Tag: Ben Roethlisberger

The Steeler Way died with Dan Rooney

The manner in which this 2023 Steelers are winning and losing certainly isn’t the first time the Steeler Way has been in question.

The manner in which this 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers team is winning and losing, and all the frustrations that have come from it, certainly isn’t the first time the Steeler Way has been in question.

Look back at when the Steelers truly started going downhill. They made the playoffs in the 2016 season and reached the conference championship game. The following year, the Steelers lost their patriarch, Dan Rooney. They haven’t won in the postseason since then.

From the time he was given complete control of the franchise in 1975 until his death in 2017, players looked up to Rooney. They wanted to grind and win for him and the Black and Gold. For decades, the Steelers were a team everyone wanted to play for.

But cultural issues began in earnest when a 2017 rift between star running back Le’Veon Bell and Pittsburgh, primarily Ben Roethlisberger, ended in divorce after a Bell’s season-long holdout in 2018.

Antonio Brown went off the rails during Bell’s holdout and, in 2019, left for the greener pastures of the Oakland Raiders after several headline-making incidents.

The Steeler Way, at least a portion of it, seemed to be eroding. And it’s only gotten worse this season with some of the younger players not truly understanding what it means to be a Steeler and representing the organization as such.

Roethlisberger, whom Bell and Brown both blame for playing a role in their wanting out of Pittsburgh, had this to say about the highly debated topic.

“It just feels like [certain guys aren’t in it for the team, they’re in it for themselves]. It just feels like something that’s kind of been lost on this team a little bit,” Roethlisberger said on the Dec. 11 episode of his “Footbahlin” podcast. “It feels like ‘the Steeler Way’ is just not [there]. … Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done. Maybe it needs to be formed a new kind of way. I don’t know.”

93.7 The Fan’s Paul Zeise argues that the Steeler Way isn’t the way anymore because it’s a different generation of players. And it’s not a Steelers-only issue, it’s leaguewide. What was once about winning is now about publicity and money.

“… The whole idea of culture, of winning culture, of winning being a valued thing to most of these young guys, it’s gone,” he said on the Dec. 14 “Paul Zeise Show.”

Zeise pointed to how, decades ago, playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers was all about winning. And for a while now, it’s been all about money and exposure.

“It’s all about getting my bag. Gotta get my bag. Wanna get mines. Want to get my hits on TikTok and want to get my hits on snapface and Instagram and all this other stuff. That’s what it’s about.”

“Twenty-five years ago, guys played because they love the game. Twenty-five years ago, winning actually mattered,” he said. “Now, not so much. And the younger we get, and the more generations we get — and I hate to use it because it’s a cliche, but the further deeper and we get into the whole everybody-gets-a-trophy culture, guess what, the less of a winning culture we’re going to have.”

No matter how the Steelers have lost their way, it’s hard to see an end in sight. And for the generations of fans who lived when it was an honor to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s a sad time.

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Ben Roethlisberger says Pittsburgh offense totally lacks ‘Steeler toughness’

We all knew it would happen someday, but it doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking.

We all knew it would happen someday, but it doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking. The current state of the Pittsburgh Steelers is something we’re not entirely used to seeing.

After Ben Roethlisberger retired, things started to shift. That will happen when a tenured future Hall of Famer leaves a team after nearly 20 years. But it’s hurting the team internally and the product on the field. And it doesn’t seem like there’s an answer in sight.

“When I retired, I felt like certain guys aren’t in it for the team, they’re in it for themselves, Roethlisberger said on the Dec. 11 episode of his “Footbahlin” podcast. “Well, now some of the guys on the team are saying the same thing, so maybe I wasn’t too far off when I said that.”

“I know that I’m retired, I’m not in the locker room. I get it. But it just feels like that something’s that’s kind of been lost on this team a little bit. It feels like the Steeler Way is just not … listen, you’ve got some great leaders on defense, don’t get me wrong… T.J. [Watt] and Minkah [Fitzpatrick], but you’ve got two sides of a football.

Pittsburgh sees it’s not as easy as bringing in a veteran to become an instant leader. They’re tried, but it’s not the same as being drafted by the organization and growing with the team into a leadership role. Even then, that step hasn’t happened. Najee Harris isn’t a leader. Diontae Johnson isn’t a leader.

The Steeler Way should be part of your soul from the moment a rookie puts on the Black and Gold. It just hasn’t happened.

