From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com today:

You could hear the trepidation in 17-year old April’s voice as she spoke in front of those gathered at the CASA Champions for Children event at Heinz Field.

But after a few minutes she read from the poem “Hide Away” that she wrote, and a confident girl quickly emerged. A girl whose life has changed thanks to CASA and the volunteers her poem was directed toward.

April is one of the 250 kids served by CASA, short for Court Appointed Special Advocates, in Allegheny County. CASA works with children in the child welfare system that are neglected or abused. The advocates serve as a voice for the children in court and other situations to help ensure that every child has a safe, supportive and permanent home.

Wide receiver Mike Wallace served as the honorary chair of the event, something he is happy to do especially after meeting April.

The Steelers and CASA have teamed up thanks to offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, whose wife Chris is a CASA volunteer. Wallace, Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger kicked off the night by attending a dinner with sponsors, giving them the opportunity to hear April speak.

“Kids are neglected in Allegheny County way too much,” said Roethlisberger. “These things help get those kids out of bad situations and put them into places where they can thrive and strive. These kids are in tough situations. If I can help them out I will do that.”


You can read more here.



Also Today:

“Steelers’ Roethlisberger shrugs off MVP talk”

From an article by Mark Kaboly, Pittsburgh-Tribune Review:

Drew Brees has the yards, Tom Brady has the reputation, and Aaron Rodgers, well, he probably has the award already locked up.

For Ben Roethlisberger, that’s just fine because he’s not really interested in all the talk of him being in the running for the NFL MVP award with some of the league’s heavyweights midway through the season.

He’s more worried about winning.

“I am never about individual stats and numbers,” Roethlisberger said. “For me, that has kind of defined my career by just winning football games. For me, that’s all that matters. For me, it is so much bigger than that.”

With the transformation of the Steelers to more of a pass-happy offense coupled with the best four-game stretch of his career, Roethlisberger has maneuvered himself into the league MVP race at the halfway point.

“It is a little too early for talk like that,” Roethlisberger said.


You can read more here.



And:

Ben was a call-in guest on WDVE‘s Morning Show with Jim and Randy this morning.

He talked about attending the Bruce Springsteen concert last night (click here to see a photo from Ben taken backstage), getting on the same page with Mike Wallace, the Ravens game and playing that Sunday night time-slot.


You can listen to his interview here.



Quote of the Day:

“I’ve heard that quote. I’ve got no problem with it. It is what it is …I know Terrell a little bit. He’s actually a good guy. We joke around on the field, so I don’t think he meant anything bad by it. I just think he let out a little emotion after finally beating me.” — Ben, on the Terrell Suggs comments, from Ron Cook’s column today at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.