From an article in the Washington Post today:

“Road show: Steelers fans make themselves right at home in any stadium”

Broncos linebacker Joe Mays was strolling through the grocery store earlier this week when he spotted a family decked out in Pittsburgh Steelers garb.

The invasion of Pittsburgh fans has already begun. In his own neighborhood, no less.

Wait until Sunday.

Billed as Broncos country, this region will be transformed into Steelers territory with Ben Roethlisberger & Co. arriving in the Mile High City for a first-round playoff game.

Pittsburgh fans have always traveled well for big games, doing their best to bring some home-field advantage on the road with their numbers and noise.

That’s why Broncos coach John Fox urged fans not to sell their tickets to Steelers supporters. The last thing Fox wants to see this weekend is a sea of yellow Terrible Towels in the stadium.

“I would encourage all of them to keep their seats so to speak and not sell them to Pittsburgh fans, so our stadium remains as active and loud as it’s been,” Fox said. “More blue and orange as opposed to (black) and gold.”

The sight of so much black and gold on the road never gets old for Roethlisberger.

“I think it kind of blows most people away,” he said. “When you’re on the road and you have guys on other teams that aren’t used to seeing that, and all of a sudden they see the Steeler fans come in and their like, ‘Holy cow, what’s going on?’ It’s a pretty neat feeling.”


You can read the rest here.

You can see a larger version of the photo of Roger Saucedo and his friends here.

Fans who attended the Rams vs Steelers game on December 24th were given the opportunity to read an excellent article in the Steelers Game Day program on Brett Keisel, written by Ryan Scarpino. The article, with interviews with Brett, his friends, and his teammates is entitled, “Grounded by Greybull”.


Below are excerpts from Ben’s interview with Mr. Scarpino about his friend Brett:

Lane Keisel taught his son at an early age to respect nature, to learn about and understand his surroundings. Still an avid hunter and fisherman, Brett remembers and lives by those lessons. “The biggest thing I learned about hunting is just being outdoors,” said Keisel. “I love seeing what’s on Mother Earth. Listening to Mother Earth. Just the atmosphere of that solitude. It’s so peaceful.”

Ben Roethlisberger has been on several of these expeditions with Keisel, and so he knows first-hand what it’s like to spend a week with the modern-day version of Jeremiah Johnson. “We actually rode horses up into the mountains,” said Roethlisberger, who once traveled to Wyoming with his father and two uncles to enjoy the Keisel experience. “We camped, hunted and fished for a whole week. We were 10,000 feet up in the mountains. To have that trip was just awesome.”

Listen to Roethlisberger and Keisel talk and you can hear the banter of brothers, of two men who love a lot of the same things, and each other. Roethlisberger tells the story of “out-fishing” Keisel during that trip to Wyoming and Keisel finds a way to acknowledge defeat and take credit for the win at the same time.

“Absolutely he’s beaten me,” said Keisel. “But you have to understand that Ben is a winner. He’s beaten me fair and square but that’s only because I’ve taken him to the hotspots.”

Answered Roethlisberger, “I don’t think people understand how much Brett and I are alike. We both like the same things. That’s why we get along so well.”


If you would like to read the article, please visit Brett’s official website here.


*Thank you Trish!

“He won last week. That’s how he’s measured and that’s how I’m measured, and that is what we tend to focus on.” — Coach Tomlin, when asked to evaluate Ben’s performance with the injury.

From SI today:

The Steelers hope the running game will be able to take some of the pressure off quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who continues to deal with a painful left ankle sprain that’s limited his effectiveness recently.

Though Roethlisberger passed the ball 40 times against Cleveland and was sacked twice Tomlin believes the ankle is “certainly no worse” while adding he’s “not concerned about (Roethlisberger’s) overall physical state” though the quarterback may be limited in practice during the week.


You can read more from Coach Tomlin’s meeting with the media here.



ESPN‘s Jamison Hensley gives his AFC North 2011 Season Awards:

“Offensive Player of the Year: Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers quarterback. He carried the Steelers’ offense and he did it through pain. Roethlisberger sprained his foot (which required a metal plate in his shoe), broke his right thumb and then suffered a high-ankle sprain. He was still able to lead the division with 4,077 yards passing, 21 touchdowns and a 63.2 completion rate. Roethlisberger threw five touchdowns against Tennessee, out-dueled Tom Brady and beat Cleveland in the first meeting on one leg.”

Antonio Brown got the nod (or rather Mr. Hensley’s nod) for Breakout Player of the Year.


You can read the rest of Mr. Hensley’s blog here.



Also Today:

John Elway on Ben, during his Live Podcast today –

“Anytime you look at the Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger is a big part of their offense. He’s a guy that’s a big guy, that’s a competitor. A guy that really makes a lot of plays, so we’ve got our hands full with him just because of the way he plays the game and his toughness. I’m not sure how many guys would still be playing with the ankle that he had. He went the next week even though people say that he probably shouldn’t have gone, but that just shows you how tough a guy he is and what a competitor he is. You know you’re going to have your […]

Score: Steelers 13, Browns 9

“Now is the time to go out and play our best football. If you are a great team, you have to win on the road. We’d like to get it together, starting next week. We have not been able to put it all together yet this year, whether because of injury, weather, a lot of factors.” — Ben, on his play and that of the banged-up offense.

