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FOXBORO - Joey Porter sounded fairly good-natured about it, but the former Pittsburgh linebacker, currently with a total of 12 tackles with the Miami Dolphins, managed to invoke the evil spirits of Spygate in his conference call with the New England media on Wednesday.

Saying that he hated the Patriots and that the Patriots hated him, the fiery linebacker tried to stoke the intensity for Sunday's game at Gillette Stadium (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12) by claiming that the reasons why his Steelers lost multiple AFC championship games to the Patriots was because of the videotaping scandal from the 2007 season.

He said he has only added to his dislike of the Patriots since joining the Dolphins.

"We split with them last year and the year before that they beat us twice," Porter said. "So this is my third year (in this division) going up against them and we're trying to change the way it used to be. My feelings toward New England go back further.

"It goes back to my Pittsburgh days, so I felt a certain way after some things came out, way back when," he said. "I was in Pittsburgh for some AFC Championships that I've lost to them a couple of times that come to figure out a month later why we lost. So, yeah, I have a natural hate for them - period. And that's just going to be with me forever. That's not ever going to change." Porter was asked to say specifically to what he was referring, but he played it cool.

"Nope," he said. "You can fill in the blanks. Y'all are smart guys over there."

Further attempts to pull the word "Spygate" out of Porter's mouth met with sufficient resistance.

"We do this every year around this time when I do this conference call," Porter said. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. And they know exactly what I'm talking about. And that's not gonna change."

Participation report

The usual suspects did not participate in practice Wednesday for the Patriots. Absent were Julian Edelman (forearm), Jarvis Green (knee), Matt Light (knee), Sammy Morris (knee), Fred Taylor (ankle), Ty Warren (ankle) and Jonathan Wilhite (flu).

Benjamin Watson was limited in practice with back soreness. Tom Brady and Randy Moss, both nursing sore shoulders, practiced.