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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Joey Porter can’t fathom why the Miami Dolphins preferred to use outside linebacker Cameron Wake ahead of him last year.



That’s the crux of Porter’s dissatisfaction with the Dolphins and why he wants to play elsewhere.



“You got a Pro Bowl player, asking to play,” Porter said Tuesday afternoon during a long interview with Miami sports radio station WQAM. Porter sat down on Radio Row in the Super Bowl media center. “If you let us just fight for the job, it’s not even an argument. No shots to nobody, but it’s not even an argument.



“All them guys in my room, love them to death, but at outside linebacker, I’m the best one we got, period. There’s nothing to even talk about. Who am I switching with? Why should I be switching out with any of them guys?”



He later said “If you want to put Cameron Wake in the game, go ahead and good luck to you. Let me go find a new job somewhere.”



Inside linebacker Channing Crowder was a guest co-host for WQAM’s program and claimed he wasn’t alone in being baffled when head coach Tony Sparano took Porter and Jason Taylor off the field. Taylor and Porter were named to the NFL’s All-Decade team Sunday.



“If the game’s on the line, I want my two Pro Bowlers coming off the edges, Crowder said. “That’s my mind as an inside linebacker.



“If I see different guys out there, not bad mouthing anyone, I’m going to be like ‘Peezy, you straight? You good? You healthy? J.T., you straight? You healthy? Why aren’t you all out there?’

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MIAMI — Here’s Howard Mudd’s plan: After the Super Bowl, he’ll go back to Indianapolis, then spend some time in Arizona.



And the next time he reviews film, it won’t be from the coaches’ tape of Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 against the New Orleans Saints. Instead, it will be from the long-lensed Nikon camera that’s hung around his neck for the last week of his NFL career.



Mudd snapped a picture as he walked off the Indianapolis Colts‘ plane Monday and more at Tuesday morning’s annual media circus.



“In case it turns out to be a nice picture to remember the event itself,” he said. “It is the last one, but it’s also a big deal. At the media day [of Super Bowl XLI] I had my wife’s camera and I had it on video and it was supposed to be on still, I screwed it up some.”



The Colts’ storied offensive line coach will call it a 40-year career as a player and coach after Super Bowl XLIV. Unlike many grizzled veterans before him, he’ll be free from temptation to return.



Pete Metzelaars, the heir who will replace him for the Colts, knows things will never be the same.



“I think they’ll be a little softer,” linebacker Gary Brackett said. “I don’t think anyone is as hard as nails as Howard, that’s really old-school coaching at its finest. I guess he played a while in this league and was a very tough, aggressive lineman. And that’s exactly what he does for his linemen.”



Mudd played as a lineman for the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears from 1964-71. He has coached in the league since 1977 for San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland, Kansas City and, since 1998, Indianapolis.



That happened to be the year the Colts spent the No. 1 pick in the draft on Peyton Manning. Mudd said he’s pleased to have played any small part in the career of the quarterback, a player his unit has made sure is rarely on the ground. (Ryan McCrystal of ESPN Stats & Information tells me that since sacks became an official stat in 1982, no one has endured more sacks than former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway with 516. At his current pace, Manning — who has suffered 215 sacks in 196 games — would break that record at some point during his 29th season in the league, just before his 50th birthday.)



While he might appear gruff, Mudd can be a sweetheart. He’s a motorcycle aficionado. Mudd wants nothing more in retirement than to dote on his grandchildren in the Seattle area, get more fit and ride, wet roads be damned. Maybe he’ll get better with that camera, too.



Over the years, his lines have worked to fend off some pretty good pass rushes from division rival Tennessee. As a result of those matchups, he forged a friendship with Titans defensive line coach Jim Washburn.



The friends rode their motorcycles together through Africa last summer.



Washburn raved about Mudd’s inventiveness as a player, when he figured out ways to slow down the likes of Hall Of Famer Merlin Olsen despite being overmatched. Basically, Mudd said, his ploys were spin moves or unconventional routes to regain position and sometimes pushes that carried Olsen or another rusher right past the play.



“I’ve seen a few clips, they were black and white,” Colts guard Ryan Lilja said. “He ran around and it’s funny to see him do the same thing that he teaches us that not a lot of people do. He was a gritty player, man.”

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MIAMI — One of the biggest stories of Super Bowl week so far actually dates back to last week. That’s when New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams made some comments to radio host and former NFL player Blaine Bishop about putting some “remember me’’ hits on Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning.



