QUARTERBACK OF STEEL Roethlisberger’s 18-Year Career in Pittsburgh
Ben
Remarkable
INTRODUCTION • 5 OPPOSITE | Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger watches the game on the sideline in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XL. The Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10, at Ford Field in Detroit on Feb. 5, 2006. LAKE FONG/POST-GAZETTE Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................... 3 PART ONE: DAWN OF A NEW ERA Steelers face murky future ................................................. 9 Focus on Rivers, Roethlisberger ...................................... 13 Big Ben drafted .......................................................................17 Getting to know the new QB ............................................ 21 Preview of Ben’s first start ................................................ 29 Ben’s first start ...................................................................... 35 Rookie season hype ............................................................ 43 Super Bowl XL preview ....................................................... 51 Super Bowl XL report ......................................................... 57 PART TWO: MONEY, MIRACLES AND MAYHEM Motorcycle crash 73 One year after the crash 77 Big Ben signs new deal ...................................................... 83 Super Bowl XLIII .................................................................. 89 Super Bowl XLIII winning drive ...................................... 99 The drive 102 Rape case dropped, but time to grow up 105 The next chapter begins 109 Ben’s quiet quest 117 PART THREE: END OF THE ROAD Retirement talks begin ...................................................... 127 Memories start pouring in ................................................133 Top 10 Ben moments ........................................................ 137 The last hurrah at Heinz .................................................. 149 Off-field reflection ............................................................. 159 Glory days ............................................................................. 163 One final gasp ...................................................................... 167 End of the line ....................................................................... 171 Career statistics ................................................................... 176
“In a case like Roethlisberger, he’s a junior,” Colbert said. “You don’t have as many exposures to him. We can spend extra time with him. We probably know a little less about him.”
PALM BEACH, Fla. — When the Steelers revealed the names of a couple of quarterbacks who have accepted invitations to visit their facility next week, one name stuck out for not being on the list. Ben Roethlisberger of Miami (Ohio) and Tulane’s J.P. Losman are among 20 college prospects who will come to Pittsburgh to be evaluated for the draft. Philip Rivers of North Carolina State will not. “It’s a smokescreen,” one NFL general man ager said yesterday at the league meetings. “Rivers is the guy they want.”
If the Steelers draft Rivers or another quar terback, they likely would not want to make him their starter as a rookie, or perhaps even in his second season. Eli Manning, regarded as the best quarter back in the draft, likely will be taken in the top few picks. Colbert believes the Steelers will have a shot to take one of the other quarterbacks. “We want to bring people in we realistically think we have a chance to get,” Colbert said. “We’re not going to bring people in we don’t think we have a chance to get.” Why Roethlisberger and not Rivers? “We may have a realistic chance to get him,” ColbertThere’ssaid.also another reason: The Steelers have had their eyes on Rivers for a while and got to see him practice all week in Mobile, Ala., for the Senior Bowl, in which he was named MVP.
DAWN OF A NEW ERA • 13
The Steelers, who have not drafted a quarter back in the first round in 24 years, could snap that drought in 3 1/2 weeks. Tommy Maddox has been their starter and Charlie Batch a back up the past two seasons. Brian St. Pierre joined the team as a fifth-round draft pick last year. “That’s probably the most important position on your team,” football operations director Kevin Colbert said yesterday at the NFL meet ings. “You have to be secure at that position, and we feel good about our position, we really do, with Tommy, Charlie and Brian. We feel we have a good group. But we say you never know what’s going to present itself at No. 11. We want to make sure.” Colbert said Maddox’s interest in getting a new contract will have no bearing on whether the Steelers draft a quarterback or not. Maddox, 32, is scheduled to earn $750,000 in salary this season, $250.000 less than Batch. He talked to Dan Rooney in June about getting more money on a contract that he signed as a backup. He and his agent. Vann McElroy, spoke again to Rooney and Cowher about the situation this year.
Technically, teams can only bring prospects to their facility to ask medical questions or for a medical exam. “We want to bring in kids who weren’t at the combine, didn’t have a physical or if there are questions about them medically.” Colbert said.
BY ED BOUCHETTE • PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • MARCH 30, 2004
“They’ve committed to take care of Tommy’s contract after the draft, as they have done with others,” McElroy said yesterday. “They did it with Kordell Stewart in June.” Maddox will start working out April 11 at the team’s training facility. He has been working out on his own in Texas. “Tommy’s ready to come in. He’s excited about going in and helping take this team to the Super Bowl,” McElroy said. “He feels very comfortable with what coach Cowher and Mr. Rooney have told him.”
Is Rivers on top of Steelers’ list?
