…is celebrating her 80th birthday today!


Margie Dale lives in Pompano Beach, Florida, but was raised in Pittsburgh and is a diehard Steelers fan. Not only that, but according to her friend, Jim Rookey, she is Ben’s biggest fan and never misses a game.

…and with Thanksgiving less than a week away:


Six-year old Zane is a first grader at Elida Elementary School (the same school that Big Ben’s dad went to) in Lima, Ohio (where Big Ben was born)!

His teacher, Mrs. Fullenkamp, came up with a fun project called, “Disguise the Turkey”: her class could disguise a turkey any way they wanted so it didn’t get eaten on Thanksgiving Day! Yikes!!

So Zane, a HUGE Steelers & Big Ben fan, decided to disguise his turkey as Ben, “The best quarterback in the NFL!” That way, he could get away from the hunters like he gets away from defensive linemen! Zane, you’re a wise young man!


Thank you to Zane’s grandmother, Carol Cunningham, for sharing his awesome project & photo with us!!



UPDATE:

Zane has become a bit of celebrity at Elida Elementary School since his appearance on Ben’s website!

“He was so excited to see it pop up at school today when his teacher showed the class. Zane will also be featured in the Elida schools monthly newspaper that gets mailed out to the entire school district.” — Zane’s dad, Aaron Cunningham.

Zane, you do Steeler Nation proud!!

Today, Ben announced the eighth grant of the 2016 season from The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will be distributing a grant to the North Ridgeville Police Department.

North Ridgeville is a city of 31,871 located in Lorain County in Northeast Ohio, and is just 30 minutes from Cleveland, where the Steelers will play the Cleveland Browns this Sunday, November 20th.


North Ridgeville will use their grant to purchase and train a dual purpose K-9.

“The North Ridgeville (OH) Police Department would like to extend our sincere gratitude and thanks to the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation and The Giving Back Fund for being awarded a K-9 grant. The Foundation’s generous contribution to our K-9 program will provide the essential funds to purchase another K-9 for the citizens of North Ridgeville. We thank Mr. Roethlisberger and his foundation for their continued support of police K-9 programs throughout the country.” — Capt. Marti Garrow, Operations Commander, North Ridgeville Police Department.

Hey Steelers fans:

You can support future K-9 grants by joining Ben’s crowdfunding campaign on https://pledgeit.org/big-ben. Big Ben is pledging $1,000 per touchdown this season to his foundation. Supporters can increase the impact by pledging to donate any amount per touchdown.


For more information about Ben’s foundation please contact Charisse Browner at www.givingback.org.

The conditions in Cleveland won’t be ideal, but Ben Roethlisberger knows there are no excuses.

From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

The weather forecast for Sunday’s game against the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland isn’t a pretty one, with a 70 percent chance of a rain/snow mix, winds around 30 miles an hour, and the high temperature expected to be around 37 degrees.

Ben Roethlisberger has played in those conditions in Cleveland before, and will prepare for it starting in practice this week. Roethlisberger said the key to throwing in windy conditions is to get a spin on the ball, and wearing a glove will help him with that.

“You have to spin the ball,” said Roethlisberger. “I am not a guy that when I throw the ball I spin it a lot. I will wear a glove this week in practice. If it’s going to be 30-mile an hour wind, I am going to have to wear a glove on Sunday. The preparation will be to wear a glove to help you spin the ball more.”

The Steelers will be searching for their first win in five games, and also want to turn around their road record where they are only 1-3 this season. Roethlisberger said there are differences playing on the road, but no excuses for not winning.

“It’s the comfort level of being at home, using the cadence,” he said. “When we get on the road it’s a lot louder. You have to use the silent count and that means head bobs from under center. Timing can be off a little bit.

“There is no real excuse. We need to step up. We pride ourselves in years past here being a great road football team. We need to do that and we are going to have to start this week.”

Despite the fact that the Browns are 0-10, Roethlisberger knows their defense is going to be coming at them.

“It’s basically like playing us with (defensive coordinator) Ray (Horton) over there, the 3-4,” said Roethlisberger. “Throwing different defenses, different blitzes, and different looks. Being able to identify who to block will be the key.”

One player to keep a particular eye on will be linebacker Jamie Collins, who was traded from the New England Patriots to the Browns three games ago.

“We expect […]

From Ben’s radio show this morning on 93.7 The Fan:

Ben addressed the talk out there that he was calling out specific players or coaches for the lack of discipline.

“I never specifically said coaches, I never specifically said players, I said ‘players and coaches’…It’s a generalization that you see undisciplined things. You watch the film yesterday and you see undisciplined play, undisciplined actions in plays.”

How does that get fixed? Ben says he knows how.

“It’s tough, it has to come from within and it has to come from coaches. We have to be able to hold ourselves accountable and hold each other accountable. I’ve said that before on this show and I’ve said it in the locker room before, it’s the guys. You point the thumb at yourself, you don’t point the finger. So everyone needs to just take a look at themselves, myself included.”

There was a report from the NFL Network that Ben had a private meeting with Mike Tomlin last week to help demand more urgency and exactness from the team and Ben said there was too much made of his sit down with the head coach.

“It always amazes me how the NFL Network, like do they bug everything? Do they assume they know everything?” Ben said. “I always wonder where they get this information. Being the quarterback and being a veteran and leader on this team, Coach Tomlin and I have talked multiple times a week. There’s probably never a week that goes by where we don’t have a behind closed-door talk…so when they make this a big drama, like we went in and shut the door and hashed things out or whatever it is, it’s completely false. I shouldn’t say that, it’s true in the sense that we went in and sat down, but we do that every week anyway.”


You can read more and listen to audio from his show here.



Also Today: What did the Cowboys’ think of that fake spike?


From D. Davidson at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Ben Roethlisberger caught the Dallas Cowboys off guard. At least in DeMarcus Lawrence’s mind.

Roethlisberger found his inner Dan Marino late in Sunday’s game, faking a spike and lofting a perfect pass to Antonio Brown for a 15-yard touchdown. At […]

“We’ll chew this up. We’ve just got to make plays, and be accountable. Be disciplined….we need to get their quick.” — Ben, post-game.

With time running out, Roethlisberger made a call that the Cowboys weren’t expecting. The defense thought Roethlisberger was going to spike the ball, but instead he gave Antonio Brown a ‘look’ and threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to him.

“Ben made a great call,” said Brown. “We knew in that situation that they were expecting us to spike the ball. Ben shot me a signal, and we were able to execute in that situation. It was all Ben. We practice that situation. Just being ready, I got his eyes, he gave me a good signal, and we were able to execute.”

The Steelers took a 30-29 lead at that point, but weren’t able to hold on.

“I called it. He (Brown) saw me call it,” said Roethlisberger. “Todd (Haley) was in my head yelling, ‘Don’t waste a down.’ But I knew what we were doing, so I’m glad it worked.” — Teresa Varley, Steelers.com recap.

“Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t letting his team lose. He just ran out of time. Roethlisberger — who publicly told teammates earlier in the week to “follow me” — walked calmly onto the field with his eyes fixated on a 75-yard, game-winning drive.

The Steelers used a bold strategy that set up the offense well: Let Elliott score a 14-yard touchdown with 1:55 left, giving Ben Roethlisberger the ball with two timeouts and a 29-24 deficit.

Missing three two-point conversions hurt the Steelers, but they regained an advantage by negating Dallas’ ability to milk the clock for a potential game-winning field goal.

Roethlisberger was brilliant in completing five straight passes, including a fake spike, Dan Marino style, to set up a lob pass to Antonio Brown over the top for a 15-yard score, catching Dallas sleeping with 42 seconds left. Roethlisberger threw for 191 yards in the fourth quarter alone….

Against the league’s hottest team, even a hot Big Ben wasn’t enough.

— Jeremy Fowler, ESPN.com.

“Roethlisberger completed 37-of-46 for 408 yards, with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rating of 125.4 in a game the Steelers would end up losing, 35-30, to the Dallas Cowboys. And included in Roethlisberger’s numbers was a 5-for-5 for 75 yards and a touchdown on the fourth quarter possession that ended up […]