Weighing in on the opener against the New England Patriots

From his interview today posted on Steelers.com:

The long Steelers preseason came to an end on Thursday night and now it’s time for what players and fans alike have waited seven months for.

The 2015 regular season has arrived.

For the Steelers, that means facing the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots on Thursday, Sept. 10 at Gillette Stadium.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has a 3-4 record against the Patriots, will have a challenge with some of the personnel changes the Patriots have, but as always he looks forward to that challenge.


Here is what Roethlisberger had to say about facing New England, in the NFL’s 2015 Kickoff Game:

On being familiar with what the Patriots bring on defense:

“I am trying to get there. Coach (Bill) Belichick is a ‘mad scientist’ if you will. He throws all kinds of different looks at you, and blitzes and coverages. We will go back and look at things from the last time we played them and last year a little bit. We will try to figure it out, and we have to be ready to make in-game adjustments.”


On dealing with changes in Patriots defensive personnel:

“When you watch film, they had Darrelle Revis last year. They did a lot of things off of him. Now they don’t have him. I am not quite sure what they are going to do.”


On playing in the NFL’s Kickoff Game as the visiting team:

“From what I remember, it is awful crazy. I don’t know if they are going to reveal their banner. I am sure they will do something like that. You are playing the champs. It’s at their place. The fans are excited. The world is watching. There will be jitters for everybody, including myself. I have been doing this for a long time but I still get excited and nervous. But it’s about how fast you can get over those nerves and jitters, and just play ball.”


You can watch video of his interview here.

We thought we’d take you back once more to the fun we had at the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation Triple 7’s Weekend, which included his “casino night” event and golf invitational!

This wonderful weekend was put together to benefit two great causes: K-9 Police and Fire Units throughout the country, and Make-A-Wish®. It also included a Fan Contest – 20 fans were invited compliments of Big Ben himself.


You can also check out all the photos from his Triple 7’s event here & the tournament here.


*Thank you so much to our sponsors – Apollo Jets, Kyocera Mobile, Sprint, King Street Grille, Savannah Taphouse, Jergels, PNC, Rep 1 Sports, Make a Wish, MerrilHoge.com, RGT Financial Advisors, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, the Steelers, A&L Motor Sales, CSA, the UPMC Health Plan, Lionworks Printing & Graphics and Tito’s Handmade Vodka!


How can you not want to join us next year?

The Jerome Bettis 10th Annual Caring for Kids Gala is September 18th and Steeler Nation is invited!

This is a Black Tie Event that will be held at the Fairmont Hotel.

Jerome will be honoring Ben that evening with the “Humanitarian Award – an award given to someone within the community who is making a huge difference – and this year’s it will go to Ben for all the good he does in our community.”



All event proceeds benefit The Bus Stops Here Foundation!

You can learn more about Jerome’s foundation by watching this interview with Christina Dickerson.


*Please email alyssa@dickersoncreative.com to purchase tickets or become a sponsor for this incredible annual event, or to make a donation!



Also Today:

Fan Stephen Brosky wanted to share his story about meeting Ben at Jerome Bettis’ HOF Induction Ceremony –

I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend Jerome Bettis’ Hall of Fame party. Being a diehard Steelers fan, this was a dream come true.

I thought my night was made just being surrounded by former and current Steelers…until Big Ben walked in.

He happened to walk in while my buddy and I were waiting to get our drinks. He walked by us and I asked if he wanted a drink, he stated “not right now”. I asked him if it would be cool to get a picture? He said to “hold on a second”. Not wanting to bother him, we got our drinks and headed towards the rest of the party. A few more people started asking him for pictures, and at that point, he told them to “wait a minute because I have to take care of something”.


Little did I know he was talking about me.

Ben scanned the party and spotted my buddy, Rich Staley, and told him to bring me over. When I walked up, Ben couldn’t have been nicer. We talked for a few minutes first and then posed for the pictures. He made sure to put us at ease and to talk to everyone.

When Ben was getting ready to leave he came over to thank me for offering to buy him a drink. He said he appreciated the generosity and that he “wouldn’t forget it”. To me, my night was made. […]

It’s been a busy month, but we got ’em in just under the wire! Whew!


The gang’s all here!


