“Thanks to the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, the Connellsville Police Department was able to add K-9 Ambroos to the force last year. He is utilized near daily by our department and neighboring departments, making our program well-known and reputable after just a few short months in service. We also dedicated our K-9 vehicle to Mr. Roethlisberger by identifying it as unit 7 and placing the Steelers’ emblem on the front bumper. Our program is young and very successful so far, and with this most recent assistance from the Foundation we will continue to grow and expand our success.” — Officer J. Tyler Garlick, Connellsville Police Department.

Today, Ben announced the final grants of the 2019-20 season from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund. The Foundation will be distributing eight grants to police and fire K-9 programs in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.

The K-9 departments receiving funding from the Ben’s Foundation this year include the Borough of Homestead Police, City of Beaver Falls Fire Department, City of Butler Police Department, Columbiana Police Department (OH), Connellsville Police Department, Martins Ferry Police Department (OH), Indiana Township Police Department and Uniontown City Police Department.

These departments will be utilizing their respective grants in a variety of canine-focused initiatives including the establishment of new K-9 units, replacement of retiring dogs, purchasing of safety and training equipment, and training and certification of new and existing K-9s among other K-9 related expenses.

“[We are] extremely grateful to the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation for their generous donation to the Accelerant Detection Canine program. Our program relies on the generosity of donors to safely provide services to fire and law enforcement agencies across Western Pennsylvania. Thanks to the support, K-9 Patty can continue to make a huge difference in Beaver County and far beyond. Mr. Roethlisberger’s love and support of canines is truly admirable and we cannot thank him enough!” — Captain David Seidl, City of Beaver Falls Fire Department.

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 service dogs in Pittsburgh, PA. The Foundation has distributed in excess of $2.2 million since 2007, $1.8 million of which has specifically benefited K-9 programs. In […]

Bob Labriola on the interview with Mr. Rooney:

There are two topics that never fail to energize Steelers fans: running the football, and their favorite team’s quarterback situation.

Of course, we’ll focus on the quarterback situation portion of the interview –

The instability at quarterback was created when Ben Roethlisberger’s right elbow allowed him to play only the first six quarters of the regular season. From there, it was Mason Rudolph as the starter until he was concussed in the fourth game of the season, a loss to the Ravens at Heinz Field. Then it was Devlin Hodges, the survivor of rookie minicamp, then back to Rudolph, then back to Hodges, then back to Rudolph until he was driven into the ground during the Jets game and sustained a rather serious injury to his left shoulder, and then back to Hodges to finish up the season.

If there would be a single statistic to illustrate how strange the Steelers season was with respect to their quarterback situation, there’s this: of the three quarterbacks who started games for the Steelers in 2019: Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, and Devlin Hodges, the only one who didn’t lead the team to a victory was Roethlisberger.

Moving forward, it’s fair to link the Steelers’ prospects in 2020 to the health of Roethlisberger’s right arm, and Rooney wasn’t pessimistic at all when asked about his starting quarterback’s prognosis at this stage of the rehabilitation.

“Everything we hear so far is positive, in particular Ben’s attitude about things,” said Rooney. “He seems to feel good about it. He really is still in the early stages of his rehab. He hasn’t been able to do a whole lot yet, but that is going to start to ramp up here over the next couple of months, obviously. We are anxious to see his progress.”

One estimate of when Roethlisberger might be throwing the football again is by OTAs, which typically begin at the end of May, but in the meantime, the NFL will open and progress through the first couple of phases of unrestricted free agency. And it would be during that time when the Steelers presumably would be looking at experienced quarterbacks to add to the depth chart behind Roethlisberger, but Rooney wasn’t certain that was a necessary way to proceed.

“We are still kind of in the process of digesting the season and […]