Balloons, cake, ice cream and presents…a little fella could get used to this kind of celebration every year!


“I’m so excited for my very first birthday party that I asked mommy if I could greet my guests as they drive up to the house! I can’t wait til’ they get here so we can start having fun! Hurry up everybody!!”

Little man, I want to wish you a happy first birthday. You have been such a blessing and it’s been so much fun watching you grow and change every day. I’m looking forward to every day with you and that smile! I can’t wait to do more and more daddy-son things. Love you buddy! — Happy Birthday, Dad.

It has been a joy to watch you grow over your first year. Thank you for the many smiles you bring us everyday. You are a perfect little boy, a true blessing in our lives. I love you, monster! — Mommy.

Today, Ben announced that his Foundation, in association with The Giving Back Fund, will be distributing a grant to the Euclid Police Department in honor of the Steelers upcoming game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, November 24th.

The department will apply the grant funds to the purchase and training of a new dog to replace recently retired K-9 Max (photo at left). Funds will also be used to purchase a ballistic vest for the new K-9.

Euclid Chief of Police Thomas Brickman said, “On behalf of the Euclid Police Department, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation for the K-9 Grant that has been awarded to our community. Like many other U.S. cities, the City of Euclid has its financial challenges. With the impending retirement of K-9 Max due to health reasons, we thought our only option would be to reduce our K-9 unit strength to two working dogs. With the assistance of the Foundation, we will now be able to keep three working dogs in service. ”

This marks the seventh season that the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units. The mission of the Ben Roethlisberger 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. Roethlisberger and the Foundation also strive to support Make-A-Wish.

The Foundation distributed more than $135,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2012 NFL season and has distributed in excess of $1 million since 2007.


You can learn more about Ben’s foundation here.


*Photo: Euclid Police Department’s Community Policing Facebook page.

Congratulations to Ben, for his performance in Week 11 against the Detroit Lions!


From Steelers.com:

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance versus the Detroit Lions in Week 11.

Roethlisberger completed 29-of-45 pass attempts for 367 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions for a season-high passer rating of 119.4. He also led his team on a 16-play, 97-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter to take a 30-27 lead. It marked the 29th time in his career during the regular season that he led his team to victory after trailing or being tied in the fourth quarter or overtime.

This marks the 10th time Roethlisberger has been named AFC Offensive player of the week, and first time since in 2011 (Weeks 5 and 8). For the season, Roethlisberger has totaled 2,901 passing yards on the season, which are the second-most in team history in a player’s first 10 games of a season since 1960.


You can see game highlights of Ben’s performance here.



Also Today:

“Offensive award? That goes to everybody because so many guys were involved in that. But that was last week’s award. We’re working for this week now.” — Ben

Wednesday’s Q&A with the media:


Ben talks about this Sunday’s game against the Browns.

What sticks out about Cleveland’s defense?

Everything. From the front to the back, it’s great defensive line, good linebackers and maybe one of the best cornerbacks in the league. They’ve got an all-around good defense. No holes that we can find right now.


Re: Being 15-1 against the Browns:

We’ve put some good games together when we’ve played them. It’s an AFC North rival, so any time you play them you want to step your game up a little bit. It doesn’t hurt that it’s from kind of the hometown where I grew up a little bit, so you get a little extra motivation.


You have been scoring more lately. What has been the difference between now and what went on at the beginning of the season?

We’ve done a little better in the red zone. If you ask me, we still have a long way to go in that area of our offense, but we’ve gotten better. We’ve scored a couple times when we’ve got down there. We just feel that we still left […]

“A lot of times in football games, you have to weather storms. We came out early and we were hot and they weathered our storm. They fought back and they came at us. My mentality is, ‘Let’s weather this storm. It’s not going to last the rest of the game (you hope). Let’s find a way.’

We got in there at halftime and it wasn’t any epic speeches or ‘let’s change this’ offensive mentality or anything like that. Let’s just get back on track. Lets get back out there. Coach said we were going to stay with the no-huddle stuff, so my mindset then is just to think about calls and plays and what they gave us and brainstorming with the other quarterbacks, and the other coaches.

The biggest thing is just not to panic. I felt like second half we were a really good football team – offense and defense and special teams.” — Ben, on losing the lead to the Lions heading into halftime on Sunday.