“You don’t have it on offense,” Roethlisberger said. “You can bring a veteran football player in, Mason Cole, Isaac [Seumalo], but just because they’re … a veteran football player doesn’t mean that they’re a Steeler, like they know what it is to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.”

Roethlisberger was the last of the true Pittsburgh Steelers on the offensive side of the ball, and no one has stepped up to be that guy.

“When I left, I was kind of the last guard there. [Maurkice] Pouncey left the year before, Dave [DeCastro], like those guys left and it was like I was the last one.”

“There was such an age gap for me and everybody else on offense that there just wasn’t that Steeler tradition passed down. You have it on defense, but you don’t have it on offense right now, and it’s making it really hard. You’re not seeing, in my opinion, the toughness on offense. And I say toughness in the sense of a Steeler toughness, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with, like, ‘This guy’s soft.’ Like, who’s grabbing someone by the face mask and being like, ‘Uh-uh, that’s not what we do.’

“Yes, you have guys on defense doing, but you need guys on both sides of the ball doing because when you’re in offensive meetings, when you’re in offensive huddles, when you’re doing that, you’re meeting separately, you need someone to stand up in that room on offense and be like, ‘Hey, this isn’t what it means to wear the Black and Gold.’ ”

The Steeler Way can be preached, but unless you live it, it’s not really there. And that’s what’s been missing.

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The ugliest winning seasons in NFL history

The 2023 Steelers have an ugly winning season, but it’s not the worst winning season in pro football history. Not even close.

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Folks, the Pittsburgh Steelers just keep winning ugly. In their 23-19 Sunday win over the Green Bay Packers, Mike Tomlin’s team continued its streak of being outgained by every single one of its opponents. This time, the Packers gained 399 net yards to Pittsburgh’s 324. The Steelers are now the only professional football team since at least 1933 to be outgained in every game and still have a winning record.

Impressive? In a perverse way, yes.

Despite this lack of offensive firepower, and a point differential of -26, the Steelers stand at 6-3 on the season, which got us thinking — what are the worst winning seasons in NFL history? Those seasons in which you think to yourself, “There’s no WAY these guys can be winning,” but they are anyway?

As it turns out, the Steelers are nowhere near the worst winning teams in these categories. But it is notable that in all three seasons of Matt Canada’s tenure as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator, the Steelers are either on this list, or in the discussion.

The Bengals’ parallels to a division rival implies all hope is not lost

Even though the tunnel is at its darkest, there is still a light for the Bengals- no matter how dim.

The Cincinnati Bengals had already been put through the wringer ahead of their Thursday Night Matchup with the Baltimore Ravens.

Joe Burrow had a calf injury through the first month and a half of the season that severely limited his abilities as a quarterback, and the Bengals got off to a slow start for the second straight year before rattling off consecutive wins against the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills to get to 5-3.

They proceeded to get seemingly blindsided by a Houston Texans team that has taken the league by storm and fell to 5-4 on a last-second field goal after a potential game-winning touchdown was dropped by Tyler Boyd, forcing Cincinnati to settle for a field goal on the previous drive.

Then, with their backs against the wall in hopes of avoiding a season sweep at the hands of the Ravens, as well as trying to stay above .500, the last thing the Bengals could afford was another injury to their star quarterback. Lo and behold, though, that’s exactly what happened as Burrow exited the game with just over five minutes to play in the fourth quarter with a wrist injury and would not return.

Now at 5-5, and facing a potential reality of Burrow missing time, things look grim in the jungle. However, if Burrow is healthy enough to play and not miss time, all hope is not lost, and there is somewhat of a precedent, and parallel, to this situation that resulted in a Super Bowl win.

In 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers were coming off a season in which they went 15-1 and made it to the AFC Championship Game before being eliminated by the New England Patriots, who went on to appear in (and win) their third Super Bowl in four years. They came into the season full of expectations and momentum from the year before, and were expected to pick up where they left off. Then Ben Roethlisberger got hurt. He suffered a hyper-extended left knee, as well as a bone bruise, in the team’s Week 4 game against the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football. 

The injury would keep the then-second-year quarterback out of the team’s Week 5 game against the Jaguars, which they lost in overtime. Roethlisberger played in the next two games, both wins over the Bengals and Ravens, respectively, but injured his other knee against Baltimore. The Steelers held their own without Roethlisberger, but when he came back, things were clearly out of synch. They lost three of their next five games, putting them at 7-5 and needing to win out to get in the playoffs. Bad knees and all, Roethlisberger helped the Steelers win their final four regular season games, and the ensuing four post-season games and the Steelers became the first team to win three road playoff games en route to a Super Bowl win.

