With many thanks to Jonathan Stein for pointing it out to me, buried at the very bottom of the AP recap of the Steelers/Broncos game is this little note:

Pro Bowl linebacker Joey Porter was fined $15,000 by the league after he threatened an official following the Steelers’ 20-13 loss to the Raiders last Sunday. Porter, angered for an unknown reason, was flagged 15 yards after telling an official that he would come after him.

Angered for an unknown reason? Here, I’ll take a stab at it. Reason 1: He just lost to the Raiders. 2. He’s Joey Porter, and since when does Joey Porter need a reason to be angry? Ask Jerramy Stevens. Joey Porter doesn’t need a reason to do anything, because Joey Porter is crazier than a bag of angel dust. That’s your reason.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for YouTube footage of Joey Porter threatening bodily harm on a 60-year-old man in a black-and-white vertically striped shirt. Checking out the Gamebook from NFL.com, I see that none of the officials in that game were named Ed Hochuli, so unless the official has a couple of black belts and/or an AK-47, it’s not a fair fight. You can’t even realistically give Eddie Hoch a chance in a fight against Porter, so there’s no way anyone else would have a prayer.

I wonder what the threat was. I hope Joey threatened to have his dogs chew the official’s face off. But even a simple “I’ll beat your ass, old man” is kind of awesome.

Two other questions, though… shouldn’t threatening an official warrant some kind of a suspension, and shouldn’t this be a little bigger of a story? Imagine the headlines of Rasheed Wallace threatened to beat the hell out of Dick Bavetta. A $15,000 fine is what you get for tapping a quarterback’s helmet. I’m sure that Tyler Brayton’s going to get more than that for his attempted knee to Jerramy Stevens’ man parts, but what poses a greater problem for the NFL? Protecting Jerramy Stevens’ coin purse, or Joey Porter threatening to OJ an official on the field of play?

I’m sure that Joey was just frustrated at the time, and I’m sure (like 90-95%, anyway) that the official is in no real physical danger. But still, the league can’t tolerate players threatening officials. You just can’t have that.

And, just because…

Joey Porter, ladies and gentlemen. Doing everything in his power to bring back the half-shirt.