Porter, Steelers ready to prove they're still hungry

	Joey Porter had 57 tackles and two picks for the Super Bowl champs in 2005. Bill Frakes/SI
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He watched Alonzo Mourning throw down on the big screen, a paragon of passion closing in on a maiden NBA title, and Joey Porter couldn't hold back. Spilling a Bud Light as he leaped from the couch last Tuesday night, Porter, who hadn't stopped squawking since the opening whistle of Game 6 of the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks, shook his body and danced along with the jacked-up veteran center.

"Get your ring, 'Zo!" Porter screamed at the TV. Then, noticing the emotion on Mourning's face, the Pittsburgh Steelers' All-Pro linebacker added: "I want you to cry, 'Zo. I want you to cry! I want you to cry! I want you to cry!"

Enjoying the game from the guest house of his plush home in Bakersfield, Calif., with a dozen old friends, Porter could relate to the Heat's triumph, and especially to the fulfillment felt by the 36-year-old Mourning and 37-year-old guard Gary Payton as they finally closed in on a championship.

A little more than four months earlier, Porter and his Steelers teammates -- and, most poignantly, retiring running back Jerome Bettis -- had experienced a similar sensation in winning Super Bowl XL.

But while Bettis, who signed a sweet TV deal with NBC, is still reveling in the afterglow -- he's getting married early next month in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and will spend this coming weekend in Bakersfield at Porter's football camp and charity golf tournament -- Porter and his Pittsburgh teammates must soon turn defensive. Defending a title is a daunting task in a sport as emotionally charged as pro football, and when you've spent your seven-year career with a steel-plated chip on your shoulder, finding a way to retain that edge in the wake of success looms as a huge challenge.

"I've still got that chip," Porter insists. "With each team comes a different challenge, and the first one for us is that we can't expect to play as well as we did last year and think it's going to work. I've got to be even better; we all do. Last year, it wasn't until we got to a desperate mindset that we started going full speed all the time. That's where we need to start this year."

That all sounds good, but even the irrepressibly intense Porter concedes that the Steelers face some legitimate questions going into the season. Bettis was an enormous presence in the locker room, and his absence could create a leadership void that Porter is likely to try to help fill. Pittsburgh also must replace three starters -- safety Chris Hope, defensive end Kimo von Oehlhoffen and wideout Antwaan Randle El -- lost via free agency.

Then, of course, there is the Big Ben factor. When Ben Roethlisberger was injured in a motorcycle accident earlier this month, there wasn't a player on the Pittsburgh roster who didn't wonder whether the team's 2006 fortunes were also spinning out of control.

A few days after Roethlisberger's release from the hospital last week, Porter placed a call to the young quarterback, expecting to leave a keep-your-head-up voicemail. But Roethlisberger answered the phone and, despite his broken jaw, seemed positively chatty, which caught Porter off guard.

"I was surprised he picked up his phone," Porter says. "He sounded way more upbeat than I expected. I thought he'd be sluggish and down, but he sounded good. He said he had to go in and see the dentist and was feeling pretty good in general."