While this year for the Bengals may not be a copy and paste of what the 2005 season was for the Steelers, the parallels are there, nonetheless. Like the Steelers, the Bengals are coming off a year in which they won the AFC North, made it to the AFC Championship Game, and were eliminated by a team who advanced to their third Super Bowl in four years. And like the Steelers, their young star quarterback has suffered multiple injuries, putting the season in doubt and leaving very little room for error with a daunting schedule remaining.

Is it probable that the Bengals can climb this mountain with a beat up quarterback in a conference full of leviathans? But if Burrow can go, and this a large “if,” there’s few guys you’d take the bet on making it happen over him. So while the tunnel is currently at its darkest, a light remains at the end- no matter how dim.

A frustrated Ben Roethlisberger criticizes Najee Harris during Steelers-Packers game

Big Ben was critical of Najee Harris’s decision to hurdle Packers defender Rudy Ford.

Najee Harris has been hurdling dudes ever since he stepped foot on a football field. It’s his signature thing. When it works, it’s a thing of beauty. When it doesn’t, it’s a head-scratcher.

Defenders expect it now. Green Bay Packers safety Rudy Ford was ready when Harris attempted a scissor kick jump on a catch-and-run midway through the fourth quarter to convert on 2nd-and-10. Ford carried Harris on his shoulders before planting him firmly out of bounds.

The officials initially spotted the ball at the line to gain but then moved it back two yards as Mike Tomlin gave them an earful. On the next play, defenders flushed a moving Kenny Pickett out of bounds and forced a field goal.

It was frustrating to say the least, because if Harris had just kept trucking instead of theatrics, it would’ve easily been a first down and a new set of downs to find the end zone.

Watching Steelers-Packers with Merrill Hoge and “Footbahlin” producer Spence T’eo, Ben Roethlisberger was critical of the play.

“Here’s my thing: If Naj doesn’t jump this guy and instead puts his shoulder down and runs the guy over, he gets the first down. He jumps over him and gets carried, so he loses all his momentum. He’s 250-some pounds. Now that’s a big guy. Go! Run him over! Run that guy over, and you got the first down. Put him down and run him over, and you guarantee the first down. And you avoid this landing right here. Boom!”

It was Harris’s only blemish of the day, as he finished with 20 total touches for 96 yards and a score.

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Former Steeler Rashard Mendenhall stays bitter about his former quarterback

Rashard Mendenhall is still upset about how his career went in Pittsburgh.

There have been plenty of former Pittsburgh Steelers who left the team on less-than-ideal terms only to mend fences and find their way back. One former Steeler who is never going to do that is former running back Rashard Mendenhall. He was been petty every chance he could get someone to listen about his time in Pittsburgh and especially his issues with former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Mendenhall was a guest on the Raw Room podcast where he took advantage of having a microphone in front of him to vent all his past frustrations in public once again.

“Whenever we doing great, ‘The quarterback’s amazing, he’s awesome.’ Whenever we struggling, ‘Fire Tomlin, oh Le’Veon [Bell].’ Every time it’s not going well, are we a team or not? When we lose, certain people are shielded from the loss and then everybody and anybody else taking the blame happens to look like us a lot of the time.”

In case anyone wonders why Mendenhall is so bitter, you need look no further than Super Bowl XLV. Which ironically was against the same foe, the Green Bay Packers, who the Steelers will face this weekend.

Fans have never let Mendenhall live down his fumble from that game. Despite the fact it happened very early in the fourth quarter in a game the Steelers only trailed 21-17. The tale gets retold like it was on the final drive of the game and Pittsburgh had no chance to correct it. This was never the case.

Nevertheless, we hope Mendenhall can eventually get past this and stop letting something that happened so long ago impact him now.

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Ben Roethlisberger speaks from experience when he warns about behavior of George Pickens

If there’s anyone who knows about wide receivers and their behavior, it’s Ben Roethlsiberger.

If there is anyone who can speak on the dangers of an unchecked ego on a talented wide receiver, it is Pittsburgh Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger. So when Roethlisberger says head coach Mike Tomlin needs to get wide receiver George Pickens under control before things get out of hand, Tomlin should heed his warning.