Ben completed 23-of-40 passes for 221 yards (improving to 14-1 in his career against the Browns) while playing the entire game with a “healing” high ankle sprain for the Steelers (12-4), who were the AFC’s No. 5 seed due to Baltimore’s win over Cincinnati this afternoon.

Isaac Redman provided the go-ahead score with a 7-yard scoring run in the third quarter.

Redman replaced the injured Rashard Mendenhall who hurt his right knee on the final play of the first quarter.


You can check out video highlights of the game here.  Photos here.

“I’d give myself a C-minus. So would you call that below average? Or is that average? I don’t know, I wasn’t very good at school.” — Ben.

Congratulations:

To Hines Ward (1,000 career receptions), Heath Miller (passing the great Lynn Swann for #4 all time in receptions), Antonio Brown (first player ever to have 1000+ yards both receiving and returning), and of course Ben (his second career 4,000-yard passing season)!

“Well, we knew that play was coming and I had a bunch of options and it was kind of one option. Just get it to Hines. Unfortunately he had to lose yards, but it’s still such an awesome honor and I feel privileged to play with the guy.” — Ben, on Hines Ward’s 1,000th reception.

Playoff Schedule:

The Steelers head to Denver to face the Broncos next Sunday. The game starts at 4:30 p.m. on CBS. If the Steelers win against the Broncos and the Texans win, the Steelers go to New England to play the Patriots. However, if the Steelers win, and the Bengals win, the Steelers go to Baltimore to face the Ravens. You can keep up here.

Today, Ben announced the eighth grant of the 2011 season from The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will be distributing a grant to the Cleveland Heights Police Department near Cleveland, Ohio where the Steelers will play the Browns on Sunday afternoon.

The Cleveland Heights Police Department’s K-9 division will utilize the grant to provide for the purchase and training of a new canine, as well as a K-9 ballistic vest.

Cleveland Heights Chief of Police Jeffrey Robertson said, “The K-9 will be a great addition to our department, not only on the law enforcement side, but in our continued initiatives in community policing programs. I look forward to seeing our new K-9 in our elementary schools visiting with the kids and allowing our officers to interact with the younger residents of our City.” Chief Robertson added, “On behalf of the Cleveland Heights Police Department, I would like to thank the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation for selecting our department as the recipient of a grant.”

The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation is distributing grants to police and fire departments in Pittsburgh and in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers in the 2011 season. Last summer, Ben invited police and fire departments in the local areas of those nine cities to submit proposals detailing their needs.

This marks the fifth season that the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units.


For more information:

Check out Ben’s Foundation page here and the Giving Back Fund’s website here.



Also Today:

Congratulations to Antonio Brown, Steelers MVP!

“It’s an awesome honor for him. With the high-caliber guys we have in this locker room, there were a handful of guys who probably could have gotten it. It speaks volumes of a young guy to step up and do the things he’s done. Look at what he’s done in the receiving game and look at what he’s done returning punts and kickoffs. With every kickoff and punt return, you think on every single one that he has a chance to take it back all the way or at least get you good field position. It’s so exciting to see him do it.” — Ben

From Steelers.com:

Highlights from Ben’s chat with the media today:


On the possibility of sitting out another game –

“Don’t know if I necessarily need it, but it’d be nice to get an extra week of rest, but I prefer to play.”


On sitting out against the Rams last weekend –

“To just get a rest and not tweak it was good.”


On how long he will play, if he plays, in Sunday’s game against the Browns –

“I don’t know. That’s probably a question for Mike [Tomlin]. We’re going to go out (today) and evaluate how it feels, how I feel, and I’ll let him know.

“If he feels comfortable enough with me being out there then I’ll probably be out there.”


On playing with the high ankle sprain –

“It’s getting better a little each day – no setbacks. We’ll give it a shot today and see how it feels. The pain is always going to be there. I can deal with the pain. I’m not worried about that. I think the biggest thing is not setting myself up to get hurt in other ways or hurt it worse as a sitting duck back there. It’s probably not the smartest thing in the world to do, but if it’s just the pain I’ll deal with that.”


On the biggest issue of playing with the injury –

“Weight-bearing up on my toes. That obviously involves running and throwing. That’s the biggest thing, to strengthen it up on my toes.”


Ben did practice fully today, which was the first time he has done so since playing the 49ers on December 19th.


You can read more on his practice from Ed Bouchette at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.



Playoff Stat of the Day:

Dan Marino, Bernie Kosar, Jim Everett, Todd Marinovich, Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan and Mark Sanchez are the only rookie quarterbacks since the NFL-AFL merger to take their teams to the playoffs. Their combined playoff record is 6-9, with a total of 15 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions and an average of 16 points a game. None of the rookies reached the Super Bowl, though four (King, Roethlisberger, Flacco and Sanchez) got their teams as far as the conference championship game. The […]