Williams said he was surprised by the aftermath.

AP Photo/Bill HaberSaints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was still feeling the after-effects of his comments last week Tuesday at media day.

“In all honesty, it was really kind of a tongue-and-cheek thing with Blaine Bishop,’’ Williams said Tuesday at media day. “When Blaine played for me, he was that kind of player. One of the things I worried about Blaine, whenever he would get mad, for the next three or four plays he would abort all coverage, he would abort all responsibilities and just go take it out on the opponent. I would ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ and he would tell me, ‘Giving him some remember me shots.’ We were joking about that and what he said was, ‘You got any remember me’s in you this week?’ I said, ‘Who knows? That could come up.’ It kind of got blown out of proportion, but in all honesty, every single time you play you have that.’’



Give Williams some credit for not backing away from the comments and for continuing to be honest when facing the national media.



“I was a little surprised that it took off, but in that respect it didn’t bother me because it’s true,’’ Williams said. “I do believe that. I do believe that I want our players to play hard. I don’t want them to have any apologies. I tell them all the time… I told my kids when I was the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, ‘I don’t ever want you to apologize to anybody at any time about being a competitor. When you have to apologize about being competitive, I’ll be down there at the principal’s office. I’ll go down to the school board. I’ll go to whoever I need to,’ because that’s what pushes our life. That’s what pushes successful people. They want to compete and the fact that you’re going to be competitive and be tough about doing those things, I don’t know what I should have said. Maybe I should have said that we’re going to blow him kisses or send him a Valentine Day card or something like that. I don’t know that that would have been the right message to send the defensive guys that I have.”



Williams said Bishop is more upset about the incident.



“Blaine is texting me and called me a couple times apologizing thinking I may be dog cussing him about it,’’ Williams said. “I said, ‘Blaine, don’t worry about that. That was just you and I having a good time on the radio.’”



Williams said the comments didn’t get him any trouble with New Orleans coach Sean Payton. But he did admit Payton jokingly sent him a gift for breakfast Tuesday morning.



“The poor waiter came over to the table at brunch this morning and gave me two big jars of peanut butter, saltine crackers and a glass full of sand to wash it down with,’’ Williams said. “Maybe if I took all that stuff down I might be able to keep my mouth shut and not say something at media day that will haunt him all week long like I did last week.”

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Bill Cowher called the Buffalo Bills‘ repeated attempts to coax him out of retirement “a very flattering process,” but said his gut told him their head-coaching position wasn’t a right fit for him.



The Bills pursued Cowher and wouldn’t take his first no for an answer. The Bills eventually moved on and hired Chan Gailey, one of Cowher’s former offensive coordinators with the Pittsburgh Steelers.



“I have tremendous respect for Buffalo,” Cowher told me Tuesday afternoon at a CBS Sports media event. “We had some talks. It didn’t really go that far. I couldn’t make the commitment. I have tremendous respect for [Bills owner] Ralph Wilson. I think it’s a tremendous fan base. I think it’s a golden opportunity for Chan Gailey.



“It just wasn’t the right time and place. I pretty much go with a gut feel when I make decisions like that. I think it through, but there was nothing specific. It’s a class organization.”



Cowher’s comments were his first about the Bills’ interest in him. He refrained from discussing the situation on the CBS Sports studio shows.



Cowher confirmed he had one face-to-face meeting with the Bills.



I asked if the rest of their discussions consisted of the Bills badgering him over the phone.



“Yes,” Cowher quickly replied with a jowly grin.



Cowher stepped down from the Steelers after the 2006 season. A year earlier, he won the Super Bowl. His career record in 149-90-1, but he said his retirement might not be permanent.



“If the right situation came along, I would entertain going back to coaching,” said Cowher, who on Tuesday also denied reports he spoke with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers about becoming their coach. “But I don’t know what it would be. … There’s no set criteria. I’ll know when it is.”

MIAMI — There’s been plenty of discussion about Minnesota’s penalty for 12 men on the field near the end of regulation in the NFC Championship Game. But the intrigue extended to the next play, where New Orleans cornerback Tracy Porter‘s interception ended the Vikings’ chance of breaking the tie before overtime.



The interception came only after a last-second adjustment by the Saints defense. Hall of Fame safety Rod Woodson — appearing Tuesday at Super Bowl media day as part of the NFL Network contingent — picked it up right away.



