Today, Ben announced the first grant awards of the 2017 season from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will be distributing grants to the Lorain Police Department and the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, both just outside of Cleveland where the Steelers will play the Browns this Sunday, September 10th.

The Lorain Police Department will use the grant funds to update their K-9 training equipment, while the Medina County Sheriff’s Office will use their grant to purchase safety equipment for their K-9s.

“The Lorain Police Department would like to thank the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation for their generous donation, which will help ensure our K-9 program continues to serve our community as well as surrounding communities for years to come.” — Police Chief Cel Rivera, Lorain Police Department.

During the 2017 NFL season, the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation will be distributing grants to K-9 units of police and fire departments in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers. The Foundation will also distribute several grants to the Pittsburgh area and will consider a grant to a non-NFL market city in the United States if the Steelers advance to the playoffs. Ben invited police and fire departments across the country to submit proposals detailing their needs.

This marks the 11th season that Ben’s foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units.

The mission of his foundation is to support K-9 units of police and fire departments throughout the United States, with a particular emphasis on support for service dogs in Pittsburgh, PA. Ben and his foundation also support Make-A-Wish.

The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation distributed more than $150,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2016 NFL season, including $76,000 in the Pittsburgh community. The Foundation has distributed in excess of $1.65 million since 2007.

“We are fortunate to be one of this year’s grant recipients from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation. Our K-9 program has become an integral part of the Medina County Sheriff’s Office. If not for the generous citizens of Medina County and others such as the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, our K-9 program would not be possible or have the success that it has achieved.” — Sheriff Tom Miller, Medina County Sheriff’s Office.

“Our department is grateful for the support […]

From Mike Prisuta, Steelers.com:

As he readies for the season, Ben Roethlisberger is doing his best to make sure the rookies surrounding him are ready to be Steelers.

“It was kind of twofold,” Roethlisberger explained regarding how the stalls of outside linebacker T.J. Watt, running back James Conner and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster all wound up in Roethlisberger’s corner of the locker room at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “I wanted the young guys around so I could try and pass on some things that were passed on to me.

“And, they’re rookies so I never anticipated them being at their locker very much, so I get more room.”

Roethlisberger, entering his 14th NFL season, will be playing in his 186th regular-season game when the Steelers visit the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

Watt, Conner and Smith-Schuster will be appearing in their first.

It’s up to them to know their assignments and their responsibilities.

Roethlisberger has taken it upon himself to make sure the three are up to speed on “Steeler tradition, the Steeler way.

“For T.J. being next to me it’s obviously different,” Roethlisberger continued. “I can’t talk to him about offensive things that I can talk to James and JuJu about. But I want to tell stories about guys I played with, about how we play, how we practice, anything that I picked up along my way.”

Roethlisberger is doing for Watt, Conner and Smith-Schuster what Jerome Bettis once did for a young quarterback from Miami, Ohio.

“I know he did it for a lot of people but he was a guy that I was close to and just enjoyed playing with and passed all those things along to me,” Roethlisberger said.

It’s not all story time this week.

With the regular season days away, Roethlisberger has noticed “the excitement, the attention to detail, the sense of urgency, all those things are turned up a little bit,” in practice.

“You have a game plan,” he said. “The execution is different than just calling a no-huddle play or whatever. You have to be dialed in because it’s a run-pass check. There are just a lot of details that you need to be on.”

They get to “Steelers 101” when they can.

“We did some of it today a little bit, asking them who their teams […]

Here’s a recap of Ben’s season debut on The Cook & Poni Show this morning:

Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger joined The Cook And Poni Show on Tuesday for the season debut of The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show and talked about the topic at the top of everyone’s mind, Le’Veon Bell and how ready he’ll be for week one.

“He looked good,” Ben said about Bell’s first practice, but added that he “had some questions” which was to be expected.

