What’s The Deal With Roethlisberger?
I can remember several years back siting at my favorite bar with one of my best friends Mike and watching a tall gangly quarterback from the University of Miami of Ohio play and thinking, Wow, this guy is going to be something special. He played football with a sand lot, reckless abandon much like Brett Farve that we both admired. Mike being a crazed Steeler’s fan and me being a Dolphins fanatic both agreed that we wouldn’t mind seeing Big Ben come to one of our teams on draft day. Well, sure enough the spring of 2004 the Steelers moved up to take him in the first round and both Mike and I felt validated for our keen evaluations of the young prospect. It is now 2010 and although our thoughts on his undeniable talents have weathered the test of time, but in light of the latest accusations, I can help but wonder, on a personal level, what is the deal with Ben Roethlisberger?
I am not writing this to bash him in any manner. In fact over the years I have grown quit fond of him as a player and his seemingly boyish, Ogre like charm that myself and many others find very appealing. You can tell that he loves the game and his teammates and that he has an eagerness to smile and enjoy the moments of the game while battling his foes to the bitter end. These attributes are wonderful if you are a fan or a teammate or coach but I would like to take a closer look at his personal actions and try to evaluate him a little as far as what kind of person he truly is, based solely on his actions.
The first event we must look at is the motorcycle accident. Not long after winning his first Super Bowl in 2006, Ben crashed his motorcycle into another motor vehicle in Pittsburgh and sustained injuries to his face, mouth and head. He was not wearing a helmet, which is not illegal in Pennsylvania, and to my knowledge, he wasn’t entirely at fault. This in itself, to me, is no big deal. He is a young guy on top of the world and this could happen to anyone. The fact that he wasn’t wearing a helmet, bodes to his youth and that he might be a bit reckless. The second event, a civil suite in 09, would be the accusation of sexual assault by an employee of a resort in Lake Tahoe Nevada. Those claims never held much clout, in my mind being that the actions in question happened over a year prior and nothing criminal was pursued or reported. The woman later said that she would drop the lawsuit if he would just admit he was wrong, Ben decline and the suite is currently lost somewhere in a legal quagmire. And now we have the current alleged incident involving a 20 year old woman in a night club in Georgia. Once again the claims are of a sexual nature and the police are investigating them as this article is being written. It is now a “he said, she said ” story and the truth will probably lie somewhere in the middle. I sincerely hope that Ben is innocent and cleared of all of these damming claims and that his name is restored and his career continues on it path toward the NFL football hall of fame. Having said that, I would also like to say, to me, Ben Roethlisberger is guilty one thing. He is a fun hog.
I believe that he has the personality type that will do anything that he feels like doing, if he thinks it will be fun. There are worse things to be called because fun hogs usually do not hurt anyone else but themselves. They go through life taking advantage of any opportunity that arises that affords them excitement, whether it be good or bad. The are risk takers and thrill seekers. The bad end results are usually, any type of vehicle crashes, whether it is cars, motorcycles or ATV’s, DUI’’s and occasional fistfights, and bad short term personal and business relationships. Sound familiar? You see this behavior all around the young Hollywood set. I know these things because I was once a fun hog. Some of these acts can be attributed to youth and some from self entitlement but when you are the quarterback of the NFL Super Bowl world champions, you have to set this adolescent behavior aside. Listen, I am sure that he is getting bombarded with advice from everyone right now but he has to take action to change his behavior if it is not too late all ready. What’s the saying? “Once is an accident, twice a coincidence and three is a pattern.” And remember folks, these are the events that we know of. How manner other things have happened that we have no knowledge of? In my opinion, Ben needs to insulate himself better and learn to live smaller and be more guarded. He should plan more activities at his home with people he trust. And, if he decides to go out into the public he should provide some type of human shield to keep him isolated from the public and if someone penetrates that shield, there should be measures in place to deal with it accordingly so there can be zero “one on one” interaction. I know this sounds antisocial but it is the price for fame and he needs to realize that fact. Lastly, I would again like to say, if he is innocent that I personally hope that he gets through this unscathed. I would hate to see the repercussions if he doesn’t. We don’t need to see another brilliant career crash and burn before are very eyes. If he is guilty, well then I guess he will get what he deserves and the football world will go into a spiral much like the golf world has with the Tiger Woods escapades. Either way, it will be interesting to see where this is all at by the time the 2010 NFL football campaign begins in September. Until then, we will all be watching and waiting to see where this goes. I just hope that Ben finally learns to take his foot off the gas, turn down the stereo and try to meet a nice woman and settle his life down to a pace that won’t end his career or kill him. Only time will tell.
