Luke Trueman recalled the new kid on the team returning a punt 46 yards for a touchdown in the first game of North Allegheny High School's 2017 football season, which helped the Tigers to a 45-0 rout of Morgantown.
What the Tigers' then-senior quarterback probably didn't realize at the time -- until then, perhaps -- was the stardom that junior punt returner and defensive back would achieve.
Of course, that return man was the son of a Steeler. The new kid on the block who started his path toward the elite status among college football and eventually a top-32 pick in an NFL Draft was Joey Porter Jr.
And, by the words of Trueman, you wouldn't have known Porter was the heir apparent to Western Pennsylvania football royalty at the time.
At least, Porter didn't act as such.
"Whenever he came in, it was like he was another guy," Trueman was telling me this week. "It's hard to hide your name whenever you share it with your dad who's famous. I think that speaks to N.A. and how there are big names around, because I remember Jerame Tuman and his son, Canyon, were there, and Aaron Smith was on the staff, and I think there were other Steelers involved. Whenever he came in, it was kind of normal, but it was also him not putting any of that out there. It was just like another player showing up."
Porter played his junior and senior seasons at the Wexford-based school, after transferring in from Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic in nearby Cranberry Township.
He also made the conversion to full-time defensive back upon his arrival to head coach Art Walker's North Allegheny program, which included a jump from 2A to 6A football along with a transition into a new system.
While he was limited, relatively, on offense because of an arm injury, Porter Jr. still made his instant impact for the Tigers' defense in his first season.
"I think the first three games we had him at safety, and then we played -- we moved him from safety to cornerback, and that game you could tell that he was different," said Trueman, who is now a pitcher and outfielder on Slippery Rock University's baseball team. "This guy was born to be a lockdown, man-to-man cornerback. The first time we moved him to cornerback, the first two games, he had six interceptions. High-pointing balls, running around like it was nothing, and the rest of the year no one threw near him because when you have six interceptions in two games, it doesn't matter what level you're at, who you're playing, it's unbelievable."
In his junior year, Porter Jr. filled up the stat sheet with 26 total tackles, one for loss, to go along with seven interceptions in nine games. He chased that with a solid senior season, in which he helped the offense by scoring three receiving touchdowns while adding 22 total tackles, three interceptions, and four passes defended.
Stats weren't everything for a player of Porter's caliber, though. All one had to do was flip on the tape to see a prototypical, physical, 6-foot-2 cornerback suiting up every Friday night:
By mid-September in his senior year, Porter Jr. had already made his commitment to Penn State.
"You could definitely tell that football was not only important, but something that he spent a lot of time with," Walker was telling me this week. "Joey spent time in camp, was around his dad a lot, and had a sincere interest at a young age, and he watched it at such a high level with his dad that that was the expectation and the goal that he made for himself."
On Thursday, Mike Tomlin took to his Instagram page to discuss what he described as the Steelers' 'infatuation' with drafting players with a family history in football.
The video specifically addressed siblings, but the similar intangibles of having a pre-conceived notion of the NFL and what it takes to get there clearly expands from father to son, as it would from Joey Porter Sr. to his son as the latter begins his journey as a Steeler.
"I get everything that Coach Tomlin is saying about it," Walker added. "The way I see everything with Joey Jr. and with the Steelers, people ask me, 'What are fans expecting?' I can't answer for everybody, but what I can say is Joey grew up with the Steelers as a big part of his life, so I would think that he doesn't want to let the organization down and he's going to have a chip on his shoulder because his dad played there and he's going to prove that he's worthy. He loves Pittsburgh, he loves his team, he loves the organization, and I think that you're going to see a kid that's going to develop into his own player because he has such pride and has such history with the program that he's playing for."
A video of the senior and junior Porters went viral recently, which showcased senior consoling junior after the conclusion of the first round of the draft:
“Take it personal.”
