“It’s very frustrating to feel like you let down your team and your fans and your coaches. It’s tough. I’m not going to make excuses. I played a bad football game, I turned the ball over and that one’s on me.” — Ben.

“My hat goes off to Roethlisberger. Him playing, hobbled up back there, he wouldn’t come out.” — 49ers defensive end Justin Smith, during interview on ESPN post-game.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Ron Cook this morning:

It absolutely was the right call to start quarterback Ben Roethlisberger against the San Francisco 49ers despite a left ankle injury that forced him to miss almost all of the practice time leading up to the game. The Steelers lost, 20-3, in large part because Roethlisberger threw three interceptions and lost a fumble. It was a hurtful defeat that could cost the team the AFC North Division title, the No. 1 seed for the conference playoffs and a trip to its fourth Super Bowl in seven years.

I will write it again:

It wasn’t a bad decision to go with Roethlisberger. It just didn’t work out.

You want to blame Tomlin for something? Blame him for not taking out Roethlisberger in the fourth quarter after the game had been decided. But don’t blame him for starting Roethlisberger.


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

“I was gonna play. I mean it wasn’t my call — I’ll go out and play at 5%, I don’t care. Told coach that, said ‘It’s your call, you make the call, you’re the head coach, and I’m gonna give you everything I got no matter what that is.’ ” — Ben.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review‘s Scott Brown:

Ben Roethlisberger said he didn’t take any painkilling injections before playing through a high-ankle sprain in a 20-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night.

“We heard that (ESPN analyst) Steve Young and those guys say that before pre-game, ‘Oh, he’ll go shoot it up.’ No we don’t do that,” Roethlisberger said. “They would never put me out there and endanger me or anybody on this team. There was no injection there was two Tylenols and two Advil.”

That Roethlisberger took anything stronger for the pain caused […]

Ben took a couple of photos at the WDVE Christmas party that he attended with his wife, Ashley, and friend Brett Keisel on Thursday night.


San Franciso Chronicle writer Ron Kroichick looks at the NFL dynasties that are the Steelers and the 49ers.


ESPN.com AFC North blogger Jamison Hensley doesn’t think Antonio Brown is a Steelers secret anymore!


Pittsburgh Examiner writer Christina Rivers thinks Ben is a True Man of Steel.


Steelers players talk about taking care of business on Monday night against the 49ers.


Ben talks about doing everything he can to be on the field Monday night.


49ers defensive coordinator Vic Fangio prepares his players to face Ben on Monday night.

Ben announced the seventh grant of the 2011 season this afternoon from The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The foundation will be distributing a grant to the Antioch Police Department near San Francisco, CA where the Steelers will play the 49ers on Monday Night Football, December 19th.

The Antioch Police Department will purchase a dual purpose canine, trained in patrol procedures and narcotics detection, so that an 11-year-old veteran canine can retire.

Antioch Chief of Police Allan Cantando said, “We are truly honored to have been selected by the Foundation as a grant recipient and are excited about the long-term benefits this grant will allow our canine unit, the Antioch Police Department and the City of Antioch to enjoy for the years to come.” Cantando added, “These grant funds will be used to purchase a new dual purpose canine to ensure the continued success of the unit.”

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.

“It was such an honor for me to play in the Big 33 Classic, given the tradition of the game and legacy of great players. I am excited to return now as the Honorary Chairman, to be involved again in something truly special.” — Ben.

The Big 33 Scholarship Foundation Inc announced today that Ben was selected as the 2012 Honorary Chairman of the PNC Big 33 Football Classic played in June.

Ben, who is a Big 33 alumnus, played for Ohio in the 2000 Big 33 Football Classic.

In 2003, Ben led the Miami Red Hawks to an unbeaten record in the MAC, a No. 10 ranking in the Associated Press poll, and a 49-28 victory over Louisville in the 2003 GMAC Bowl.

His number was retired by the Red Hawks in 2007 – becoming only the third athlete in Miami football history to have his jersey number retired. It was the first time in 34 years Miami retired a football jersey number.

The 2012 PNC Big 33 Football Classic will be televised on the NFL Network on June 16, 2012 at 7:00 PM.



Pro Bowl Update:

Ben is still at No. 2 in fan voting with 745,835 votes counted. Tom Brady is still the AFC’s top overall vote getter with 1,149,721 votes. Detroit’s Tim Tebow has jumped to the No. 3 spot with 420,539 votes. The Bills’ Ryan Fitzpatrick is at No. 4 with 377,796 votes. Ben remains in the Top 10 in overall votes, but has slipped down to 10th place.

There are only four days left to make your votes count for your favorite players! The Pro Bowl teams will be announced during Monday Night Football.

Cast your votes here!

“Today is Thursday, take it one day at a time. We’ll keep working today, and work tomorrow and get ready.” — Ben.

Highlights from Ben’s interview with the media today:


On whether his high ankle sprain is more painful or difficult to deal with than his broken foot –

“It’s similar in ways, putting pressure on it hurts. With this, I can’t get on my toes, which is kind of important to running and throwing. I can’t twist with it. Those kind of things are the most painful. With [the broken foot] I could tape it up and not move it, I could function with it. This is a little tougher to deal with. I think if I had the same injury in my right one it would be worse, because that’s the one you stop on and stuff like that. But in terms of throwing and planting and rotating on that one, yes it’s difficult.”


On what he is doing to treat the ankle sprain –

“Well if you can’t do anything for it, we’re doing a lot of stuff for nothing because we’re in there non-stop. I’m in there early, at the beginning of practice. It’s range of motion stuff, it’s hot tub, cold tub, resistance moving, massage…everything we can possibly do. We got molded today with a cast for an ankle brace to see if that helps. So we’re doing everything we can.”


On whether he would consider the pain better or worse than it was in the second half of the game –

“It would be worse. It’s one of those things, the second half of that game you’re playing off of adrenalin, you’re playing off emotion. The next couple days after that I kind of just shook my head because I couldn’t have done it then, I don’t know how we did. It’s amazing what adrenalin and wanting to be out there for your guys does.”


On whether he thinks he can get some practice in on Saturday –

“That’s the way I’m looking at it. We have an extra day, which is a huge blessing. I’ve done it before, it’s not ideal, especially against a great defense like this, it’s definitely not ideal. But if I have to do it, I’d do my best.”


On whether this has been the most painful injury he has suffered to date –

“They’ve all been […]

We have a great gift idea!


*UPDATE: We have a winner…see below!

Just be our 100th emailer and you will win an autographed 8×10 action photo of Ben (photo at left)!

That’s it!

No trivia questions to answer.

No photos of your Steelers Fan cave to send.

Just an email!

Send emails to: bigben7website@gmail.com

But wait…

Before you email, please follow these two rules:

1. Emails for the contest WILL NOT be accepted until 12 NOON ET and after (this gives fans in different time zones a chance to participate). If you email before that time, your email will be discounted.

2. Please, just one email per email address only (subsequent emails from the same address will be discounted).


The winner will be notified later this afternoon and an update with the winner’s name will be posted here!

Good Luck!


*UPDATE: We have a winner — the 100th email came in at 12:01:56 PM and the winner is Nicole Ciufo! Congratulations to Nicole! For all those that emailed (and there were 534 contest entries), don’t despair….we’ll have more contests in the future!!