Steelers notebook
Porter’s first day back ‘over too fast’ LATROBE – After a summer of rehabilitating his right knee, Joey Porter finally came back and got through his first practice without a scratch.
Now, that first practice lasted all of the time it took Steelers coach Bill Cowher to tell the players there would be no practice. It was Movie Day (!) and the players ran off the field whooping it up at 8:50 a.m., St. Vincent College time.
For Porter, the day off wasn’t such a big deal.
“It was over too fast,” he said. “I had to do a lot to get ready for that practice. I didn’t get to practice and I’m kind of disappointed.”
Porter is normally the guy lobbying Cowher for Movie Day (!) at this point in camp.
“Yeah but he gave us the movie too early,” Porter said. “Next week would’ve probably been better for me, but the guys have been working hard and it was the perfect time to give them the morning off.”
Porter took the field for the first time last night in front of an estimated crowd of 24,000. He only warmed up and participated in the seven-on-seven drills.
“Instead of rehabbing on the sideline, I’m just going to use that as my rehab,” he said. “It’ll be a better rehab for me because it involves football stuff.”
Porter, the Steelers’ right outside linebacker, underwent surgery to clean up his right knee last May. He missed training camp last season because of an early August procedure on his left knee.
After taking part in last night’s practice, Porter said he felt fine.
“I think there was progress today,” he said. “I got to go out there and do some football work instead of doing the other little things. My reaction to breaking on routes is there, so overall it was a good day for me today.”
Good news for Okobi
Chukky Okobi underwent neck surgery Wednesday and, according to Cowher, “everything went very well. We’ll know more in the next couple of days but there’s a good chance he’ll be able to play this year. It could be anywhere from four to eight weeks. We’ll know more as time goes on, but it went very well. That’s obviously great news.”
Cowher said Okobi was upset about one thing.
“The one day he missed was the day we went to the movies,” Cowher said.
“He wasn’t real happy about that.”
The Steelers used rookie Marvin Philip in place of Okobi on the second team last night. Guard Kendall Simmons also took a few reps at center.
“He took some snaps just as a precaution if we’d have lost Chukky,” Cowher said. “We talked about that before we got some of the results today.”
Two thumbs up
Cowher’s choice in the morning movie buffet was “Invincible” and he gave it a great review.
“I think it was one of the better movies I have seen,” Cowher said of the story of Vince Papale, a teacher/bartender who made the Philadelphia Eagles at an open tryout.
“I can relate to it a little bit,” Cowher said. “He played three years and he and I got cut in the same cut in 1979.
“It was very well done. I think it’s a very inspiring movie. I encouraged a lot of players this afternoon, when they do get some free time, to go see it. It gives you an appreciation for the game of football, the respect for where it started, and really what it means to the people. It kind of gives you the heart and soul of what South Philly’s all about. Having played there and been there you can relate to it. I thought they did a great job with this movie and I encourage a lot of people to see it. I think it’s very inspiring.”