Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers officially inducted quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, outside linebacker Joey Porter Sr. and center Maurkice Pouncey in the Steelers’ Hall of Honor on Saturday night.
The trio will be honored at halftime of Monday night’s Steelers-Dolphins game at Acrisure Stadium.
“It means more than anything,” Pouncey said before Monday night’s game when asked about going into the Steelers’ Hall of Honor with Roethlisberger.
Pouncey doesn’t have a favorite career moment as a Steeler, he’s just glad that got to spend all of his 11 years in the Black and Gold.
“I tell people all the time, it’s bigger than football,” Pouncey said. “I think the organization part, the fan part of it, the teammate part of it, that meant a lot more than just winning football games all the time. This organization is built a lot different.”
Pouncey played his entire career with Roethlisberger as his quarterback. Roethlisberger often states that he was his favorite teammate during his career. He even got emotional when talking about Pouncey during his Hall of Honor speech on Saturday night.
“Pounce was a special guy. First and foremost, it was his heart. He had so much heart and passion for the game, for protecting his quarterback, for being the greatest. He just took pride in his work, and he worked his butt off both on and off the field,” Roethlisberger said during his speech. “In the classroom, he studied, he knew it, so he wasn’t just physically gifted, which we all know he was. He was mentally sharp on the football field. He just didn’t make mistakes, and it just meant so much, and so there was so much trust when he was out there compared to when he wasn’t.
“Even if it was a practice, if he was taking a day off of practice, it ruined my day because I knew that my comfort blanket wasn’t out there.”
Porter was a teammate of Roethlisberger’s from 2004-2006. He also was also on the Steelers’ coaching staff from 2014-2018, which crossed through Pouncey’s tenure in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a great accomplishment. It’s a great honor,” Porter said of going into the Hall of Honor. “My mother, my wife, my kids, my family and them are still around to see it. So you want to share stuff like this to the people that mean the most to you. I got to do that yesterday with a lot of my closets friends and family.”
Porter’s son, Joey Porter Jr., is currently a starting cornerback for the Steelers. Porter Sr. was drafted in 1999, so he’s been around the organization for nearly 30 years. It’s an honor for Porter to go in with the legends that came before him and greats like Roethlisberger and Pouncey.
“I generally love the guys that I went in with. I generally love any of my teammates. And I think they know that whole heartily about me,” Porter said. “So when it’s like that. It’s them over anything.”
Porter wishes his...