Bat-Erdene Altankhuyag and his wife Bolor, their children Anu 15 (wearing Troy’s #43), Temuulen 10 (wearing Antonio’s #84), Nomin 7 (wearing obviously Big Ben’s jersey #7), & Ermuun 3 (wearing Ryan Clark’s #25).

“We currently live in Centreville, VA. We’re originally from Mongolia, but we like to joke that our family population is equally divided between the Mongols & the Americans as three of the kids were born in the US (only Nomin was born in Mongolia). Funnily enough, I liked the Steelers because their colors were my favorite colors first. I became a football fan because of the Bus & Hines Ward & we’ve been following the Steelers well over 13-14 years now. We’re currently living in the Washington Redskins territory along with many other Steelers fans. :)” — Bat-Erdene.

So let me see if we have this straight…


Mom is a Steelers fan, dad is…uh…not!

Ryan Kennedy @Ryan_Kennedy22 Aug 5
She was not pleased that I put her in front of @_BigBen7 locker. #Browns #Steelers #NFL #BabyDivided

But as one Steelers fan said on Twitter, if you think she’s unhappy now, wait until she finds out she’s a Browns fan! 😉


This groom and his groomsmen are #SteelerStrong!


Jo Franciscus ‏@JoJoF30 Aug 12
My boys & I representing @ my wedding! @Steelers @AntonioBrown84 @_BigBen7 @lawrencetimmons @DeAngeloRB @jharrison9292


A Steelers vs Seahawks wedding?


Marky McFly ‏@_zun19a Aug 20
My SEA’12’ wife surprised me and brought Pittsburgh to WA for our wedding! @CityPGH @_BigBen7

(Hey? who let that groomsman sportin’ the 49ers shirt in the photo?)


Although it looks like the Steelers were WAY more represented than the Seahawks…


you know, kind of like Super Bowl XL!


Be sure to “Save the Date” Ben!!!


Jason Peters ‏@BURGH1866 Aug 30
Sofia said there’s only 1 boy invited to her b-day party. @_BigBen7!! “Hope he likes face paint” #shesserious #sept18th


Did someone say face painting?

From his Q&A with the media at Steelers.com:

Ben Roethlisberger has a suspicion as to how much he and the first-team offense might play on Saturday afternoon in Buffalo, but he isn’t certain.

In the wake of the Steelers losing center Maurkice Pouncey and the Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson to significant injury last Sunday at Heinz Field, Roethlisberger maintained previous plans might be altered.

“This is typically (the game in which starters play) the full half, maybe the first series of the second (half),” he said. “That’s the expectation going in.

“With what happened I don’t know if that’s going to change but that’s my expectation.”

Roethlisberger addressed a number of other subjects with the media this week, including:

Whether the offense needs additional preseason work:

“I don’t think so. I think we’ve shown enough, we’ve worked hard. The good thing about our offense is we have everybody back. We don’t have a lot of moving pieces and so we can get that work and just kind of pick up (in the regular season) where we left off from training camp.”


Whether players can take steps to avoid injuries in the preseason:

“As a competitor, my mentality, it’s hard for me not to just play my game. You have to consciously say ‘don’t do anything crazy here,’ get down, throw it away, whatever it is. You can say that but in the heat of battle it’s hard to do that.”


The offense’s theory that the only way it’ll be stopped is if it stops itself:

“That’s always been our mentality, (that) no one’s stopping us but us. I’m sure every offense in the league says that or believes that. We really feel that way, that no one stops us but us.

“We had that (against Green Bay). We had a couple penalties, we had first-and-25 and we overcame it. Both punts we had the first two series were off of plays that could have/should have been made, that should have kept drives going. And then the third series we went no-huddle and went down the field and scored.

“We feel comfortable with where we’re at.”


On Maurkice Pouncey’s durability:

“People talk about, is he injury prone? No, he’s just always in the play. He’s always around the ball because of his intensity. You don’t find too […]

Ben will be a call-in guest on ESPN’s Mike & Mike Show tomorrow morning at 8:05 AM!

You can watch their show on TV or listen on the radio from 6am to 10am.



Did you miss Ben’s interview with Mark Madden this afternoon?

You can listen to the podcast here.