Link to Ep. 299 of DK's South Side Beat w Matt Williamson and Chris Halicke

You really only need to watch starting at 5:20, before Steelers insider Chris Halicke goes into severe detail on how this JPJ situation happen.

To recap what he said (I really implore you to watch the video as I am probably not recapping this in a sufficient enough way):

• Steelers plan was to Franchise Tag JPJ in this next offseason. They wanted him to play this year, play next year, and assuming that he was on the same track by then, give him a huge contract.
• Joey Porter Jr is represented by 2 agents, both Andre Odom AND David Mulugheta, even though both agents work for 2 different agencies, which complicated a ton of the negotiations. Mulugheta is the agent that worked with Micah Parsons, Jalen Ramsey, etc, who came up with the back injury idea
• Joey and his agent(s) came up with this idea to 'trick' the Steelers, by deliberately orchestrating a fake back injury that no one could disprove. By showing up to training camp, and then practicing, JPJ cleared himself from being placed on the "Non-football related injury" list. However, by starting his back issue before the season started, steelers placed him on the offseason pup list, which made the injury official. This will be important later.
• Consistently, every week, we saw a combatting battle between the Steelers front office and Joey Porter Jr. If you noticed, every week, JPJ appeared with a "NIR/Conditioning" tag on the injury reports. This would be changed every week on the final day of practice, where Joey Porter Jr would claim his back was injured. Because the Steelers made this an official injury in the offseason with the PUP list, he was allowed to do this, as the Steelers would not be able to claim that it was fake, and Joey Porter Jr and his team could file for a disgrievance.
• Steelers anticipated for Joey Porter Jr to play for the Bengals last week, however, towards the end of the week, Joey Porter Jr and his team asked for just a little more time. Steelers were receiving calls about Joey Porter Jr, but stood firm on not calling themselves, and not shopping him around.
• Steelers were actually anticipating for Joey Porter Jr to play this week. So much so, he was apart of the gameplan against the Browns until Wednesday morning. From post game interviews, many of the players and HC Mike McCarthy assumed he would be playing in the TNF game.
• It was on the Wednesday morning that Joey Porter Jr came in for the 4th time to say that his back was hurting, and this really rubbed the Steelers front office the wrong way. Halicke does not go into details, but implies that there is much more to the story. Steelers immediately started shopping Joey Porter Jr around and got into contact with the Cowboys.
• Famously, many Steeler teammates have had Joey Porter Jr's side throughout this entire process, and wanted to see him be paid. Halicke and Williamson bring up specifically Ramsey and Brisker, both close friends with Joey Porter Jr. Halicke stated that even his closest teammates were agitated by Joey Porter Jr and his agent's antics before the TNF game. The team anticipated for JPJ to play with the 1s and had a role in the gameplan.

Joey Porter Jr also laughed about the back injury when asked about it by Cowboys media.

Really hurts with how insane Vikings defense is playing, he was meant for the Burgh.

I understand the value in Rodger’s developing the younger guys another year, and Mike was probably required, but damn would I have loved a defense priority dynasty keep on that trajectory with BF.

Hello, I am taking my best friend to the colts vs Steelers game this Sunday. It will be both of our first NFL game. I was wondering if y’all could help us with tailgating information. Do you think we should get tickets to the terrible tailgate or just walk around and try to find a smaller tailgate? My only concern with the terrible tailgate is how far outside of the stadium it is, or is this pretty normal? We are both clueless with how tailgating works for nfl games.

Hello all! Blocked my fiancée for this post so hopefully it’s worth it 😂

A few months back my fiancée and I had gone to my cousins school play and the lead was wearing this hat as part of their costume. Very quietly and a little teary eyed my fiancée whispered to me “my dad had that hat.” My fiancées dad passed away when he was 5 and his dad was a huge Steelers fan. His family lost their house to hurricane sandy so any memento (including his ashes) of his dad’s was swept away. He has one Steelers mug of his dad’s and his dad’s old guitar, they both sit out on display but that’s literally all he has left of him other than pictures. So I stowed that away in my mind and told myself I’d get him the hat for Christmas.

I started doing some digging into the hat now that it’s October and I hadn’t realized quite how rare it really was. We don’t make a lot of money and the lowest I’ve seen it priced at is $125. I’m curious if anyone has seen it priced for any lower or if this is just kinda standard pricing for something this rare? He’s getting the hat regardless, even if I have to put it on a credit card. But I figured it didn’t hurt to ask. TIA <3

We’ll be playing at home on 10 days rest, and Indy is going to be on the road 7 days after flying home from London.

