Actually, the Steelers season will start in early Sept. when they get bitch-slapped by the Titans on their own field. Hopefully the Titans will stomp on the steelers fans corny ass towels again.
Ahhh Football season! If the NFC West wasn't so terrible I don't think we would make the playoffs this year, but in that division who the hell knows. I'm not all the excited about Jim Mora as the new coach. He should have taken the University of Washington job IMO.
Ben Roethlisberger is only 27. He already has two Super Bowl rings and a $100 million contract with the most storied franchise in football. How much longer does he want to stick around? Until he’s the best ever By Jeanne Marie Laskas; Photograph by Nathaniel Goldberg
He didn't grow up in Pittsburgh, but he looks like he did, and he acts like he did, and if there is anything Steelers fans want in their Steelers, it's authenticity. A touch of home. A pierogi kinda guy who just crawled out of J&L Steel after the night shift and needs a shot and an Iron to start his morning right. None of which is even remotely true about Ben Roethlisberger, nor does that sort of guy even exist in Pittsburgh anymore—steel is dead, and the mills are shopping malls. But that's how it was in the '70s, when the Steelers ruled the world and the fan base got solidified as a foundation for generations to come. So, Roethlisberger! A big lug of a guy with a cinder-block head who almost certainly can't dance except—holy shit!—outside the pocket. A quiet, polite, unsexy guy you can't stop naming sandwiches after. Beef, sausage, scrambled eggs, and American cheese on the North Side. Beef, bacon, barbecue sauce, ranch, Cheddar, and provolone over on Route 51. Roethlisberger fits in Pittsburgh because he does not and probably never will look like a man who makes $12 million a year. He shows up on the Internet drinking tequila in somebody's basement. He makes headlines for almost dying in a motorcycle accident and for some alleged scandalous acts in a hotel room in Lake Tahoe. Anybody really know him? Not really. Pittsburgh is an old lady who hopes her precious, awkward little boy will do the right thing. He's such a young pup. He's a machine. He performs! He wins.
Can we talk about the Super Bowl for a second?
Sure. Okay, Santonio Holmes making that catch. You know the one I mean?
Uh, yeah. You threw it deep into the end zone. And high. And he had three guys on him. And he somehow grabbed it and somehow got both feet down. How did you do that?
Well, it's kind of part of the job, you know? You weren't freaking out? You weren't thinking, This is the Super Bowl and there's less than a minute left and if I don't execute this perfectly we're losers and, shit, I think I just want to go home now?
No. I'm thinking I want to win. Do you practice, like, mind-control exercises or something?
Not that I'm aware of. I think if you look at any of the quarterbacks in the past or the guys playing the position now, they're all kind of, I don't know, kind of quote-unquote special in some sort of way. Santonio Holmes was so good in that game. Superhuman.
Yeah, even more than that last play. That whole drive. I told him he has potential, if he's not already, to be one of the best receivers in the game. It's going to give him confidence and more of a swagger than he already has, which would be good for him. Who would you rather throw to, Holmes or Larry Fitzgerald?
Fitzgerald might be one of the best players in the game. But I love throwing to Tone. I wouldn't trade him for anybody. Which Super Bowl felt better?
This second one was sweet because I felt like I was a part of the win. The first one, I felt like I almost hurt us and didn't do anything to help win it. This one… I mean, growing up, any kid who wants to be a quarterback dreams of throwing the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. So what happens when you're 27 and you've already won the big one—twice? What's left? You've kind of done it all.
I haven't done it all. I want to win more than anyone else has ever won. The most a quarterback's had is four, so my goal is five. Do you think about how you want to go out? Like, we watch Brett Favre now and think it's…time.
It's an individual thing. Only that person knows when it's time to go, you know? That's what it comes down to. But I feel great. I feel healthy, and I think the Lord has blessed me, and as long as I can physically play, I'm gonna play. You've been banged around a lot. Any effects from all those concussions?
Not that I know of. You don't notice any difference in the way you think or anything?
No, not at all. Does it make you nervous when you read about all these struggling retired guys who had a lot of concussions? Some of them were Steelers—Mike Webster and Justin Strzelczyk and all those guys who had tragic endings that have been linked to concussions. Does that stuff make you nervous?
You can't afford to think about it. I think the technology and the equipment we have hopefully will help with all that stuff. Please tell me you're wearing your helmet when you ride your motorcycle these days.
I'm sorry? Are you wearing your helmet when you ride your motorcycle?
I'm not talking about motorcycles. I'm letting that go. Let's talk respect. Do you ever feel like the rest of the world doesn't give the Steelers enough respect?
I don't think it's that they don't respect us. I think they respect us so much that they hate us, so it seems like they don't respect us, if that makes sense. How is it playing for Tomlin versus Cowher?
Tomlin's younger. He's one of the guys. He's jumping and yelling and high-fiving and chest-bumping—really into it. I think that's the biggest difference. He's more a big brother than your dad. Do you ever feel like it's time for people to stop talking Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and start talking Ben Roethlisberger?
Maybe I don't get the credit I deserve, but it doesn't bother me. Sometimes you wish. When they say I'm the seventh- or fifth-best quarterback in the league, that bothers me, but if they say I'm the third-best? I'll take that. Those two are pretty darn good quarterbacks. They're the best in the game. The fans in Pittsburgh think you're sort of unknowable. You don't have a signature—the giant grin of Hines Ward or the Zen-master vibe of Troy Polamalu. You're quiet and removed. Are you trying to be aloof?
It's just my nature. I'm kind of a reserved person. Some people take that as me being too cocky, like I think I'm too good. No, that's just me being a quiet person. Once you get to know me, you realize I'm still the goofball big kid. Are you shy?
No, I'm not shy. I've tried to stay out of the limelight. I'm not trying to draw attention to myself, because that's not who I am. I think that's why I stay in Pittsburgh. Because Pittsburgh fans respect that. The blue-collar thing. Like I'm not trying to be in movies. To me what's important is winning. Playing football. Winning championships. Winning.
The Steelers thread
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks