Our Veterans Day Salute is to 99-year old decorated WWII veteran John Hazy, whose story was sent to us by his very proud great-nephew, Mark Francesconi:

“John Hazy is a lifelong Steeler fan and true American hero whose war experiences are documented in the Library of Congress. John was born in 1918 in Perryopolis, PA and outside of his years of service for our government has resided in Western Pennsylvania all of his life. Now 99 years old, John may be one of the oldest living, most decorated, veteran of World War II and Steelers fan.

John enlisted in the Army Air Corp in 1939 where his training and service led him to Panama, Puerto Rico, and Guatemala. Eventually he was transferred to England where he served as a bombardier for the 368th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group, in the 8th Air Force.

On April 24, 1944, during a bombing mission over Germany, John’s airplane was shot down. John was one of 9 crew members that parachuted out and survived the crash. Shortly after landing in a German farm field, he was beaten up by farmers, held at gunpoint, and turned over to the German Army before being imprisoned in Stalag XVII-B for thirteen months.

In the Spring of 1945, German Soldiers, fearing the approaching Allies, abandoned their posts at John’s prison camp. Subsequently, John and his fellow prison mates marched for 30 days over Austria before being discovered by General George Patton’s army and officially liberated.

John went on to serve in the Air Force during the cold war from 1946 to 1968 with his last assignment being in the Pentagon. During his 28 years of service John’s highest distinction was the Purple Heart which was recently awarded to him for his injuries sustained during his capture and imprisonment.

We are proud of John, proud of the Steelers, and proud to be Americans.” — Mark.


Mark, thank you for sharing your great-uncle’s incredible story with us! John, you are a true hero! God bless you both and your family on this Veterans Day and always!

And God bless all of our service men & women and their families as well!

Today, Ben announced the ninth and tenth grant awards of the 2017 season from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will be distributing grants to the Indiana State Police and the Avon Police Department, just west of Indianapolis where the Steelers will play the Colts on November 12th.

This marks the 11th season that Ben’s Foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units. His continuing mission is to support K-9 units of police and fire departments throughout the United States, with a particular emphasis on support for service dogs in Pittsburgh, PA. Ben also supports Make-A-Wish.

The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has distributed more than $150,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2016 NFL season, including $76,000 in the Pittsburgh community. The Foundation has distributed in excess of $1.65 million since 2007.

“The Indiana State Police Alliance has a proud history of supporting the K-9 program. The generous grant provided by the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation will promote the continued success of the state police K-9 program.” — Scott Krueger, President, Indiana State Police Alliance.

The Indiana State Police will use the grant funds to purchase training equipment, and the Avon Police Department will use the funds to add a second dog to their K-9 unit.

“The Avon Police Department is humbled to learn that we were selected to receive the 2017 Ben Roethlisberger Foundation grant. This is an honor and privilege for the Avon Police Department, and we wish to thank Mr. Roethlisberger and his foundation for such a wonderful opportunity to make a positive impact in our community. The Avon Police Department would also like to commend Mr. Roethlisberger for his passion, dedication and generosity that he has demonstrated throughout the United States to help law enforcement agencies. The Avon Police Department looks forward to partnering with the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation in the fight against illegal narcotic distribution, sales and abuse. The Foundation’s generosity will assist the Avon Police Department with the purchase of an additional K-9 unit that will be focused on the interdiction of illegal drugs such as heroin, and other dangerous opioids that have destroyed and taken so many lives. With this grant and the dedication of the men and women of the Avon Police Department, we […]

with a ‘stop by’ to say hello to Brett Keisel at his Annual Pheasant Hunt:




And another episode of his radio show:

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger joined The Cook and Poni Show on Sportsradio 93.7 The Fan for the #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show and said Martavis is looking good and back in his old spot.

“I thought he had a good practice yesterday and I’m sure he’s excited for the second half of the season.” When asked if he was operating with the starters right now, Ben said “Yes, he was yesterday.”

Looking at his role in the offense after Juju Smith-Schuster’s breakout game against the Lions, Ben said there won’t be a whole lot of change in where Martavis lines up, but could you see Juju take some of his snaps outside of the slot in Martavis’ normal role.

“I think Martavis’ spot is where it always has been, it’s outside…I think Juju comes in and plays the slot and I think there are certain packages where we’ll have Eli [Rogers] in the slot and Juju outside.”

Talking more about the offense, Ben shared with us what they need to do better in their second half of the season.

“6-2 is really all that matters. I know we haven’t played up to our potential…We want to score as many points as we can. We need to be more successful in the red zone. We’re down there a lot, we’ve got to score, we possess the ball, we’ve got to find ways to finish with seven in the red zone instead of three.”

It seems that no matter how well things are going for this team, there always seems to be a focus on the New England Patriots, the team that seems to always stand between the Steelers and the Super Bowl and Ben was asked about whether or not they follow with the Patriots are doing and keep a close eye on them.

“They’re the champs, right? They’re the best in the world. They won it last year and when you do that and you have the title and you have your name on the Lombardi, you should be talked about, you should be looked at. They’ve earned that and they deserve it. You obviously pay attention to what other people in the AFC are doing, […]

…courtesy of one of our favorite Steelers fans, Dave DiCello:


“Afternoon guys! Just got back from an awesome family shoot at Mingo Creek Park, and the fall colors (at least the ones that were left on the trees!) were a perfect backdrop. This is a view of the Ebenezer Covered Bridge there, which provide the backdrop for most of our images. The light was perfect, the temperature was perfect, all around a great way to spend a fall afternoon!”


More from Dave here.

Recap of Ben’s “Special Edition” Wednesday (Bye Week) Show with Cook & Poni:

Roethlisberger and the Steelers are heading into the bye week at (6-2) after a 20-15 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday night. The Steelers are tied with New England and Kansas City for the best record in the AFC at the halfway point of the season.

A big part of the Steelers victory over the Lions this past week was due to the performance of rookie wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster who has now been named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week and Ben talked about what it means to the team to have him breakout like this.

“It’s fun to watch him,” Ben told us. “The kid just has fun playing football. It’s so innocent, and I don’t want to say it’s just youthful innocence, but he just really enjoys just going out and playing football.”

A big part of Juju’s breakout was the 97-yard touchdown pass he caught and Ben walked us through that play and how it came together.

“We had talked about something earlier in the game where he didn’t get open on a similar type defense because he tried to give a move…On the sidelines when we talked about it previously in the game, I said ‘Next time, don’t try and give him a move, just beat him with speed and see if we can get him because he’s waiting for you to make that move.’ So we got the perfect look…and this time instead of giving the move, he just went fast, went down the middle, at the top of his route just gave a little head nod instead of slowing his feet down and got just enough separation that I could put it over the top and let him run under it and he didn’t break stride as he’s running…We were laughing in the quarterback room though, he must have looked over his shoulder 20 times back and forth like, ‘I’ve got three guys chasing me, who’s gonna catch me?’

Juju did have one mistake where he dropped what could have been a critical third down pass and Ben shared with us that when he congratulated Juju afterwards for his big game, he was still focused on that drop.

“He was sitting there and his […]