Fins Have A Problem

Posted by Mike Giardi November 24, 2008 at 2:26 pm

My fascination with Joey Porter is bordering on an obsession. At least, that’s what the judge is telling me. I guess I’m lucky the Dolphins won’t be back in Foxboro until next fall. Anyway, you may have noticed, late in yesterday’s Pats win, that Porter came unglued. He picked up a pair of penalties on consecutive plays; an unnecessary roughness and an unsportsmanlike conduct.

The TV cameras cut away to a shot of Fins coach Tony Sparano and it appeared as if he was trying to get Porter out of the game. We weren’t mistaken. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald tried to get to bottom of the story, only Porter wasn’t talking.

So this is what the Dolphins have:

A linebacker who has a big mouth. A linebacker who has gaudy sack stats and is the team’s only player applying consistent pressure. The defense’s only big-play-maker. The defense’s most unhinged player.

Porter has spent most of the season being way out there with things that have nothing to do with sacking quarterbacks. He has made news for calling out Matt Cassel before the season’s first meeting between the Dolphins and Pats. He ripped a referee. He ripped Matt Jones and the league’s handling of his situation. He said he would like to have Michael Vick on the Dolphins and said people critical of Vick for killing dogs were somewhat hypocritical because the dogs slain were pitbulls and those folks don’t like pitbulls, anyway.

On ESPN Sunday, Porter said Bill Belichick is a cheater who has stolen two championships from Porter because the Pats beat the Steelers two times in the playoffs in the years the Patriots were allegedly cheating.

None of that really bothers me. It’s just noise.

But Sunday’s refusal to do what Sparano ordered is a problem. Joey Porter crossed the line. And it’s not the first time it happens with a rookie head coach as Porter crossed the line several times with Cam Cameron last year.

So what should Sparano do with and to Porter?

Fine him? Suspend him? Ignore him? It will be interesting as most things involving Joey Porter are. It will be interesting because it is Sparano’s first test of his will over the will of a star player.

That’s the price you pay, when you allow a player to go completely unchecked. Its the challenge of having a gifted athlete who just doesn’t get it. Or maybe has never been made to get it. Belichick and the Pats have kept players like that in check, guys like Corey Dillon. But eventually, there comes a tipping point. Dillon’s was simple: he couldn’t run like he used to. But what will Porter’s be? Sparano and Bill Parcells must soon decide.