Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Steelers linebacker Joey Porter leaps into the arms of guard Alan Faneca as they celebrate the Steelers' Super Bowl XL win. At right is defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen. Click photo for larger image.

DETROIT -- As he listened to the national anthem, Joey Porter stood on the sideline at Ford Field, his eyes closed, head gently swaying, soaking in the melodic words from Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville and feeling the moment of Super Bowl XL. For Porter, a bombastic, loquacious linebacker, it was a peaceful and introspective moment before a game filled with the violence and vitriol he so embraces.

It wasn't much different after the game, either.

Basking in the joyous glow of a victory in Super Bowl XL -- a 21-10 defeat of the Seattle Seahawks in which he played a less dominant role -- Porter was not his usual verbal-lashing self. In a week that began with acid and vengeance, there was only elation and empathy. In a year when there was doubt and dismay about merely making the playoffs, there was only unbridled joy and the sympathy that gets extended to a beaten competitor, a role Porter knows all too well.

And so it was that as he stood at his stall in a celebratory Steelers locker room Sunday night, holding on to a victory cigar, Porter was not going to take more shots at Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens, the player he blasted and labeled a "first-round bust" before the game after Stevens said the Seahawks were going to ruin Jerome Bettis' Super Bowl homecoming to Detroit.

To be sure, Porter had plenty of fodder after the Seahawks' loss. Stevens, a No. 1 pick in 2002, dropped three passes for the Seahawks, one of which came after a hard hit by safety Chris Hope. He had a 16-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter for the Seahawks' only touchdown, and also had an 18-yard reception to the Steelers' 1 negated by penalty.

"I got to finish doing all my bells and whistles. I want my floats. I want my parade. I want everything that comes with a Super Bowl." -- Joey Porter

But his drops were debilitating enough that his Super Bowl performance will largely be remembered for those moments of ignominy, rather than for any problems he created for the Steelers' defense.

Porter had enough of the jaw-jacking -- his word for trash talk.

"It's hard to sit up here and harp on a guy like that," Porter said. "It's tough enough to lose a Super Bowl. I can't imagine. For me to sit here and mess with him, it doesn't do me any good or him any good. He had a touchdown in the Super Bowl. He gave his team his best chance to win. He tried hard. But we won the championship. We were the better team."

Perhaps Porter was being conciliatory because he did not have a monster game against the Seahawks like he had in the playoff victories in Indianapolis and Denver, when he chased after Peyton Manning and Jake Plummer as if they had stolen his wallet. Porter, a three-time Pro Bowl linebacker, had a different role against the Seahawks, dropping mostly into coverage to combat the West Coast-style offense and only occasionally getting to rush quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

Porter finished with three tackles and no sacks, the first time he had not registered a sack in a postseason game since last year's divisional playoff victory against the New York Jets.

But Porter was in no mood to keep attacking. All he wanted was to celebrate.

"I'm not going to sit here and talk about what Jerramy Stevens said during the week," Porter said. "I'm a champion right now. It doesn't really matter right now if I got in his head or not. It's not like I went out there and just played. I didn't have five or six sacks or anything like that. But I did my role, and my role was to make sure we're world champions."

Make no mistake, Porter was basking in the moment. And he didn't want anything, not even Stevens, to ruin his celebration.

Porter is one of five Steelers who will compete for the AFC team in the Pro Bowl this weekend in Hawaii. But he is delaying his trip so he can return to Pittsburgh and join his teammates in today's parade Downtown.

"I can't wait," Porter said. "I've been working hard all week and I'm looking forward to my break. But I want all my bells and whistles. I ain't missing nothing. I've been to Hawaii before so it's going to have to wait.

"I got to finish doing all my bells and whistles. I want my floats. I want my parade. I want everything that comes with a Super Bowl. I've been watching this for years. It's my turn and I want everything that comes with it."

Of course, it wouldn't be Porter's nature to go quietly into the night.

He had one more rant in his 6-foot-3, 255-pound body, and it further quantified the theme the Steelers have emoted since a Dec. 4 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals appeared to seriously jeopardize their playoff possibilities.

"You know what, it feels so much better when you do something when everyone says you can't do it," Porter said, his voice rising. "That's the best feeling in the world, it always is, when you prove people wrong, when they tell you you can't do something and you do it. There's no better feeling than that, and that's what we did.

"They said a sixth seed can't do it. They said we were out when we started [the playoffs] in Cincinnati. We faced all the adversity you can face. We faced the No. 3 offense [in Denver], the No. 2 offense [in Cincinnati], the No. 1 offense [in Indianapolis]. Everything we did was the hard route.

"When they talk about Super Bowl champions, Super Bowl XL always has to be remembered. They got to put us up there with the best. The way we did it has never been done before."

It was a moment for Porter to enjoy.