"Joey Porter nearly talked himself hoarse during Super Bowl week, choosing the NFL's premier event to announce that one of the league's most provocative stars might soon be available to the highest bidder.

Then the game kicked off and The Who performed at halftime and, before you knew it, Joey Porter, media sensation, was reduced to The Whatever.

Poor guy. By late Sunday, Joey wasn't even the most significant Porter at Sun Life Stadium.

New Orleans cornerback Tracy Porter earned his headlines the hard way with a 74-yard interception return to beat Peyton Manning and the Colts. Joey, he was out there begging for his, even appearing on the NFL Network's field-level Super Bowl set on game day to drop the supposed bombshell that he has played his last game as a Miami Dolphin.

No kidding.

We're talking about a team captain who breaks ranks whenever things don't go his way. An 11-year veteran who still needs babying. A linebacker whose reputation for vicious play and game-changing talent is not supported by 2009 season totals of one forced fumble, no interceptions and just 41 tackles, fewest since his rookie year.

Oh, there are the sacks. Porter has racked up 90 of those in the last 10 years and led the Dolphins last season with nine.

There are other, younger linebackers on Tony Sparano's roster, however, who show real promise in that particular specialty. Cameron Wake was in on just 23 tackles all season but 5.5 of those were sacks. Charlie Anderson made 17 tackles and two of them were sacks.

Neither of those guys is due a $1 million roster bonus in early March. Porter is scheduled to get that, on top of his $3.6 million salary and $400,000 in other bonuses. It's all part of the $32 million deal — including $20 million guaranteed and already paid — that Miami used to sign him as a free agent three years ago. That was the Cam Cameron-Randy Mueller regime at work, flying to meet Porter in Wayne Huizenga's private jet.

What Porter is running into now is the Bill Parcells brick wall. If Joey wanted, he could ask Jason Taylor how that usually works out. But Porter doesn't want to hear anything negative from anybody. For the last half of the season, he spoke with Sparano only on game days."