Food for thought on a Dolphins morality play

The security camera tape of Joey Porter and his posse beating up Cincinnati offensive tackle Levi Jones in Las Vegas this offseason is disgusting.

It's not so much that Porter shows his violent unruly side; it's that there is no sportsmanship in a fight in which Porter and three thugs jump Jones while he is alone. The 4-on-1 blitz isn't a fair match and consequently isn't much of a fight.

The tape was leaked, no doubt by Jones or one of his lawyers, to Fox Sports, which aired it over the weekend. On Monday, Dolphins coach Cam Cameron was asked if he had seen the tape and expected to further discipline Porter, who happens to be Miami's strongside linebacker.

"I have not seen it and in my view he has handled it exactly the way you would want a guy to handle it," Cameron said. "The league has ruled on it. It’s over. It’s done.”

Well, not really. You see, the Dolphins have generally been a class organization in dealing with off-field incidents. The team seemed to occupy the moral high ground when dealing with off-field incidents involving Kelly Campbell and Fred Evans this offseason, even to the detriment of the roster in the releasing of Evans. And, obviously the club condoned the NFL game-check sanctions on Porter when he did his misdeed.

So given that stance, one could understand the team's silence in dealing with Ricky Williams. It is pretty much assumed if Williams is ever reinstated from his jillionth drug suspension the Dolphins will wipe their hands of him somehow, because everyone assumes, Cameron doesn't want that kind of questionable character on his team.

One could have zero problem with this logic until now because, after all, a coach has the prerogative to determine the character of his team by picking, or not picking, certain players.

But now, given the terrible portrait of Porter we see in this video, one has to wonder how the Dolphins can sincerely make a case to not reclaiming Williams based on character issues while keeping Porter who apparently has different and more disturbing character issues.

Understand that Williams is a flake and obviously has an addiction problem. But he has never violently attacked anyone and certainly hasn't done so in an unfair 4-on-1 mugging. He may not fit the Dolphins any more based on aptitude, but his attitude when he's around the team has been exemplary.

And so the Dolphins have a decision to make. Maybe they don't keep Williams because his value is diminished or the team simply wants to move on. But following this Porter tape release, the Dolphins have no moral grounds to stand on if they're going to argue character is the reason for not bringing back the running back.