Morning Papers: Steelers Players Shocked By Porter's Departure

It seems that while Steelers fans may have been bummed by the news that Joey Porter has been cut, they're handling it better than the Steelers players.

"(Alan) Faneca called me, some of the veteran guys, my phone has been blowing up like, 'What the hell are we doing?' " Hines Ward said. "A lot of guys are questioning what's going on, kind of worried about the makeup of this team, where we are actually going to go."

But beyond everything else, Ward was also concerned because he realized that what happened to Porter could happen to him.

"As a veteran guy, you look at (what happened to Porter) and you worry a little bit because you lay it out on the line to try to do what's best for the team and then you see players get cut," Ward said. "You sit there and say, 'Uh oh. Am I next in line?' "

It's funny, but about the only person who doesn't seem unhappy about the situation is Porter himself. In a column by John Harris, Porter continued to say that he's quite happy that the Steelers set him free--and at a time where he can get a big contract elsewhere.

"The Steelers could have waited around and tried to trade me, or forced me to play the last year of my contract,'' Porter said. "They did it the best way they could, so that nobody's angry at nobody. The Rooneys have been good to me. The whole city of Pittsburgh has been good to me. We won a championship, I had eight good years there. I had no trouble finishing my career in Pittsburgh. At the same time, the faster that you figure out it's a business, the better off you'll be. Everybody's expendable.''

Ben Roethlisberger has sat down for dinner with new coach Mike Tomlin and came away impressed--like everyone seems to after meeting Tomlin.

"It was kind of one of those things where we sat down and there were no holds barred for a while," Roethlisberger said Friday. "I told him where I was, what the team was kind of feeling, and I think that was good. I think it kind of surprised him that I did that, but it was good."