“I think teams think we might as well try, if that kid can do it, why not give it a shot. The tough part is, if a quarterback has success early, people are quick to say how good you can be. It happened with me, too.” — Ben, talking about his early success.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Gerry Dulac this morning, from his column “Roethlisberger may be responsible for rookie QB trend”:

Rookie quarterbacks are being thrown to the NFL wolves these days, rarely getting more than a year to be an understudy and learn the game from the sidelines, the old-school way.

There is only one person to blame:

Ben Roethlisberger.

In 2004, after being selected with the 11th overall pick by the Steelers, Roethlisberger was forced into the starting lineup in Week 3 after an injury to Tommy Maddox in Baltimore. All he did was become the first quarterback in NFL history to go 13-0 in the regular season and lead the Steelers to the AFC championship game.

One year later, he won his first Super Bowl.

Since then, teams have not been afraid to try a rookie at quarterback, never knowing when one might perform like Roethlisberger.


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

…released its list of Best Sports Cities earlier this week and it has generated quite a buzz on national sports talk radio.

The list, which ranks cities from 1 to 271, was created by looking at “the 12 months from summer 2010 to summer 2011” and was “based on point values assigned to various categories, including but not limited to, won-lost records, postseason appearances, applicable power ratings, number of teams and attendance.”

Dallas-Fort Worth got the nod at No. 1 this year.

Pittsburgh, named the No. 1 city in 2009 (magazine cover at left), ranked at No. 6 for 2011.

As for the AFC North rival cities? Cincinnati was No. 21, Baltimore was listed at No. 29, and Cleveland was farther down at No. 45.


The Top 10 in 2011 (which contains a few head-scratchers):

1. Dallas-Ft. Worth
2. Boston
3. Philadelphia
4. Chicago
5. New York
6. Pittsburgh
7. Atlanta
8. Los Angeles
9. Miami
10. Tampa + St. Petersburg


You can see the entire list here.

Do you agree or disagree? And who would make your Top 10?

You can join the discussion on Facebook.

In case you missed Ben’s 7:45am phone-in interview this morning with Mike Golic and Trey Wingo, who was sitting in for Mike Greenberg, here are just a few highlights from the almost 7-minute chat:

On the status of his sprained foot –

Ben: “It’s doing better – no setbacks from the game, so we’re slowly getting better and I’d like to give our trainers and doctors some airtime and credit because they’ve been working hard at getting me better.”


On the atmosphere at Heinz Field –

Ben: “As an NFL team, you want to say that there shouldn’t be any difference between playing on the road or playing at home. Well, when you’re playing at home there’s definitely a good feeling when you’re there, and you can use the snap count…there’s just a comfort level about being at home, and I think that helped us.”


On people “writing off” the team after their first loss –

Ben: “Everyone knows that has played in this league long enough that it’s about when you get hot, and you want to get hot late in the year. You want to be playing your best football late in the year as you’re getting ready to enter the playoffs. So I think in one way, that helps us because we know that, okay, we lost that first game in Baltimore and everyone – around the league and the fans – are like, “Oh my goodness, the season’s over!”…we just kind of chuckled at it because we knew it was early in the year. We’re 3-2 right now and we know it’s still about when you get hot and if we can just put together some solid football and get wins and get to the point where it’s late in the year and we’re playing good football that’s what it’s all about.”


With Mike Golic laughing, Trey Wingo asks Ben if throwing five touchdowns is how he wants to win games, how the Steelers want to win games…or does he want to win by getting back to the efficiency of their running game –

Ben: “Heck no! I want to throw five touchdowns every week! (laughs). No…we’ll take wins any way we can get them…we just want to win football games. That’s what […]

*Update: We have a winner!


On October 13, 2007…

Ben was honored with the retirement of his college jersey during a pre-game ceremony on the field at Yager Stadium at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

He became just the third RedHawks player to have his jersey number retired and the first in 34 years.

Ben led Miami to a Mid-American Conference championship and a No. 10 final ranking during his junior season. Twice that season he led Miami to wins over Bowling Green State University, including a 49-27 win in the MAC Championship.

Ben earned Third-Team All-America honors during his record-breaking junior season and became just the third Miami player to capture the Vern Smith Award as the Mid-American Conference Most Valuable Player.

Also joining Ben on the field for the ceremony were his parents, and the family of his beloved coach, Terry Hoeppner, who had passed away the previous June. During a half-time ceremony, the Hoeppner family was presented with a special plaque in honor of the coach’s memory, which now hangs in Yager Stadium.



To commemorate the fourth anniversary of the retirement of Ben’s Redhawks jersey, we are having a contest….

The 34th emailer with the correct answers will win an autographed 8×10 photo of Ben from his college days (photo at left) and a sealed DVD of the Redhawks Championship Season, “Rewriting the Book – A Tribute to a Storybook Season”!

The questions – just fill in the blanks:

1. Ben is just the third quarterback in MAC history to pass for _____ yards in __ seasons.

2. Ben broke the _____-yard plateau for his career, making him just the ___ player in NCAA history and just the fifth MAC quarterback to accomplish the feat.

3. In 2003, Ben passed for ______ yards and ___ touchdowns, an all new school single-season record.

4. In his college career, Ben passed for ____ total yards and ___ touchdown passes.


Send emails to: bigben7website@gmail.com


Hint: The answers can all be found on the website with just a click on a link or two, or three! Remember, there is more than one page on this site…but you […]

This marks the seventh time that Ben has been honored as the AFC Offensive Player of the Week.


From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com this morning:

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Tennessee Titans.

Roethlisberger threw five touchdown passes and tallied 228 passing yards in the Steelers 38-17 win, while playing with an injured foot.

“I just don’t want to let my guys down. I want to give them my best,” said Roethlisberger after the game of playing injured. “I’ll be there until they take me off in a cart, which has happened before. I want to give them everything that I’ve got and put this team and this offense in the best position that I can to win football games. It is what it is, as coach always says. Regardless of injury, there are lots of guys going through it, we just have to go out and do our best. “

Roethlisberger is the first Steelers player to win a player of the week honor this season.


You can read more from Ms. Varley here.



Also Today:

Ben spoke to the media after practice. A few highlights….

On his play last Sunday –

“I feel like I left some things out there. You always want to try to be better. You never want to be satisfied with where you’re at.”


On playing with the sprained foot –

“When it’s your feet it’s hard because you’re always on them, so it’s every single play. It’s not like it’s a left wrist or a left shoulder where you hurt it when you get hit.”


On the level of the pain –

“It was up there. But you find a way to manage it.”


On the approach of the offense against the Titans –

“They sat in a lot of zone coverages and left the underneath stuff open. I know all you guys think that you called it and it was ‘a breakthrough performance,’ because you guys wanted me to get the ball out of my hand faster. But, really, it was what they gave us, and we took advantage of it.”


*Thank you […]