“I don’t know what hurts more — my body or my pride,” Roethlisberger said.

Actually, he did know.

“It hurts the most right here,” Roethlisberger said, tapping his chest over his heart.

From Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today:

It’s nice that Ben Roethlisberger stood up and took blame for the Steelers loss Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals. It’s nice that he went to many teammates in the locker room to say, “I’m sorry I let you down.” It’s nice that he told the media later, “They need more play and better play from the quarterback.”

You expect nothing less from Roethlisberger.

“That’s what captains and quarterbacks do,” Steelers safety Ryan Clark said.

Clark was one of the final players Roethlisberger found after the game. The Steelers defense had a terrific day, holding the Bengals to field-goal drives of 19 and 21 yards.

“I told Ben it wasn’t all on him,” Clark said. “It’s never on one player because it’s never all about one play …

“We just never meshed everything together as a team. When the defense played well, we needed the special teams or the offense to make a play and it didn’t happen. There were other games when we as a defense didn’t get it done. The Oakland game … we couldn’t stop them and they couldn’t stop our offense. That’s why we’re in this position. We all contributed to this.”


You can read more from Mr. Cook’s column here.

“We had a chance to win the game and I blew it.” — Ben

“I’m not going to question what No. 7’s done. He’s out there fighting for us, he’s our leader. I have two Super Bowl rings because of that type of play. Everybody remembers Santonio Holmes in the back of the end zone. I’m never going to question the way he plays because he’s out there fighting.” — Larry Foote

From Ben’s post-game interview:

What was going through your mind immediately after the loss?

Disappointment, pain, letting a lot of people down and that doesn’t feel good! I need to play better!


When asked how “things unfolded” for the team as the game progressed –

We’ve just got to do better, we’ve got to move the ball and stop getting behind the chains and making it hard on ourselves.


On what he thought the problem was –

It was hard to really get going. We never make excuses, we’ve had a lot of injuries to deal with, but something we’ve always done well is fill in, and we did things…we had a chance to win the game, but I blew it.


On the play of his offensive line –

I feel that we have a lot of really good guys out there on offense, they played well. They need more play and better play from the quarterback.


Can you believe that the Steelers will not be going to playoffs this season?

We should be, if it wasn’t for me.


You can watch video of Ben’s full interview here.

You can watch video of Larry Foote’s interviews here.

…from the Steelers O-line rookies!





































David as Santa, Mike as Rudolph, Kelvin as the terrible sweater elf!! — Ben


*Christmas portrait photographer: Ben Roethlisberger

“Pito, the German Shepherd we imported from Holland and his handler have been undergoing extensive training through us and received a Police Dog Narcotics certification today.” — Ali Hemyari, K-9 Instructor for Nashville K-9, LLC.

On October 11th, The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation announced it’s grant to the Millersville Police Department just outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

The Millersville Police Department utilized the grant funds to start its K-9 Unit by purchasing its first narcotics dog. Nashville K-9, LLC trained the dog and his handler free of charge. The Tennessee Highway Patrol also donated equipment to properly outfit Millersville PD’s first K-9 vehicle.

“With the generous donation that Ben gave to the Millersville Police Dept, we were able to purchase them a green dog for narcotics,” said K-9 Instructor Ali Hemyari. “We then worked with him and the handler, training both to a proficient level and had both of them certified as a police dog/handler team.

“Nashville K-9 is proud of Officer George Hurst and Pito in their commitment to their city, and is thankful for the opportunity to be able to work with The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation.”


Thank you to Mr. Hemyari and Nashville K-9, LLC!


You can read more about Ben’s Foundation here!

“I actually came in and apologized to Todd, apologized to Mike, apologized to Mr. Rooney just because I did let my frustrations jump out after a game. I don‘t usually do that, I usually keep it under control, it was just frustrations on myself. I‘ll be better at that.” — Ben, in reference comments he made after Sunday’s game.

Highlights from his interview:

Did the frustrations come from knowing how good this offense could potentially be?

It can come from just wanting to win, truthfully.

It comes from just wanting to do anything to win football games, knowing the potential we have and the players we have.

It was just a lot of frustration and I shouldn’t have said that. That’s my fault.


On why he felt the need to apologize, and whether it was because he had made his frustrations public:

Yeah, just apologizing for the storm that it created and caused. We do have a lot of talks behind closed doors about things, about plays, play calling, if I’m doing something that’s not right on the field, we have talks about everything. Coach Tomlin and I meet every Monday to talk about the game and what goes on. Just the frustration after a loss and especially feeling like it was my fault, just things blew up.


On how he feels about the offense:

I feel like we’re doing pretty well with a lot of injuries. We have a lot of moving parts. The line has done a great job of filling in. Obviously, we want to be more successful, we want to score more points and we want to win games. In that sense, I feel like we need to be better as a unit.


On his relationship with Coach Haley and seeing “eye to eye”:

There are obviously times that we don’t but we get that ironed out. I’m sure it’s that way with every position player and their coach. There are going to be times when you just don’t see eye-to-eye. There are times when I don’t see eye-to-eye with Coach Tomlin. But that doesn’t mean anything, I don’t think. I’m sure a lot of you don’t see eye-to-eye with your bosses at times. But it’s nothing that is a big deal. You work it out, you talk about it and you get […]

The end of each year brings award season and none handed out in the region are more prestigious than the Dapper Dan Charities Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Award.

The awards annually go to the male and female athlete, coach or team that bring the most recognition to Western Pennsylvania and is voted on by fans as well as Dapper Dan’s executive committee.

The nominees for the Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year are Pitt defensive lineman Aaron Donald, Pirates All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen, Penguins center Evgeni Malkin, Steelers tight end Heath Miller, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and Penn State coach Bill O’Brien.

The featured winners, along with a number of others, such as retired Steelers great Hines Ward, will honored at the 77th Annual Dapper Dan Dinner & Sports Auction, presented by BNY Mellon Feb. 6 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Tickets for the event can be purchased by visiting www.post-gazette.com/dapperdan or by calling 412-263-3850. Prices are $150 for general seats and $250 for premium seats.


You can read more on the honor and the event from Paul Zeise at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.


CAST YOUR VOTES HERE!

*Winners will be announced in late January, 2013.