STEEL WILL
Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returns, saving fans from having to cry into Terrible Towels
Now it can be told: Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement rumba in January was nothing more than a hypothetical exercise, no reason for Pittsburgh Steelers fans to hit the panic button.
“It was just thoughts,” the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback told a radio show in Pittsburgh of his retirement musings. “It was just, I think, a prudent thing to do. Maybe I should’ve worded it like, ‘Hey, I’m probably coming back, but I need to consider all my options.’ It had nothing to do with the [loss to New England in the AFC championship] and this and that.
“It really was all about football, life and what’s going on at my age.”
Roethlisberger, 35, needs 3,186 yards to become the seventh player in NFL history with at least 50,000 yards passing. He also needs 196 completions to become the eighth player with 4,000.
“I hate to say that I’m going to play for 10 more years, and I’ve said this before: I want to focus on this year,” he said. “I’m going to give everything I have to this year, and if I’m going to say, ‘I’m definitely going to be here in three years,’ well, then I’m cheating. I’m giving myself a timeline.
“I want to be right here, right now, and give everything I have to this. When I’m done, I’ll know I’m done.”
In Baltimore, the Ravens are waiting for Joe Flacco to return to health. He tweaked his back while working out this offseason, leaving him to rehabilitate this summer. The 10-year veteran has made it through nine full seasons.
“It’s kind of a waiting game,” Flacco said in July. “It’s just one of those things where you have to be patient and not let your competitive nature get the best of you. I’m talking about everybody — myself, and really everybody.”
During training camp, Ryan Mallett worked with the Ravens’ first-string offense.
Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals had a career-best rating of 106.2 in 2015, but he took a small step back last season when his number dipped to a still-respectable 91.8 but the Bengals finished 6-9-1.
The Bengals added a couple of potent offensive players in the draft, with Washington receiver John Ross, a scorching speedster, and Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon.
As for Cleveland, the Browns have different quarterback options, none of them terribly appealing.
The team traded for Houston’s Brock Osweiler, with the intent of turning around and trading him, while keeping the draft picks included in the exchange. The team has decided to go with DeShone Kizer, a rookie from Notre Dame who was drafted in the second round, but at this point has no quarterback who sends a chill down the spines of opposing teams.
The star quarterback in this division resides in Pittsburgh. Age and experience has given Roethlisberger a different perspective on the game and his mortality. He took himself out of a game last season after suffering a concussion and later said it’s important for players to self-report head injuries.
“You can replace a lot of body parts, but you can’t replace a brain,” he said. “You see the effects of it from past players, players who have taken their lives, the [chronic traumatic encephalopathy], all that stuff and, you know, I’m thinking about my family and long term. I love this game and I love my brothers that I play football with, and I would encourage any player who has an issue with their brain to just report it properly.