OPPOSITE | Steelers quarterbacks Brian St. Pierre, Charlie Batch, Tommy Maddox and Ben Roethlisberger work out at training camp in Latrobe, Pa., on Aug. 4, 2004. MATT FREED/POST-GAZETTE ON RIVERS, ROETHLISBERGER
FOCUS
The Steelers have the 11th overall pick in the draft and Rivers is said by many to be the quar terback they are targeting. Coach Bill Cowher was among those who attended Rivers’ workout March 22 at North Carolina State. He did not attend Roethlisberger’s workout three days later in Ohio with new Steelers quarterbacks coach Mark Whipple.
Jeff Reed kicked field goals of 40 and 51 yards, and Olindo Mare nailed one from 34 for the Dolphins as both teams played as sloppy as the conditions allowed.
Ward, the NFL’s leading receiver entering the weekend, had nine receptions for 96 yards. Staley had his first 100-yard rushing game as a Steelers halfback with 22 carries for 101 yards.
DAWN OF A NEW ERA • 35 OPPOSITE | Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers eventually outrushed Miami, 153 yards to 52, by piling up 95 yards in the secondMiami’shalf.offense had three turnovers in the first 7 minutes, 14 seconds — two interceptions by quarterback A.J. Feeley (13 of 27, 137 yards, two interceptions) and a lost fumble. In their first nine plays, the Dolphins had three turn overs and two penalties. Problem is, the Steelers managed only three points off those turnovers.
“That’s football to me,” Cowher said. “I love games like that.”
Roethlisberger, who completed 12 of 22 pass es for 163 yards, faked a pitch to Duce Staley from Miami’s 7, dropped back and rolled to his right. Ward dove at the front corner of the end zone, and Roethlisberger delivered the touchdown pass. “I was the last read on that, and Ben threw it at the pylon,” Ward said. “He threw it low and away, and I made the catch. I just cradled it.” Said coach Bill Cowher, “It was a great catch and a great throw. … I thought the quarterback did well. He made some plays and never lost hisThecomposure.”touchdown came with 6:16 left and ef fectively ended a game in which neither offense could get much going except for mistakes.
BEN’S FIRST START
MIAMI — Rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shook off the muck, the rain, the inexperience and the NFL’s No. 1 defense last night to help the Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins, 13-3, in the aftermath of Hurricane Jeanne.Histeam
On the Dolphins’ first play, left tackle Damion McIntosh, freshly promoted to start this week, jumped offsides for a 5-yard penal ty. On the next play, Feeley completed a short pass to tight end Donald Lee, who fumbled the ball when he was popped by safety Chris
“You got to give a lot of credit to both Hines and Plax for staying with me on those scram bles,” said Roethlisberger, victorious in his first NFL start. “And it’s a lot to ask of an offensive line not to hold when you scramble.”
Miami began in comedic fashion.
BY ED BOUCHETTE • PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE 26, 2004
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger drops back to pass against the Miami Dolphins at Pro Player Stadium in Miami on Sept. 26, 2004.
• SEPT.
PETER DIANA/POST-GAZETTE Ben Roethlisberger navigates nasty weather for win in first career start
“It was muddy, it was wet, but it was fun,” Roethlisberger said. “Talk about getting thrown into the fire, playing in a hurricane and against thatMiamidefense.”(0-3 for the first time since 1969) and the Steelers (2-1) played on a baseball infield and produced a baseball score for much of a game that was moved from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. because of the hurricane which hit just above West Palm Beach Saturday night.
clinging to a three-point lead mid way through the fourth quarter, Roethlisberger completed two third-down passes to receivers Plaxico Burress and Hines Ward. Ward then made a spectacular, diving 7-yard catch in the end zone for the game’s only touchdown, and that put the Dolphins away.
“Anytime you can get the century mark, it’s big,” Staley Hurricanesaid.Jeanne was long gone by the time they kicked off in Pro Player Stadium, replaced by a tropical depression — watching two in effective offenses slog it out in the rain and muck and wind. With a steady, heavy downpour throughout the first half, quarterbacks had trouble throw ing; runners could not run. The dirt baseball infield looked like a street in Carnegie last week, one big muddy puddle that attracted a circling seagull looking for fish.
Fifteen years, Mike Tomlin was saying on Tuesday.“I’veexperienced 15 years of Hall of Famecaliber play as it pertains to Ben.” A lot of us have been even luckier. We’ve had the pleasure of watching Ben Roethlisberger play quarterback for the Steelers for 18 seasons. It’s hard to believe it’s almost over. Roethlisberger confirmed Thursday that he almost certainly will play his final game at Heinz Field on Monday night against the Cleveland Browns. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he joined the Steelers out of Miami (Ohio) as their No. 1 draft choice in 2004? Now he’s about to Whereretire?doestime go?