“You gotta get it under control before it gets out of control, and you lose it forever,” Roethlisberger said on his podcast. “It can happen”

Roethlisberger is uniquely qualified to discuss this after watching Tomlin coddle former Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown to the point that he ended up going completely off the deep end and forcing a trade from the team. Brown’s antics well before that were largely dismissed by the coaches, leaving Roethlisberger to deal with him on Sundays on the field.

Pickens drew a ridiculous taunting penalty in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Rams that negative a great play he made. Tomlin was fairly dismissive of it at the post-game press conference but Roethlisberger knows that if left unchecked what it could lead to.

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Aaron Rodgers supports Ben Roethlisberger as new Steelers OC

A statue would be erected in Ben Roethlisberger’s honor.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans clamoring for Ben Roethlisberger to take Matt Canada’s job as offensive coordinator dates back to (at least) his second season. And while it’s not a realistic desire, fellow future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers thinks Roethlisberger could pull it off.

“I think Ben could do it because he understands the game and he could call it in his sleep at the line of scrimmage,” Rodgers said on the October 3 Pat McAfee Show. “But it’s very rare that you see great players who come back and are able to be great coaches. I don’t know if it’s the time commitment or dealing with people that don’t see the game the same way.

There were tons of moments, especially later in his career, where Roethlisberger was fondly dubbed “Backyard Ben” for drawing up plays in the dirt and pulling off incredible comeback wins.

And Rodgers loved it.

“Ben, like me, was one of the few quarterbacks in the league who could just call their own plays. I always loved watching him in those situations,” he said. “They’d be behind by a couple scores maybe or in the two-minute drive knowing he’s calling it. Where everything now, with most teams, comes from the sideline.”

Rodgers also suggests fans chill out. “This is overreaction time… everybody needs to take a couple deep breaths. We’re four games into the season, there’s a lot of football left.”

As a neutral party, McAfee could be more openly critical.

“The Steelers offense has been terrible. 39 straight games of just bad stuff. If Ben Roethlisberger was to come call plays and they would have any offensive success at all, they’d put a statue up by next week. All those old steel mills, they’d open them back up to get enough steel to get a big ass Big Ben right in the middle of that.”

“Hey, Ben, if you see this. You know.”

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Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis claiming Patriots cheated in 2004 AFC title game sounds like sour grapes

This was so weak from two Steelers legends.

The New England Patriots’ dynasty earlier this century is well and truly over. But that isn’t stopping some of the teams they stomped on over the years from throwing out their gripes.

In a new podcast episode of Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger, the former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback reminisced with old teammate Jerome Bettis about their glory days together. After a humorous sequence about who cost who a trip to Super Bowl 39, Roethlisberger veered the conversation to an all-too-predictable place. He claimed that the Patriots cheated during the 2004 AFC title game.

Bettis, of course, agreed with the sentiment. But this is how losers of a big game almost always feel:

Look, I’m not going to discount the Patriots’ reputation for apparently cheating. “Spygate” and “Deflategate” were big deals for a team that sat at the top of the NFL for roughly 20 years. But the Patriots flat-out smacked the Steelers in that AFC title game. A 41-27 final score is not nearly indicative of how much better New England was. The way Roethlisberger and Bettis seemingly describe it is that the Steelers were maybe a few plays here or there from shifting the tide. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Their claim here feels like sour grapes because they didn’t get a chance at the Super Bowl. But maybe we’d all be in denial if we lost that kind of golden opportunity.

On this day in Steelers history: Ben Roethlisberger changed the face of the franchise

In 2004, Ben Roethlisberger took the field with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the first time and forever changed the history of the franchise.

On Sept. 19, 2004, Ben Roethlisberger forever changed the face of the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise.

In Week 2, the Steelers were trailing the rival Baltimore Ravens 20 to zip with five minutes remaining in the third quarter. QB Tommy Maddox sustained an elbow injury that forced Roethlisberger to come off the bench and play in his first pro game. Despite two picks, he showed a veteran’s poise and finished the game with two touchdowns, 176 yards, and an 83 percent passer rating. Pittsburgh lost to Baltimore by a score of 30-13, but it wouldn’t lose again until the conference championship game 15 games later.

Roethlisberger would quickly go from game manager to Super Bowl winner, helping the team to three and winning two.

The six-time Pro Bowler hung up his cleats on January 27, 2022, with 64,008 yards, 438 total touchdowns, 1,373 rushing yards and a quarterback record of 165-81-1 in 249 games (247 starts). His storied career will — without question — earn him a gold jacket, likely with his first shot in 2027.

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