This week’s Warrior Wednesday post features a young man who long-time BigBen7.com readers have come to know – Richard Culliver!

We updated you on this tough little guy and his battle with an inoperable brain tumor called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma back in September. Well, as you can see, nothing can stop Richard, who lives life to the fullest every day!

Last week, some of our Nation’s warriors, members of the South Carolina Army National Guard gave him another one of those days to remember!



On December 4th, Private Culliver visited McEntire Joint National Guard Base to be a South Carolina Army National Guard Pilot for a Day. He was given the opportunity to sit in multiple rotary wing aircraft, fly an aircraft simulator, and was honored with a set of aviator wings making him an honorary pilot…oh, and he was also awarded the Combat Infantry Medics Badge!

“I can not express adequately with words my gratitude for our service men and women and their families for selflessly serving our country! Then to allow Richard to participate on top of all that just overwhelms me with emotion! These are the faces of the men behind organizing this amazing couple days for Richard and for your taking the time to do it, I am eternally grateful!

“Richard has taken a lot of pride in his opportunity to be a part of ‘serving’ his country and especially the coins he’s collected. Definitely an experience of a lifetime!!” — Private Culliver’s mother, Stephanie.

Thank you to these men and women of our awesome military force for making this 7-year old boy’s Make-A-Wish come true!

And thank you to Sgt. Jorge Intriago for the photo!


You can check out some more great photos and a video on their Facebook page.

You can also stop by and try and keep up with Richard on his Facebook page!


How is Richard doing?

“Richard still has a tumor but it’s MUCH smaller than even at diagnosis. We are currently going through physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Hopefully, he well regain the ability to walk but only time will tell. He should be going back to school next month. There’s always the possibility that the cancer decide to grow again but for the first time in a year that’s […]

“It was disappointing to be that close at the end, but yet feeling like it shouldn’t have been that close at the end. It was definitely a tough, disappointing, frustrating loss.” — Ben

Ben called in to the Vinnie & Cook Show at 93.7 The Fan this morning for his weekly #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show while he and his family were on their way to select a Christmas tree.


Some of the highlights:

Ben threw for three touchdowns in the loss to the Dolphins, and Le’Veon Bell added 61 yards rushing. He told Vinnie & Cook that he feels that the offense is making progress –


“I’m really pleased with where this offense is. I think we’re getting better every week. Obviously we’re not winning the football games, which is our ultimate goal. But it’s hard to argue with the way the offense has been playing, the success that we feel like that we’re having.”


On any “disconnect” with using Le’Veon Bell and the running game in the second half –

“I disagree with that. I know that seems to be a hot topic right now about running the ball, but you know, we came out in the first half with a game plan, but the weather kind of dictated what the game plan was going to be. We ran the ball, we threw the ball, we had a big play to Heath in there, we had a touchdown pass. So we moved the ball well the first half. Then in the second half the weather let up and we felt like we were behind a little bit and we felt like we had to get back into the game a little faster. We threw the ball, we moved the ball. We went to a lot of no huddle with me calling the plays.

“I felt like we mixed in some run plays in there, but I don’t think by any means we got away from the run, or we didn’t want to do it and ‘it worked so well’. You know, it also worked well throwing the ball and scoring and mixing the run in here and there. In the third quarter we put up a lot of points and also in the no-huddle there were runs I mixed in […]

Final score: Dolphins 34, Steelers 28

Ben completed 23-of-39 for 349 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a QB rating of 114.2, but in the end it wasn’t enough to get the win against the Miami Dolphins.


His post-game Q&A with the media:


Did you guys practice that last play?

No, that’s just trying to make something happen.


This kind of puts you in a pretty tough spot…

Yup. But we’re not going to quit, we’re going to keep playing, come back tomorrow and get ready to go!


What was the difference in the second half? You scored once in the first half, and the second half you kept going up and down the field!

I don’t know. You know, I think the weather early dictated that we had to run the ball a lot. But we were still able to do some good running of the ball early, and the second half it kind of died down a little bit with the snow, so we felt that we could throw the ball and I thought we did a good job of doing that. We just didn’t make enough plays.


Ben, this is the first time in your career you’ve gone two consecutive non-winning seasons. Do you think, like this team needs to be ripped up in the off-season?

I’m not going to answer that question. We’re just going to give it everything we have everyday, and there’s going to be no quit from anybody!


Ben, was that final play all improvisation?

Yes.


Did you think Antonio scored [that touchdown at the end]?

Wasn’t sure. Thought it was but then obviously saw the ref wave his arms.



You can watch video of Ben’s interview here.

