Do you really know Joey Porter?

DETROIT — The Joey Porter you know, the Joey Porter he wants to make sure you can't ignore, is the Muhammad Ali-like quote machine. The guy who celebrates over fallen quarterbacks as if he were a guest on "Dance Fever."

The Joey Porter you know is the tough guy, the high-revving linebacker with the gunshot wound from an incident in 2003. A bullet passed through his left buttock and lodged in his right thigh. He had surgery and missed all of two games.

The Joey Porter you know is the guy who picks silly fights, like this week's Super Bowl tempest in a ballroom, with Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens.

Porter, the Steelers' Pro Bowl linebacker, makes sure you know he's in the room. He makes sure you know he's on the field. He's a human spotlight. A microphone magnet. If there's a controversy, Porter's either starting it, or stirring it.

Super Bowl week in a two-day me-fest.

But Robert McCarty will tell you about another Joey Porter. The guy who is McCarty's longtime friend. The guy, he believes, is the real Joey Porter.

McCarty's son, Princeton, an outstanding running back at Bakersfield's West High School, suffered a torn ACL in his final prep game last fall. He would need surgery to repair the knee, to get a college scholarship and to prolong his football career.

But McCarty didn't have health insurance, and his son needed help fast.

"There was the thought for a second that, wow, maybe Princeton's dreams wouldn't come true," McCarty said by telephone from Bakersfield, Calif., this week. "But with help from Joey, his dreams are still alive."

McCarty and Porter have been friends for years. They work out together in the offseason. Porter once worked for McCarty, who owns a barbecue catering business.

"It was incredible what Joey did," McCarty said. "It was just a blessing. I get a little choked up whenever I think about it. He's all heart. He hasn't changed one bit since he went to the NFL. What Joey did was above and beyond. But he does a lot of stuff that people don't see. If you need somebody to help you out, you can count on Joey."

Porter saved Princeton McCarty's football life. He paid for the knee surgery. At first Porter was going to fly Princeton back to Pittsburgh to have the Steelers' orthopedist operate. Instead, he enlisted the well-known Los Angeles surgeon, Neal Elattrache.

The surgery, which was performed earlier this week, was successful, and on Wednesday Princeton signed a letter of intent with Idaho. He almost certainly will redshirt next season, but the 5-foot-8, 170-pounder is expected to be featured in the Vandals' offense in a couple of years.

"I watched Princeton grow up. I saw him play some of his high-school games. He was a good kid, but he got into a little trouble here and there," Porter said this week before he turned the spotlight on himself. "Just little things, but he had a chance to refocus and rededicate himself to football and it worked out for him.

"I told him people would be coming at him from different angles. I told him nothing was going to come easy. He had to go out there and work hard and prepare himself. I think he understands that now. I told him the knee surgery would be a setback, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. Now he's got the grades. He did the SAT thing, and I'm proud of him."

Yes, Porter is a trash-talking artist. Yes, he is extreme.

On Thursday's merciful last day of interviews, he made the baseless threat, "We're going to try to tap out as many of their players as we can."

But that is the theatrical Joey Porter. It isn't the Porter that Princeton McCarty owes so much to.

"When I hurt my knee, I felt sad and mad at the same time," Princeton said. "I would think about it a lot, and it would depress me for a little bit. But Joey told me that I can't let it get me down. He told me to work hard and keep a strong mind. I had to show him that I didn't give up.

"He's been helping me for a long time. He's bought me a few pairs of cleats. He's gotten me gloves. He's a really cool guy. He's real intense on the football field, but off the field he's really down to earth. He paid for my knee surgery. He knew how important it was to me, and I feel blessed that he did that."

Yeah, Porter sounded like a punk this week, calling Stevens soft. Yapping about the damage he was going to do. But that's the stage version of Porter. It's all style and no substance.

"With Princeton, I saw a guy coming from Bakersfield, Calif., who pretty much grew up the same way I did," Porter said. "It can be tough there, and he had an opportunity, with football, to get out of there. That's the biggest thing. If you have an opportunity to get out of there and go do something good with your life, I'm all for it.

"He had a chance to get a scholarship and go to college, and I saw it as a chance for me to help keep that dream alive for him. I just did what I could do."

That's the Joey Porter you don't know.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com