“If you go back and look at that play, you see [Saints linebacker Jonathan] Vilma make a check to bring Porter to the other side,” Woodson said. “And what happens? Porter gets the pick.”



Indeed, the Saints changed from a man-to-man to a cover-2 look that proved advantageous on the play. Coach Brad Childress said last month that Favre’s first read was receiver Bernard Berrian, but the coverage dictated he move to his third read, which was Rice.



Woodson made the observation as a way to illustrate how Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has empowered his players to make on-field adjustments.



“That’s the sign of a great defensive coordinator,” Woodson said. “He’s not going to limit what his players can do. He allows his players to make plays for him.”

MIAMI — It was kind of nice to see a crowd of reporters assembled around New Orleans strong safety Roman Harper on media day. Harper’s one of the most underrated players on this team and he’s also a very good quote.

Harper

This gave the national media a good chance to hear Harper, who’s been overshadowed by other members of the secondary this season. That’s kind of sad because Harper actually had a very good year.



He took a lot of blame in past years, but most of that came because he was trying to help out cornerbacks that weren’t very good. Once the Saints put Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter out there as the starting corners at the beginning of the season and added veteran free safety Darren Sharper in free agency, it seemed like Harper suddenly wasn’t a problem anymore. He became a strength because he was allowed to do what he does best, which is to be an aggressive tackler, who doesn’t get hung out in deep coverage very often.



With Gregg Williams bringing in a new defensive scheme, Harper suddenly became a perfect fit.



“We have always understood that it is not about yards given up or anything like that, it’s all about points scored and limiting (mistakes) when in the red zone and always trying to force turnovers,’’ Harper said. “That’s what we always talk about, ‘Why can’t we get a turnover every possession or why can’t we get the ball out?’ We have got to do something and try to make something happen. It’s not always that our offense scores, maybe we can score. So we are always trying to affect the ball, trying to tackle the ball and trying to over-populate the ball with guys trying to tackle and get the ball out. We are always trying to talk about it, and the more you talk about it, it becomes more of an issue and you want to make it happen.”

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Any chance Joey Porter had of rebuilding his relationship with the Miami Dolphins was just blown to smithereens.



Porter was a guest Tuesday afternoon on Miami sports radio station WQAM here on Radio Row and went on what amounted to a 25-minute rant against the team and even listed three teams he wants to play for in 2010: the San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals.



“The gloves is off,” Porter said.



You also have to wonder about inside linebacker Channing Crowder‘s future with the Dolphins. Crowder was serving as a guest co-host on the show and openly questioned head coach Tony Sparano’s decision to reduce Porter’s playing time.



WQAM producer Brian Spector allowed me to listen on his headphones. I will have a more elaborate transcript later, but here are some highlights I was able to jot down in my notepad.



Porter said there’s a possibility he could remain a Dolphin, depending on what they told him, then backtracked by saying “I can honestly say I wouldn’t believe them.”



Porter said he was miserable the final seven weeks of the season.



“I’ll never let them take the fire out of me,” Porter said. “But they did that.”



Sparano deactivated him in Week 10 because of a violation of team rules. Porter claimed he was punished for going out for dinner rather than staying home while granted practices off to nurse a hamstring injury.



Crowder said the players were stunned to learn Sparano had benched a defensive captain for such an infraction.



“We thought he knocked Tony out,” Crowder said.



“It was an uncomfortable situation among the team, and I know I’m not the only one.”



The Dolphins declined to comment on Tuesday’s radio interview.



Porter said he would like to play for a team that runs a 3-4 defense and is close to his home in Bakersfield, Calif. He specifically mentioned the Chargers, 49ers and Cardinals.



“Those would be good fits I feel could use my services,” Porter said.

Colston

MIAMI — One of the best moves the Saints have made in recent years was getting wide receiver Marques Colston in the seventh round of the 2006 draft.



But general manager Mickey Loomis wasn’t gloating about that move Tuesday. Although Colston has turned out to be one of the biggest steals in draft history, Loomis was very modest and admitted that the Saints weren’t forecasting greatness when they made the pick.



“We felt good about the pick, but I think in our building we would have said to you, “Hey, this is a guy who we can spend a few years with, maybe on the practice squad, and develop into a guy who can contribute to our team’’, Loomis said. “No one in our building would have said, ‘Hey, this guy is going to be an 80-catch, 1,000-yard receiver in Year 1′. ”