The Pittsburgh Steelers have placed an assistant coach on leave following his arrest hours after the team’s playoff victory over the Miami Dolphins.
Outside linebackers coach Joey Porter was charged early Monday with assaulting a doorman at a bar and a police officer who intervened. The altercation happened Sunday night around 9:30 p.m.
According to a criminal complaint, Officer Paul Abel was working security at another nearby bar when he was told by an off-duty officer that the doorman at The Flats on Carson Street was being threatened by a Steeler.
Porter, a former Pro-Bowl linebacker with the Steelers, Dolphins and Cardinals, was caught on camera arguing with police officers while they put him in handcuffs, according to a video obtained by TMZ.
Abel, a 5-foot-6, 145-pound officer, said the 6-foot-3, 260-pound Porter violently resisted his efforts to pull him away from the doorman, grabbing Abel’s wrists “so tightly that I could not pull them away from him, no matter how hard I tried,” according to the complaint.
After initially refusing to put his hands behind his back, Porter eventually allowed himself to be handcuffed but reportedly yelled at Abel, “You’re lying, I never touched you,” as he arrested him.
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert says the team is continuing to gather information about the incident and has been communicating with the NFL per league rules. Pittsburgh plays at Kansas City in the divisional round next Sunday.
With AP