teammates Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown both questioned Roethlisberger’s leadership or lack thereof. One of their criticisms of Roethlisberger was that he didn’t spend enough time with them outside of the facility.
Roethlisberger appeared to respond by hosting Pittsburgh’s skill players at his lake house that offseason. He also pulled the plug on his local radio show, which often led to public criticisms of teammates, like Martavis Bryant in 2015 and fellow receiver James Washington in 2018.
In later years, Roethlisberger publicly vouched for several teammates to get contract extensions, like running back James Conner prior to Conner becoming a free agent after the 2020 season. In 2021, his final season in Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger agreed to a contract restructure that cleared $15 million, which helped Pittsburgh re-sign JuJu Smith-Schuster, one of Roethlisberger’s favorite receivers.
While he at least appeared to be a better teammate during his later seasons, Roethlisberger wasn’t perfect. In 2018, for example, he loudly questioned the Steelers’ decision to draft fellow quarterback Mason Rudolph, who supported Porter’s comments on social media. He recently alluded to the Steelers giving him a “center that had never played center before” for his final season (he has since apologized to said center, Kendrick Green).
Roethlisberger also hasn’t been shy as it relates to how his career in Pittsburgh ended. While he ultimately chose to retire instead of playing elsewhere, he acknowledged that at least one of the Steelers’ head decision-makers didn’t want him back after the 2021 season. It appears that led to the harboring of some negative feelings, at least on Roethlisberger’s side.
As far as the criticism of Tomlin is concerned, Roethlisberger and Harrison have their own podcasts and have never been afraid to express their opinions. And while both are entitled to their stances, Porter doesn’t feel that either is in a position to speak negatively of someone who did so much for their careers, his included.
“What makes it crazy for me to watch them two talk like that and really act like we don’t have the real receipts of how this really works,” Porter said. “Like, you know what he just did for y’all? … When they tell their stories, you’ll think Mike didn’t do shit for them. I don’t know how to shit on somebody that looked out for me.”