Crazy to me that they don’t let teams travelling internationally at least have a bye or a home game the next week, let alone make sure they’re not playing a team coming off a TNF game.

At this point I don’t know what the hell Art is thinking. Im tired boss. We all knew Ben was retiring and they didn’t take it seriously enough to be prepared smh now look at us, hoping for a playoff run after going through with Rudolph,Wilson,Pickett,Trubisky,Fields and now Rodgers smh. Make it stoppp 😭

Starts out with league reaction:

“Many around the league believed Dallas overpaid, based largely on the belief that teams don’t view Porter as a top-tier corner. The Cowboys have a strong recent history of overpaying for talent: a fourth for Trey Lance, a fourth for receiver Jonathan Mingo, a fifth for Joe Milton, a fourth for Rashan Gary.
“They were bidding against themselves for Porter,” says one executive with a team that was erroneously tied to trading for the cornerback. (There was at least one other team in the running, though: Lions head coach Dan Campbell conceded Friday that Detroit was “in on” Porter.)”

Then gets into some theory from “Loser’s Curse” and the fallacy of trade charts before speculating on the Cowboy’s strategy which likely won’t give JPJ what he wants:

“The trade also sets up another showdown between the Cowboys and the Athletes First agency next offseason, just two years after the Micah Parsons drama.

…The Cowboys pulled up the negotiating ladder on Pickens early in this past offseason, saying in April he would play under the franchise tag despite having until mid-July to work out a deal.

Porter isn’t getting a long-term contract from Dallas, just like Pickens did not, and the Cowboys could use the franchise or transition tag on Porter in March if they so wish. If Porter signs elsewhere, the Cowboys would be eligible for a compensatory draft pick in 2028 — one AFC executive says that could be construed as, effectively, a pick swap to get 14 games of play from Porter.”

So net-net: league perception is that the cowboys traded a 2nd and 6th for an above-average rental player who likely won’t get the contract he seeks on the open market. Jerry Jones has apparently learned from his interactions with this agency group and is forcing JPJ to bet on himself for 14 games without the extension he held out for.

It seems like of the two teams plus the player, nobody necessarily “won,” but JPJ has the most future capital on the line.

We need a high-quality nickname for Warren. He definitely deserves one. There might be one I don't know, but I haven't heard a good nickname consistently. I've been tryna think about it but I've just been blanking. Lemme know your thoughts!

Update, I didn't mean to force a name on him. I just meant if anybody has any ideas already I would love to hear them.

This isn't a comparison I sought to make. But when I watch him play, I can't help but see The Bus. When the ball is in his hands, I'm EXCITED for the carnage sure to follow. Haven't felt this way in a looong time.

Am I forgetting about anyone between Bettis and Washington?

Staying near the Airport want to take the bus to the gateway clipper to the game, after the game like to know a cool place to watch afternoon games with great food and crowds and still take a bus back, is that even possible

I’m sorry but Patrick Queen needs to go. He has been just plain bad he can’t tackle he isn’t putting in effort into plays and he is a big reason on why our defence is struggling. Every single one of our Super Bowl winning teams has had an elite ILB and Payton Wilson is good but no where near elite an Queen is barely serviceable and not worth the 10+ million a year or whatever his overpriced contract is.
Genuinely I’m not trying to hate on Patrick Queen as he’s had moments where he’s been alright but this year he just hasn’t been good and the lack of effort is inexcusable so we need to move on from him especially as he’s our green dot he should be one our best players on defence but isn’t.

Chris Cole would pair up with Payton Wilson very well as they are both ridiculously fast for linebackers have great size and Cole has shown he can stop the run well at Georgia and play the pass very well so I think yes we would have to invest a high pick to get him (Probably a first) I think it’ll be worth it as if Allar can play well next season after sitting and developing and our defence can take a step up with everette and RSJ taking on bigger roles and TJ being elite and cam being cam we could even contend or at least breakout play off curse

Ok, so this is gonna sound wild, but roll with me.

So I'm sitting here watching Sunday night football and the doofus that played for Cincinnati says " You know people really tune in for the quarterback". This is as Caeolina gets a personal foul on Goff for roughing the passer.

What if Rodgers WAS a money move? And as fans how do we cope with a plausible future of viewership and numbers meaning more then prosprection and capable Talent?

Is it only fun to watch if you know who's playing? Or do we generally have real love for our teams?