Dolphins' Joey Porter Calls Out Tom Brady; Patriots Respond The Way They Normally Do

The Miami Dolphins' Joey Porter is most certainly a favorite of the Miami media. He is endlessly quotable and never short of opinions or the will to express them. He made it clear Thursday that he hates the New England Patriots. And that's not an exaggeration. He actually used the word "hate."

"Still don't care for New England. The hate's been there for a while, especially after all the cheating they did back in the day," Porter told reporters Thursday. "I can honestly say I don't agree with it, but it happened, and it's over with now."

But that's not what's really making headlines today. Porter called out Patriots QB and franchise player Tom Brady for having his own set of rules, as a result of the torn ACL and MCL injury he suffered a year ago. The NFL revised pass-rush rules to prohibit players from diving toward the quarterback's legs.

It's certainly a reasonable rule, as Brady is not the first quarterback to be hit low and be injured as a result. But what needs to be made clear is that the rule is in place to protect all quarterbacks, not just Brady. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and all other elite QBs enjoy the same luxury.

"They made the whole [rule that you] don't go at the legs because of Tom. So when he feels that someone is coming at his legs, he just points at the ref and he gets a flag," Porter said. "So you've got to honestly say that he got his own rules."

No, just a rule that happened because of him. Not the first time it's ever happened, and probably not the last.

Porter's comments are clearly rooted deep in his hatred for New England. He's acting like an irrational and uneducated football fan in citing the overblown "Spygate" scandal of 2007, in which the Patriots garnered the strongest penalty in the history of the league. But for some reason, people like Porter didn't think that was enough.

Speaking of the Patriots, they are being their usual cryptic selves. Guard Logan Mankins acknowledged the comments but made it clear that the Patriots don't care about what Porter says, only what he does on the field.

"That's just Joey. I don't know why he does it; maybe he wants to be on TV," Mankins told Mike Reiss in his blog. It doesn't bother us. We don't care what he says."