Steelers, Roethlisberger agree to new deal for 2021 season
Ben Roethlisberger is returning for an 18th season with the Pittsburgh Steelers and is taking a pay cut todoit.
The team and the twotime Super Bowl winner announced on Thursday they have agreed on a new contract that assures the 39-year-old will be back in 2021.
Financial details were not immediately available, though the Steelers made no secret of the need for Roethlisberger to take a pay cut to ease some of the burden of his NFL-high $41.25-million salary-cap hit scheduled for 2021.
NFL Network, citing anonymous sources, said Roethlisberger’s new deal will essentially pay him $14 million this season and adds four voidable years to spread out the dead money.
“I am grateful to be at this stage of my career and more than happy to adjust my contract in a way that best helps the team to address other players who are so vital to our success,” Roethlisberger said in a statement. “I love this game and love to compete, and I believe in this team and my ability to deliver when called upon. It all starts with great preparation and I am ready to go.”
Roethlisberger passed for 3,803 yards with 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 15 games in 2020 after missing almost all of 2019 with a right elbow injury. The Steelers won their first 11 games on their way to a 12-4 record and captured the AFC North title but were stunned at home by Cleveland in the first-round of the playoff game thanks in part to four Roethlisberger interceptions.
Steelers president Art Rooney II, head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert all expressed the desire to bring Roethlisberger, stressing the need to do it in a way that gives the Steelers some financial flexibility. The new contract does offer a bit more freedom, but Pittsburgh is facing several high-profile departures in free agency.
Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, outside linebacker Bud Dupree, running back James Conner and left tackle Alejandro Villanueva are among more than a dozen Steelers who will hit the open market this month. Conner and Villanueva are unlikely to be brought back after underwhelming play in 2020. Smith-Schuster and Dupree
have likely priced themselves out of a return.
Golf
MCILROY JUMPS INTO LEAD AT ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL >> Rory McIlroy shot a 6-under-par 66 and was tied for the lead with Corey Conners after the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Fla.
Bryson DeChambeau was alone in third place at 5 under, while Jason Kokrak, Byeong Hun An and Sebastian Munoz were tied for fourth place at 4 under.
McIlroy, the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational champion, who last won on the PGA Tour in 2019, opened his round on the back nine, shooting 1-under before the turn. McIlroy then got on a roll with five consecutive birdies starting at No. 2.
Defending champion Tyrrell Hatton of England struggled during the opening round, shooting a 5-over 77 that included bogeys on three of his final five holes.
TIGER WOODS TOLD COPS HE DIDN’T REMEMBER DRIVING >> Tiger Woods told responding deputies to his single-vehicle crash last week that he did not know how the accident happened and didn’t remember driving, USA Today reported Thursday.
USA Today cited a copy of the search warrant affidavit that was used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to obtain the black box in the SUV Woods was driving.
“The deputies asked him how the collision occurred,” according to the affidavit. “Driver said he did not know and did not even remember driving ... Driver was treated for his injuries at the hospital and was asked there again how the collision occurred. He
repeated that he did not know and did not remember driving.”
COMING OFF VICTORY, NELLY KORDA SHARES THE LEAD >> Nelly Korda didn’t miss a beat four days after her first LPGA Tour title on U.S. soil, outplaying her sister and the world’s No. 1 player for a 5-under 67 to share the lead at the Drive On Championship with former NCAA champion Jennifer Kupcho.
Austin Ernst also had a 67 at Golden Ocala in Ocala, Fla.
The third-ranked Korda was part of a featured group that played early before the cool morning yielded to warm sunshine. She played alongside her older sister, Jessica, who had a 69; and Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf who had a 75.
High school sports
LEGENDARY EAST BAY BOYS BASKETBALL COACH DIES AT 99>> Leo Allamanno, one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in California history during his nearly three decades of dominance at Fremont High in Oakland, has died. He was 99.
Allamanno’s death Monday from injuries suffered in a recent fall came just eight days before his 100th birthday.
During his 29 years as coach from 1954-83, the Tigers won 10 Oakland Athletic League championships, four Tournament of Champions titles and his 1977 team, led by future Golden State Warriors first-round pick Lester Conner, went 25-1 and was the state’s top-ranked team.
In all, Allamanno’s teams went 449-191 as they helped him become a two-time state coach of the year, a California Coaches Hall of Fame inductee in 1988.
College football
LSU BANNED FORMER COACH FROM 1-ON-1 CONTACT WITH FEMALE STUDENTS >> Kansas football coach Les Miles, during his tenure at LSU, was accused of kissing a female student and texting her and another from his personal phone, leading the school to bar him from being alone with women who were student employees, according to a 2013 LSU investigation that the school released Thursday.
The investigation, conducted by an outside law firm on LSU’s behalf, found the coach’s behavior inappropriate, though it did not find that Miles had sexual relationships with the women. Miles, in part, was issued a letter of reprimand and had to sign papers to say he understood sexual harassment policies, according to the report, which was first acquired by USA Today.
Baseball
MLB TO HOLD FIRST LOU GEHRIG DAY >> Major League Baseball will hold its first Lou Gehrig Day on June 2, adding Gehrig to Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente on the short list of players honored throughout the big leagues. Each home team will have “4ALS” logos in ballparks to mark Gehrig’s No. 4, and all players, managers and coaches will wear a Lou Gehrig Day patch on uniforms and may use red “4ALS” wristbands. Teams that are off on June 2 will observe Lou Gehrig Day on June 3.
MLB said Thursday that the day will focus on finding cures and raising money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, which is known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Swimming
MANUEL COMES OUT ON TOP IN TIGHT WOMEN’S 100 >> Stanford’s Simone Manuel edged Cal’s Abbey Weitzel by six one-hundredths with a time of 54.62 seconds to win the women’s 100 free A-final at the TYR Pro Swim Series in San Antonio, Texas.
Weitzeil clocked 54.68, with Stanford’s Katie Ledecky in third at 54.74 and Cal’s Katie McLaughlin (54.82) was fourth.
Pleasanton’s Maxime Rooney took the men’s 100 free in 49.51. Cal’s Zheng Quah (1:57.52) edged Cal’s Tom Shields in the men’s 200 fly.
Ledecky (4:05.00) cruised to another win the 400 free.