“People made such a big deal because they thought I was going to go in an uproar – ‘What do you mean?’ – it’s going in and asking questions.” — Ben



Ben sat down for an interview at the Steelers training facility yesterday with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Ed Bouchette:

Roethlisberger has remained in town and working out at the Steelers facility. He had hoped to see Steelers president Art Rooney II there Thursday but Rooney was not in. Roethlisberger wants to talk to him about his opinions about the offense and the quarterback, including Rooney’s statement that Roethlisberger needs to tweak his game. The quarterback said people misinterpreted his comments from the Pro Bowl that he wanted to talk to Rooney about such things.

“People made such a big deal because they thought I was going to go in an uproar — ‘What do you mean!’ — it’s going in and asking questions.

Roethlisberger said such questions might include: “What do you mean by tweak my game, tweak the offense? As one of the oldest guys on offense, what do you see for our offense, where do you see us going, what do you want us to do?”

“Things like that,” Roethlisberger explained, “because when guys on the team come and ask me questions, I want to be able to have answers for them instead of ‘I don’t know.’

“If I can go in and talk as one of the older guys and one of the captains and leaders on this team, I feel that’s my duty every year.”


More from Ben…

Roethlisberger also said people have it wrong about his relationship with Arians. Yes, he said, they were and remain friends, but they had their disagreements and arguments, just out of the public eye.

“People made such a big deal about, ‘I had it too easy because we were friends,’ or whatever. I think anybody in sports should understand, you and your position coach should have a good relationship. Now, if you’re buddy-buddy with the head coach, that might be a little issue. You should, as a quarterback, with the guy you work with every day, you should have a relationship with him even outside of football because if we just talked every day about football, you’d go nuts and kill each other.

“To have a relationship is good because he is your buffer to the head coach and to work so closely with someone is how you develop a relationship.

“What we do behind closed doors, that’s when I get yelled at. People think I’ve never been yelled at by B.A., never been chewed out and cussed out and had stuff thrown at me. That’s happened quite a few times. I’ve seen a water bottle come flying.”


You can read more from Ben’s interview here.