Still steamed over the Miami linebacker calling him soft after the Dolphins' 26-17 win at Denver on Sunday, the Broncos star receiver returned the insults Tuesday.
-- Brandon Marshall, on Joey Porter
"Yeah, Joey Porter's one of them guys, when you got guys who talk a lot of trash, just want to talk about people or put people down, they have their own insecurities," Marshall said. "And his insecurities I don't know. But he's definitely one of those guys who all those muscles are popcorn muscles. He's soft."
Porter, who leads the league with 11½ sacks, helped hold Marshall to two late catches Sunday and then continued his jawing in the locker room afterward, suggesting Marshall pouted after not getting an early catch and allowed all the taunting to affect him mentally and knock him off his game.
"He's one of those soft receivers, where he has to have the ball all the time. If he don't get it, he's going to mope and cry. He did it to himself," Porter suggested.
Marshall was clearly frustrated by the effective coverage he faced and after the game took shots at his quarterback, Jay Cutler, for not finding him on the few occasions he was in single coverage and at Denver's defensive coordinator for giving Miami's receivers so much cushion.
Marshall didn't hear about Porter's jabs until after he had left Invesco Field on Sunday night. After a day off, Marshall was eager to return the ridicule Tuesday.
"You know, we hear stories floating around the league all the time about him as far [as being] in nightclubs dancing with his shirt off like a girl or in the playground getting beat up back in California," Marshall said. "He's one of those guys that no matter how big he is, he can still get knocked on his butt and he's soft. He's soft at heart and you can tell by the way he talks.
"And his nickname is 'Peezy.' I don't know what 'Peezy' is," Marshall added, then paused and leaned forward to deliver the punctuation: "Joey!"
The Dolphins were off Tuesday and Porter wasn't available to respond to Marshall's volleys.
But what about Porter's allegation that defenders can get into his head and take him out of the game? Is there some truth to that?
"No, no, you've got to understand the situation, they're winning and we're going back and forth and he won because they won the game," Marshall said. "It wasn't nothing to do with us talking, going back and forth. And he ran with it. He ran with it pretty good.
"Getting in my head? Never. He can't get in my head because I'm always trying to make plays and I'm always trying to make things happen," Marshall insisted. "I'm never shutting down. I don't care if we're down by 40 points or we're up by 40 points, I'm never shutting it down, I'm always going to try to do my best and make plays."
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