You can check out a few game photos here.



*And though it did happen in a loss, CONGRATULATIONS are still in order for Ben once again – he surpassed Terry Bradshaw’s record (212) with his first touchdown of the game (1st quarter to Emmanuel Sanders) for the most touchdowns in franchise history!

“Crowd roars for Ben’s milestone. Ben raises arm to crowd. Haley comes over to congratulate him. Quality moment.” — Dejan Kovacevic, via Twitter.

…to share your Black & Gold Christmas photos with us!!

If you are decorating it Steelers Style this year, we’d love to post your photos in Ben’s gallery! We’ve already some great ones sent in, but are always looking for more!

You can check out last year’s submissions of Steelers Christmas trees, wreaths, greeting cards, pups, and of course, the best fans in the world, big & small, all right here.

We’d like to do it again this year, so get ’em in to us! They’ll be posted later this month!


Send your photo to us at bigben7website@gmail.com! We’ll post ’em all later this month!


Did you see this amazing handmade ornament in Ben’s Christmas album:



Die-hard Red Sox fan (yes! Red Sox fan) and friend Anna Harkey carved this ornament, by hand, from a lump of clay while watching the AFC Championship Game between the Steelers and Ravens on January 18th, 2009! She wandered through the photo gallery and found a close-up photo she thought would be a perfect model – from the Steelers vs Chargers game on January 11, 2009. Then she went to work on her creation.

A surprise package arrived a few days later with this incredible ornament inside. The photo does not do it justice! The towel over Ben’s shoulder is actually textured to look just like a real towel and the Steelers logo on his cap is perfect! Anna, thank you so much….again! — Erin

He reps his Steelers #7 with pride!


From Sarah Blumburg at the Capital Gazette:

When word got out that Ray Rice would stop by Davidsonville Elementary School in Maryland, Colton Swank got an idea.

“I had to show my support for Ben Roethlisberger,” he said.

Just like his parents, the 9-year-old has always been a fan of the Steelers, especially the quarterback.

On Wednesday, Ray Rice took notice.

“Thanks for the support, even the ones sporting the black and gold,” he said.

Colton sat up and displayed his jersey proudly!

Rice surprised more than 700 students Wednesday, in an effort to teach students the importance of making healthy choices and staying active.

For more than a year, the school has worked to promote better health choices. For their efforts, the school was named a Touch Down School through the national “Fuel Up to Play 60 program“.

Even though Colton isn’t a Ravens fan, he believes being active is important and was happy to see that Rice was promoting such a vital cause.

“In the NFL you have to be healthy,” he said. “Even the Steelers practice that.”


From Colton’s mother, Amy:

Colton is in the fourth grade at an elementary school near Annapolis where the predominant team here are the Ravens. The photo was taken the morning of Ray Rice’s visit when I dropped him off at school. I watched him walk into the school, and he was immediately greeted with a shove by another student wearing a Rice jersey who told him, “You got a lot of nerve wearing that!”.

It’s always like a Ravens-Steelers rivalry in miniature, but Colton is really good-natured about the whole thing. He admits it’s difficult the day after a loss and facing the Ravens fans at school. He loves it though when we are able to attend a Steelers game once at year around Christmas time when we come back to town and he is surrounded by his fellow fans.

The Steeler Nation is strong and starts young!

The first time Ray Rice tried to hug him, and Colton winced, Ray Rice announced that he, “wasn’t getting the love from Roethlisberger.”

After the event, Ray Rice did succeed in hugging my son. He asked Colton if he was his favorite Raven. Colton smiled, but couldn’t bring himself to say something like that and just […]

“This is our playoff game right here, this is the way it’s been the last couple of weeks and it’s going to keep being that way for us. For me, my mindset is trying to get that first win, I don’t care about the big picture right now, I just care about this week.” — Ben, on their game against the Dolphins this Sunday.

Big Ben met with reporters today and among the topics he was asked about was his new center, Cody Wallace:

“On the plane home from Baltimore, when I knew Fernando was out, I checked with the other linemen, asked them what they thought about Cody. Every single person said the same thing, that he’s a really smart player, there will be no issue, he’ll be good to go. So when I talked to him I got that same confidence, that he’ll be ready to rock with it.”

And whether they’ll use the no-huddle this weekend:

Well, we’ll see how much no-huddle we get into. I think the second half [in Baltimore] we kind of had a little sense of urgency moving the ball down the field. I thought we were balanced pretty well the second half running and passing. So, hopefully, [Bell] is ready to go and everyone’s healthy receiver-wise so we can keep going with that.”


You can check out more from his interview (video) here.