There have been changes to the offense though that Ben alluded to throughout the preseason that Bell will have to learn and when asked if they’ll be able to use those changes or not because of Bell, he said “I hope so.”

If Bell isn’t 100% ready to go in terms of physically being prepared or knowing the game plan, it will likely be rookie James Conner that will get some of the carries and Ben shared with us how he sees the former Pitt back fitting in.

“I was excited about that pickup,” is what Ben told us.

Excitement isn’t all Ben had though as he admitted going to the coaches and asking if they could go out and get him.

“I know when he got released, I was talking to coach, I was saying ‘hey, listen, can we get this guy? Let’s find a way.’ He for a long time was a guy that we looked at as a top, at worst case, a five or maybe a top three cornerback in the league.”

Haden will bring a little extra to the Steelers in their week one matchup as Ben said that he has “talked to Joe a little bit” about what the Browns do and which players have certain tendencies he can take advantage of.

With all of the talk on the field out of the way, the guys asked Ben about the offseason extensions for General Manager Kevin Colbert and Head Coach Mike Tomlin.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all, that’s the Rooney way. Obviously its worked, its been more successful than anyone else in terms of championships and Lombardi’s so, if something’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

Ben also talked about why he didn’t hear back from Le’Veon Bell when he texted him this offseason, what he said to his offensive line about Browns […]

Make that Captains!


From the Steelers this afternoon:

Consistency.

It’s a true sign of a leader, so it should come as no surprise that the players who were selected the 2017 Steelers team captains have been there before.

Steelers’ players voted on Monday for the captains, and Coach Mike Tomlin announced the results to the players before they came off the practice field.

This year’s captains are Ben Roethlisberger and Cameron Heyward.

Roethlisberger has been the team’s offensive captain nine times in his career, including seven consecutive seasons.

Heyward, who is in his seventh season, is a defensive captain for the third consecutive year.


You can read more here.


Congratulations to Big Ben and Cam! Well deserved!!


And don’t forget tomorrow morning (Tuesday, September 5th) at 11:00 AM (ET) to watch the season debut of The Ben Roethlisberger Show during at 93.7 The Fan during the broadcast of the Cook & Poni Show!

And we’re starting it off right with two beautiful Big Ben fans –

“I’m a die hard Steelers fan but an even bigger Big Ben fan. The picture is me sharing Steeler history with my granddaughter, Amariyah, who Loves Big Ben also, and her Steelers. She wanted to know when will she meet him to tell her favorite player he was her favorite.” — Amanda Battle.

Amariyah also wanted Ben to know that she just turned 7, so not only does she wear his number, she IS his number!!



Gearing up!


Jennifer Grego’s adorable 13-month old son John Vincent is already trying on his cold-weather game gear. He knows about chilly Sundays, he lives in White Plains, NY, but is ready to root for his Pittsburgh Steelers!


Just point me to the cheering section!


Deb Cypher‏ @livnltl
Jenna is ready for some football! She’s a fashionista. It’s all about the bow, girlfriends! @_BigBen7 @steelers



And they lived happily ever after…


Monica Penn Quiroz‏ @monicaquiroz1
When you marry a Cowboys fan – but you’re all about that #SteelersNation @SteelersUnite @_BigBen7



No bones about it, they’re barkin’ for Big Ben!


Becky Swiger @BexandTech
We are ready to support my fellow @MiamiAlum Big Ben here in the Queen City! @steelers @_BigBen7 #HereWeGo



Cruising for a Cause –

“Few cities support the Steelers like they do in Charleston, SC. The 6th Annual Steeler Cruise was held this past weekend and the Black and Gold fans were out in full force. This annual event benefits the Carolina Children’s Charity and sells out every year.” — Ron Manz.

If you’d like to climb aboard for next year’s charity cruise: you can contact Ron at (843) 737-1200 or go to the website, CarolinaChildren.org.


You can enjoy more photos here.


Hope everyone has a happy & safe holiday weekend!