ROETHLISBERGER EYES ONE LAST STAND AT HEINZ

Ben Roethlisberger has been flirting with the idea of retirement for years. This time, however, feels different. For the first time in his nearly two-decade career, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback did more than just hint that the end is near. It may finally be at hand.

“I would say that all signs are pointing to this could be it,” Roethlisberger said in the run-up to tonight's game against Cleveland at Heinz Field.

The 39-year-old offered no guarantees. Guarantees aren't really his thing. Yet the signs have been there for most of his 18th season.

The two-time Super Bowl winner has spoken wistfully at times, solemnly at others during a wildly uneven season for both himself and the franchise he has long defined.

He's made it a point to attempt to stay in the moment, but with Pittsburgh at 7-7-1 and its playoff chances iffy at best, Roethlisberger will stand in the tunnel and jog out onto the Heinz Field as the starter for the home team for the 135th and perhaps final time. The roar will be deafening. The emotions will be high. The stakes will be too.

“I know that I still have it in the tank to go out there this week and in next week and give it everything I have to do everything I can to get us into the postseason,” Roethlisberger said. “That's always the ultimate goal is to

win a Lombardi, and that's still the goal. We're not out of this thing yet.”

No, but it's getting close. Any chance the Steelers have must begin with a victory over Cleveland (7-8), and any chance of that will likely require Roethlisberger to do what he's done so often in front of a sea of yellow Terrible Towels: summon greatness — even if it's just f lashes of it — at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers.

Roethlisberger will face a Browns team that was eliminated from the playoffs with Sunday's games.

When the Browns were eliminated from the playoffs last January with a 22-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round, some of team's leaders declared, “We will be back.”

But when the Browns began their voluntary offseason program with virtual meetings on April 19, Stefanski pumped the brakes.

“Kevin reminded the players from 2017-19 roughly half the teams that went to the playoffs the previous year didn't make it the next year,” Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said April 27.

Alas, the Browns (7-8) will not qualify for the playoffs this season. They took a trip to the playoffs last season in Stefanski's first year as a head coach.

It's a huge disappointment for a franchise that entered the season with Super Bowl expectations, believing continuity among the coaching staff and players on offense combined with a revamped defense would make it a legitimate contender.

To control their own destiny in the quest for their first AFC North title and first division championship since 1989, the Browns needed the Cincinnati Bengals to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens to fall to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

However, the Browns had only one of those games go their way.