Steelers face murky future

TOP 10 BEN MOMENTS

Remembering the best of Ben Roethlisberger at Heinz Field

BY RON COOK • PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • JAN. 3, 2022

Fifteen years, Mike Tomlin was saying on

Tuesday.

“I’ve experienced 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 retire?

Where does time go?

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 happened 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 memories.

Roethlisberger 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 quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shakes hands with the fans after defeating the Cleveland Browns at Heinz Field on Jan.

3, 2022. MATT FREED/POST-GAZETTE

10

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.

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

9

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 2017.

“When you’ve got a Hall of Fame quarterback, it looks good like that,” Maurkice Pouncey said.

LEFT | Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger scrambles against the Kansas City Chiefs at Heinz Field on Oct. 2,

2016. PETER DIANA/POST-GAZETTE

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

OPPOSITE | Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger celebrates a touchdown by running back Najee Harris.

MATT FREED/POST-GAZETTE

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. 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.