Ben was in studio and on the air this morning at 11:00 AM as part of 93.7 The Fan’s Vinnie & Cook Show:

The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show features an in-studio visit from the Steelers’ quarterback himself!

Ben breaks down Pittsburgh’s 37-27 win over the Detroit Lions with Vinnie & Cook.

Roethlisberger notes how the no-huddle set the tone for the Steelers’ offense, but also reveals that head coach Mike Tomlin wanted to keep the no-huddle going after Pittsburgh reclaimed a fourth-quarter lead.

“(Tomlin) came right up to me on the sideline right after that and said, ‘When we get the ball back, I’m not sitting on it. You’re staying in no-huddle. I’m not going to play not to lose. We’re staying in this mode,’” Roethlisberger said. “I have to give him a lot of credit for that.”

Ben also admits that this game was bigger than normal for him due to a tumultuous week of reports and rumors.

“I wanted this game, with all the stuff, the reports,” he said. “I’ve been telling you guys, that I’m not quitting. And that was my goal was to go out and play the best I could play and be the best quarterback I could be and to lead this team to victory. It felt good to play […]

Make that Steelers Heaven!


My wife and I are on the trip of a lifetime.

10,871 miles traveled to watch the Black and Gold.

We are on a 6-week trip in America for our honeymoon all the way from Melbourne, Australia. When we booked our trip we made sure that we would be able to fit in everything we each wanted to do.

Luckily for me, my wife is as crazy about sports as I am and we booked in to see all the sports we could. Whilst I love NHL and NBA, nothing can compare to my love for the Pittsburgh Steelers. We watch all the games whenever we can, and we are always dressed in the gear, we even named our german shepherd, “Keisel”.

I have been waiting my whole life to get to a game and see Steeler Nation in person, and today my dream was finally realized!

What a game – from start to finish it was everything we hoped it would be – well, aside from the rain. Hopefully we can get back here again, to watch another amazing victory. Go Steelers. Go Big Ben! — Dave & Nikki Jackson


*Thank you Dave, and congratulations to both of you!



Speaking of yesterday’s game…

Dr. Ronald Cypher comes through once again with some great photos he took from the stands.


You can see them here!

Final Score: Steelers 37, Lions 27


More from Ben:

“Offense, defense, we were up, we were down, there was no quit in anybody. I thought we prepared well, and I’ll do everything I can, we’ll do it to enjoy this tonight and next week try and get to 1 and 0 again – just prepare the best we can.”

And from Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Their 37-27 come-from-ahead, come-from-behind victory at Heinz Field raised the Steelers record to 4-6 with two straight wins to start the second half of the season.

Stafford was brilliant for one quarter, the second, when the Lions (6-4) stunned the Steelers defense for 27 points, and Johnson went wild on Ike Taylor.

Roethlisberger was magnificent throughout, opening the game in the no-huddle offense and playing that scheme much of the way. He completed 29 of 45 for 367, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked once.

He did it with little help from his ground game, which managed just 40 yards on 27 carries.

Roethlisberger’s fourth touchdown pass was a 20-yarder to Jerricho Cotchery, who caught it in the end zone on a fake screen play that ended all the drama with 2:29 left.

“I came here to play with him. He doesn’t get a lot of attention, but with the amount of touchdowns and yards in a cold-weather city, it speaks volumes about him. He has a lot of respect from around the league.” — Jerricho Cotchery on his quarterback.

Twice in the second quarter while Detroit was inundating them with touchdowns, the Steelers responded with field goals after cracking the red zone. Suisham kicked a 25-yarder and then a 34-yarder.

But then they got some defensive help late on Detroit’s next drive and some aid from the Lions themselves. Stafford moved his offense to second-and-4 at the Steelers’ 9, looking to respond to another field goal with another touchdown. But Ziggy Hood rose up to tackle Reggie Bush for a 1-yard loss, Ryan Clark tipped away a pass headed for Johnson in the end zone and the Lions lined up for a field goal.

Instead of kicking the 27-yarder, holder/punter Sam Martin took the snap and tried to run with it. He fumbled while being tackled short of the first down and the Steelers took over at their 3.

THAT […]