Steelers’ Joey Porter Jr., Damontae Kazee have unique, insult-infused big/little brother dynamic

It all started when they shared an experience that could have — even, should have — had them hurling insults at each other.

Instead, Damontae Kazee and Joey Porter Jr. took arguably the most humiliating play the Pittsburgh Steelers defense has allowed all season and turned it into a close friendship.

This display of male bonding, though, shows itself in peculiar ways.

“Hey, Joey, how many flags you get thrown on you today?” Kazee (playfully) yelled at rookie teammate Porter while Porter spoke to the media in the locker room following this past Sunday’s win at the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I’m surprised you didn’t drop any interceptions today,” Porter retorted, referencing a pass off Kazee’s hands the week before during a game in Cleveland.

The two exchanged a few more barbs, then were at it again during another interview between a reporter and Kazee.

“Um, I never liked the guy,” Porter said after a practice this week. “He just got that face that … you just don’t like.”

Porter finally couldn’t hold off breaking his stoic deadpan any longer.

“Naw, I’m playing,” he said. “Kazee, that’s my guy. He’s been looking out for a long time, since I started out in the league. So it’s that big brother/little brother thing.”

The dynamic in the Steelers locker room between the 30-year-old, seven-year veteran safety Kazee and high-profile rookie teammate Porter is one that has caught their coach’s attention.

“(Kazee) and Joey Porter have an interesting relationship — big brother, little brother, if you will,” Mike Tomlin said this week. “He gives Joey a hard time in all the right ways. Joey’s appreciative of his communication skills and his veteran approach.”

Kazee is one of the more outgoing and extroverted players on the Steelers with one of the loudest voices in their locker room. In his second season with the team, it’s not uncommon for Kazee to bellow out to any one that asks how great of a day that particular day is.

Why?

“Because I woke up. And then I was blessed to come here.”

That type of blessed attitude displays itself in Kazee’s playful banter with Porter, who’s 7 years his junior.

“No, no, no — it’s just that Joey keeps messing with me, so I just have to defend myself,” Kazee said.

Again, he couldn’t help but break character.

“No, no, we are good. We enjoy it at the end of the day.”

What’s interesting, Kazee said, is that what begat this relationship dynamic was what was the low point moment of Porter’s young career — a play that surely goes up on a list of Kazee career “lowlights,” too: Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne beating both Porter and Kazee for a 56-yard touchdown catch to help seal an Oct. 29 victory in Pittsburgh.

“That play versus Jacksonville, I think going through that made us closer,” Kazee said. “And we made it fun. We didn’t want to overthink stuff at that point, so we just have got to work together, so (needling each other) is what we do.”

With the Steelers’ other two co-starting safeties out since that game, Kazee has shown his value to the secondary. Porter, too, since that game has evolved from a former subpackage, seldom-deployed rookie into an every-down shutdown cornerback on which the Steelers rely heavily.

Together, Kazee and Porter have become indispensable pieces of the Steelers defense — all by lifting each other up by way of playfully tearing each other down.

“Kazee is really good for Joey,” Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. “Joey has kind of gravitated to him, and those guys have a really good working relationship.”