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) May 2, 2023
Joey Porter Jr. got a pep talk from his dad after getting passed on in round one
🥹🥹🥹pic.twitter.com/Vxz7BpQjln
After being drafted 32nd overall in the 2023 NFL Draft last Friday, Porter Jr. made the trip to the South Side to be introduced as an official member of the team, rather than doing his public introduction over the phone as the rest of his draft class did. This came fewer than 24 hours after the Porter family had been in Kansas City, Mo., for the first round.
Porter didn't hide his feelings about the slighting by the 31 NFL teams picking that evening.
"I was mad. I had an edge on me," Porter would say in that press conference. "This is the perfect way to end my day right here. I just forgot about last night. Shoot, I’m ready. And, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I’m trying to prove myself. … It adds a little more fuel to the fire."
But, that is exactly the type of reaction to be expected from Porter.
Built from within, as well.
"I think there was always a high expectation, and if he didn't meet the expectation that maybe he set for himself or maybe goals that they talked through as a family or if he didn't play at the level that he probably should have played that night, then, yeah, he's tough on himself," Walker said. "He expected to win, he expected to make plays, he expected to make a difference just being on the field. That's tough week in and week out. But he did put that pressure on himself, and I think that, in the long run, got him ready for the moments that he's going to experience now.
"It definitely helped him prepare for his experience at Penn State and the competition they played in week in and week out for the years that he was there. He had to improve and he had to get better, and he knew that. He's going to have to do that now that he is in the NFL. All of these players are great. Everybody who's going against you is a great athlete, so how are you going to separate yourself? It's going to be work ethic and preparation and having those goals. To see him at a young age and how he's developed and watching him mature, for us, has been fantastic."
Porter closed his Penn State career in 2022 by earning nods as a second-team All-American from the AFCA, Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, the Walter Camp Football Foundation, and CBS Sports. His six pass breakups at Purdue on Sept. 1 set a school record and tied for a Big Ten record for a single game.
Walker talked about Porter's calm demeanor, which Trueman doubled down on by noting Porter "had that switch" that would come on when the lights turned their brightest. Porter rose to become a leader on Walker's team as a senior, as North Allegheny reached the WPIAL 6A semifinal round.
Walker said he wouldn't describe Porter as a "rah-rah" type of leader, but rather as one who displayed his leadership on the field with his consistency and confidence.
"He's so consistent in his comfort for covering people, and loves to be nose-to-nose," Walker said. "That's his comfort zone. The confidence in his ability to play man-to-man defense in such proximity is really impressive. He was able to do it in high school, but what he's done and maintained at the level he's been doing it when he was at Penn State, when I got to see him play and all those things, is really impressive. He's a lot faster than people think. So long that he covers so much ground. He's always had great ball skills."
Unlike his father, Porter Jr. is not a massive trash talker, and that is how he always was.
Unless ...
"If people got into talking and all of that stuff, Joey could surely hang with him. He can hold his own with all of that," Walker said. "That wasn't really the big thing. He could talk when he had to, but his confidence was more in how he played and, I think, his consistency ... and I always remember Joey's ability to high-point a football, and whether it was on offense or defense if there was a crowd, if it was one-on-one, and the ball was up high and he was in that crowd, he was going to come down with it. I think he believed that, he proved that, and it got to the point in his senior year where they're going to throw up a fade ball, he was going to come down with it. I don't care what side of the ball he was on. He's coming down with the ball. He had that confidence that when that ball was in the air, that 'I'm either going to pick it off, or I'm going to knock it down. I'm going to get to it, and I'm not going to let that guy catch the ball. My guy's not going to make a play.' He carried that confidence with him a lot, and I think that's something he's always had and he's continued to develop."
According to the North Allegheny athletics website, Porter would become the eighth former Tiger to suit up in an NFL game. The school has not seen an NFL player since Thomas Keiser played for the Cardinals in 2014.
Trueman considered it "really, really weird" to see a former high school teammate get drafted to the NFL.
"It was just like, 'I can't believe this is happening. This is the first time I've ever truly known someone on TV,'" Trueman added. "To be honest, I was looking for a little high school film of me throwing him a touchdown or something (on TV, as he gave a laugh). But, yeah, it was just -- I can't put it into words. The fact that he went to our high school and I knew him, I don't even know what to say. It made me happy."