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shakes hands with the fans after defeating the Cleveland Browns at Heinz Field on Jan. 3, 2022. MATT FREED/POST-GAZETTE
END OF THE ROAD • 137
BY RON COOK • PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE 3, 2022
It seems appropriate Roethlisberger will play his final home game against the Browns. He has owned that team in Cleveland, where he has a 12-2-1 record, and at Heinz Field, where he has never lost a regular season game to them. He is 12-0 against the Browns as a starter at home, 13-0 if you count the game in 2015 when he came off the bench on a bad foot to relieve an injured Landry Jones and throw for 379 yards and three touchdowns. Conveniently, we won’t mention what hap pened at Heinz Field in January. Roethlisberger has loved each of his wins against the Browns. He has never forgotten that they bypassed him — a hometown kid from nearby Findlay, Ohio — in the 2004 draft when they took Miami (Florida) tight end Kellen Winslow with the No. 6 pick. He has been making them pay ever since for that franchise’s worst personnel decision since it came back into the NFL in 1999. Cleveland’s loss definitely was Pittsburgh’s gain.Some of Roethlisberger’s better wins at Heinz Field came against the Browns. He brought the Steelers back from a 21-9 halftime deficit in 2007, throwing two touchdown passes and — get this — scoring on a 30-yard run. He had his first career 400-yard passing game against them in 2009. He beat them in 2010 in his first game after his four-game NFL suspension. The Roethlisbergermemories. has a 91-31 regular season record at Heinz Field. It is almost impossible to narrow his top home performances to 10 or, in this case, 12. But I have tried. Somebody had to do it, right?
OPPOSITE | Pittsburgh Steelers
Remembering the best of Ben Roethlisberger at Heinz Field
• JAN.
TOP 10 BEN MOMENTS
RIGHT | Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward leaps over top of the Tennessee Titans’ Tommie Campbell to score a touchdown in the third quarter of the Steelers’ 38-17 victory at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh on Oct. 9, 2011. Ward caught two scoring passes from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who tied a single-game team record with five touchdown throws, as the Steelers improved their record to 3-2.
PETER DIANA/POST-GAZETTE Tennessee, 2011 Playing on a sprained left foot, Roethlisberger threw five touchdown passes in a 38-17 win. His final scoring pass went to Mike Wallace, the 10th time they combined for a touchdown of at least 40 yards. “He’s an A-player,” Tomlin said of Roethlisberger.
10138• QUARTERBACK OF STEEL
LEFT | Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger scrambles against the Kansas City Chiefs at Heinz Field on Oct. 2, 2016. PETER DIANA/POST-GAZETTE Kansas City, 2016 Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes on three of the Steelers’ first six snaps and finished with five touchdown passes in a 43-14 win. It was his 40th consecutive game with at least one touchdown pass, a streak he would extend to 45 in “When2017.you’ve got a Hall of Fame quarterback, it looks good like that,” Maurkice Pouncey said.
9 END OF THE ROAD • 139
160 • QUARTERBACK OF STEEL game despite frigid temperatures. It was as if they didn’t want to leave, preferring — no, needing — to share one final moment with a gifted athlete who had entertained them for so long with Hall of Fame-caliber performances.
MATT FREED/POST-GAZETTE OPPOSITE | Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger celebrates a touchdown by running back Najee Harris.
RIGHT | Pittsburgh Steelers fans show their appreciation for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as the team takes on the Cleveland Browns on Jan. 3, 2022, at Heinz Field.
MATT FREED/POST-GAZETTE
The memories Roethlisberger provided will last a lifetime, the worth he gave to the fans with his and the team’s success priceless. The adulation shown to him might not have reached Bettis- or Polamalu-like levels, but it still was wonderful.
Roethlisberger gave the love right back and has been doing it for years, actually, with the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation and his work with Make-A-Wish Foundation. “This is home,” he said during his postgame media briefing after the game. “I was born in Ohio, but I live here and I’ll always be here. These fans and this place mean so much to me and my family and always will. I’ve always said they’re the best fans in all of sports, and I’ll stick by that until the day I die. To see all the signs and jerseys and towels and to hear them cheer for me coming out of the tunnel, all that stuff, I don’t know that I’ll ever put it into words. I wish I could bottle it and have it forever.”
This seems like the right time to close with one more Roethlisberger thought from our chat in 2013: “I know I’m not going to please everybody or change everybody’s opinion of me and make them start liking me. That’s OK. You can’t get caught up in worrying about that. I worry about the people who do like me or love me and care about me. I’m putting all my energy into being the best person, best husband and best father I can be.” Mission accomplished. It really has been an extraordinary journey.
