Bengals Banter: Joey Freakin' Porter

If you're a Bengals fan, you just don't like the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's plain and simple. You don't like their boring uniforms, their "Terrible Towels", their villainous defensive players, and their boisterous fans. You also don't like their success that they've had over the past half-decade or so.

No Steeler embodied the villain mentality more than Joey Porter. He recently announced his retirement and our own Josh Kirkendall talked about some of Porter's exploits, including the infamous Las Vegas incident with Levi Jones. Most of his other incidents occurred on the football field. His adversarial relationship with the Bengals got to such a high level that it was chronicled on the NFL Network's "Top 10 Feuds" special back in 2007. Take a look at the clip and try and convince yourself that, as a Bengals fan, you wouldn't want to do something to the guy that you would get arrested for.

Still, you have to admire the guy's NFL career. From 1999-2006 as a Steeler, he had 60 sacks, 18 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries, ten interceptions, and three All-Pro/Pro Bowl selections. Though he talked the talk, he walked the walk on the football field (just not when he instigated fights in Nevada).

I suppose it's only proper that he retires a Steeler. He had his best years as a pro with the club and, like I said earlier, he was the consummate black and gold linebacker. To respect a player's accomplishments as a football player doesn't mean that you have to like them. Such is the case with Porter.

Here are the other stories from Thursday:

+ The No.2 wide receiver job is up for grabs. One of the players jockeying for the spot is Armon Binns, and he's caught the attention of more than just the team's coaches.

+ Over the past couple of weeks, we've done a preview of every position group going into this year's Training Camp. In case you missed any of them, we linked them all into one post.

+ Former Bengals defensive tackle, Jason Shirley, has signed a contract with the Indianapolis Colts.

+ Rey Maualuga made our list of the top-20 Bengals players of 2012. He came in at No.14.

+ CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora wrote up a real thorough Training Camp preview of the Bengals.

+ The SB Nation mother site has begun to post their NFL positional rankings. Yesterday, they broke down the tight ends, where the Bengals' unit came in at No.13.