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Steelers Struggle With Porter Shooting
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers tried to put on the appearance that Monday was like any other day of practice. Obviously, it wasn't.
Players huddled in groups of two and three in the locker room, talking quietly, the verbal by-play that normally precedes every practice noticeably absent. There was no laughter, no cross-the-room yelling about the past weekend's college scores. Clearly, someone was missing - someone important.
No one went near Joey Porter's locker, often the gathering spot for the defense and the noisiest area in an almost never quiet room. The Steelers know the All-Pro linebacker and their vocal leader will play again but they don't know when, and they are still struggling with the news that he was shot over the weekend.
"It was a tragic incident," Pro Bowl receiver Hines Ward said. "We're handling it as it comes and hopefully get a better chance of understanding it when Joey gets back."
Porter was standing outside a Denver sports bar following Saturday night's game between his alma mater, Colorado State, and rival Colorado when he was struck by a bullet that entered his left buttocks and lodged in his right thigh. Police say he was an innocent bystander during what may have been a gang-related shooting.
The injury is not career-threatening, but will sideline him for an indefinite period. Porter was released Monday from a Denver hospital and flew back to Pittsburgh to be examined by the Steelers' doctors.
"He was very frightened," said Sonny Lubick, Porter's coach at Colorado State. "It could have been a lot worse. According to the doctors he was very, very fortunate."
The Steelers aren't ready to estimate how long Porter will be out. However, routine thigh injuries often take up to a month to heal, so it seems likely Porter could miss half the season.
As a result, coach Bill Cowher gathered his players briefly before practice and, as he does before every season, stressed the importance of staying out of situations that could jeopardize their safety. The bar where Porter was shot is located in a high-crime area of Denver.
"This is the last thing you would expect to be handling right now, but the season is going to go on," linebacker Jason Gildon said. "We're expecting big things out of our defense and our team, and we can't let this be a step back for us."
After going through training camp without a serious injury to a top player, the Steelers are scrambling to reconfigure their defense less than a week before Sunday's opener against Baltimore.
Porter will be replaced at right outside linebacker in the base defense by Clark Haggans, his former roommate and teammate at Colorado State.
"Losing a guy like Joey, that's a huge blow to our defense, but I think the defense is going to rally around this," Ward said. "You can't replace a Joey Porter, of course, but Clark can go out there and be a productive linebacker. I thought he had a great training camp."
Haggans also attended the Colorado State-Colorado game, but would not say Monday if he was with Porter at the time of the shooting. Before Haggans left Denver, Porter told him to make certain the defense was not disrupted.
"He told me to go out and play hard, that we've got to move forward," Haggans said. "But he's upset about everything. He's really into the upcoming game and he wants everybody to play hard."
This isn't the first time the Steelers have lost their top defensive player to injury just when a season was starting. Star cornerback Rod Woodson blew out a knee trying to tackle Detroit's Barry Sanders in the 1995 season opener and missed the rest of the season, but the Steelers went on to make the Super Bowl.
Earlier that year, cornerback Deon Figures was shot in the knee during a random shooting while driving his car in Los Angeles, an injury that likely shortened his career.
"Right now, we're short a man and we're going to have to step up across the board," Gildon said. "We're down a man, a key man, and it's like we have no room for error."
Porter made the Pro Bowl and was an All-Pro for the first time last season, when he and Ward were chosen as the team's co-MVPs. Porter was the first player in NFL history to have eight sacks and four interceptions in a season.
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__________________
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No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head
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