7 minute read
Foreword
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
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
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
FOCUS ON RIVERS, ROETHLISBERGER
Is Rivers on top of Steelers’ list?
BY ED BOUCHETTE • PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • MARCH 30, 2004
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 manager said yesterday at the league meetings. “Rivers is the guy they want.”
The Steelers have the 11th overall pick in the draft and Rivers is said by many to be the quarterback 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.
The Steelers, who have not drafted a quarterback 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 backup 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 meetings. “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.
“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.”
If the Steelers draft Rivers or another quarterback, 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 quarterback 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,” Colbert said.
There’s 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.
“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.”
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.
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
BEN’S FIRST START
Ben Roethlisberger navigates nasty weather for win in first career start
BY ED BOUCHETTE • PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • SEPT. 26, 2004
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.
His team clinging to a three-point lead midway 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.
“You got to give a lot of credit to both Hines and Plax for staying with me on those scrambles,” 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.”
Roethlisberger, who completed 12 of 22 passes 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 his composure.”
The touchdown came with 6:16 left and effectively ended a game in which neither offense could get much going except for mistakes.
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.
“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 that defense.”
Miami (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.
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.
“Anytime you can get the century mark, it’s big,” Staley said.
Hurricane Jeanne was long gone by the time they kicked off in Pro Player Stadium, replaced by a tropical depression — watching two ineffective offenses slog it out in the rain and muck and wind.
With a steady, heavy downpour throughout the first half, quarterbacks had trouble throwing; 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.
“That’s football to me,” Cowher said. “I love games like that.”
The Steelers eventually outrushed Miami, 153 yards to 52, by piling up 95 yards in the second half.
Miami’s 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 turnovers and two penalties. Problem is, the Steelers managed only three points off those turnovers.
Miami began in comedic fashion.
On the Dolphins’ first play, left tackle Damion McIntosh, freshly promoted to start this week, jumped offsides for a 5-yard penalty. 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
OPPOSITE | Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger drops back to pass against the Miami Dolphins at Pro Player Stadium in Miami on Sept.
26, 2004. PETER DIANA/POST-GAZETTE
