Roethlisberger will battle through criticisms
Ican’t believe what I am hearing about the Steelers. Porky Pig is going to be their quarterback this season? That seemed to be the conclusion on Twitter after the team posted a picture of Ben Roethlisberger arriving at training camp Wednesday at its South Side facility.
“Where is he checking into? Burger King?”
“Big Ben checkin’ in after checkin’ out KFC.”
“Good to see Big Ben taking after my workout routine which is doing absolutely [bleeping] nothing.”
“What’s he about? 350?” “He should be embarrassed coming to training camp like that. Obviously football is just not that important to him.”
“This is an NFL quarterback????”
The responses were ridiculous and, sadly, predictable.
Forget that a lot of people jumped to outrageous conclusions based on one picture of Roethlisberger. The same thing happened in February 2020 when he was photographed at a West Virginia basketball game. The pictures made him appear a bit pudgy, but nothing even remotely resembling Fat Albert.
A subsequent picture of Roethlisberger on Wednesday from a different angle made him look as if he is in great shape. I think that is a more accurate depiction. I’m buying the reports that he trained hard during this offseason. I’m convinced he wanted to give himself the best chance to be successful.
But all of that doesn’t really matter.
What’s troubling is how predictable it has become that Roethlisberger will take unfair, unnecPittsburgh essary and almost slanderous
beatings from his critics who go out of their way to rip him, often making their attacks personal.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like it with another Pittsburgh athlete, at least not one who has been the winner he has been, leading the Steelers to two Super Bowl wins and to a third Super Bowl. He is headed to the Hall of Fame.
It started to get really ugly when Antonio Brown left the Steelers before the final regular-season game in 2018. Roethlisberger was blamed. Of course he was. It was only after Brown exposed himself as being erratic, if not deranged, that the Roethlisberger bashing eased —even though he still heard plenty of criticism that he was a bad teammate and a bad leader.
Those shots abated for a bit after Roethlisberger led the Steelers to an 11-0 start last season. He threw three touchdown passes in wins against the New York Giants and Philadelphia. He had three more at Dallas, bringing the team back from a 199, third-quarter deficit. He threw four touchdown passes against Cincinnati, the ninth win of the streak. At that point, he had 22 touchdown passes with just four interceptions. He was in the NFL Most Valuable Player conversation.
Then, Roethlisberger and the Steelers fell apart.
The team won just one of its final five regular-season games. It was humiliated at home in the playoffs by the Cleveland Browns. The collapse wasn’t all Roethlisberger’s fault. The offensive line was bad and the running game worse. But he was awful in that loss to the Browns, throwing four interceptions. He was photographed crying on the bench after the game ended. Talk about unflattering pictures.
Roethlisberger’s critics pounced after the Steelers announced he would return for this season, his 18th in the NFL. Chief among the detractors was ESPN analyst and former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum, who called Roethlisberger the fourth-best quarterback in the AFC Central Division and predicted the Steelers will finish in fourth place.
“He’s going to be bad,” Tannenbaum said. “I expect him to be benched by the middle of the season.”
Roethlisberger, much as he did during the fallout from the Brown walk-out, has not responded publicly to that assessment or others similar to it. He knows criticism goes with his position. He’s always known that. He is well-compensated and still will make a base salary of $14 million this season even after agreeing to a $5 million pay cut. He has made more than $250 million during his career.
But understanding criticism and liking it are two different things. Roethlisberger is a proud man. He also is extraordinarily competitive. That could turn out to be a dangerous combination for Steelers opponents.
I expect Roethlisberger to use the bashing as motivation. How well he plays will be determined, in significant part, by how well his rebuilt offensive line does and how he adjusts to new offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s offense. But I do believe he will do his part to have a big season. Porky Pig? Please.