Just eatin’ lunch on a daddy-son day while mommy is out doing some last minute Christmas shopping! Wanted to say ‘Hi’! — Benjamin, Jr.

“My first time ever in Lambeau. Cold, snow, crazy game. May never get back here.” — Ben to the media, post-game.

Big Ben completed 16-of-28 passes for 167 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception in today’s game. He also had a rushing touchdown of 13-yards in the third quarter to put the team up 17 to 14. He threw two touchdown passes to Emmanuel Sanders and Matt Spaeth, and he hooked up with Antonio Brown 6 times for 105 yards.

“The sea parted for him up the middle and he took it in for the score.” — Rotoworld.com

From Alan Robinson, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Le’Veon Bell scored from 1 yard out with 1:25 remaining, and the Steelers turned two Green Bay turnovers into touchdowns, and overcame an inexplicable call that cost them a potential score to keep their faint playoff hopes alive with a 38-31 win Sunday over the Packers at snowy, frigid Lambeau Field.

The Steelers (7-8) trailed 21-17 after blocking a field goal only to have the officials award Green Bay the ball, but responded with two touchdowns in 18 seconds to take a 10-point lead, then overcame a Green Bay 10-point comeback in the fourth quarter.

Troy Polamalu forced a Matt Flynn fumble that defensive end Brett Keisel recovered with 1:51 remaining. Bell, who went over 100 yards for the first time in his career, scored five plays later.

The Packers appeared to be in position to tie it following Micah Hyde’s 70-yard kickoff return, but a false started penalty on a second-and-1 play from the Steelers’ 1 resulted in a 10-second runoff that greatly aided the Steelers. Flynn then threw incomplete into the end zone, and the Steelers’ held on for an improbable win.

To get into the playoffs, they must beat Browns on the Sunday, the Jets must beat the Dolphins, the Bengals must beat the Ravens and the Chiefs must beat the Chargers.


You can read more from Mr. Robinson here.



From Dejan Kovacevic, also at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

When the Steelers were ridiculously ripped off by the refs after that blocked field goal, they met in the huddle breathing fire, per Foster: “We were steamed. I mean … wow. But you know what? We had to take control from the refs. We had to take it into our hands. […]

Celebrating the holiday season in Black & Gold!

It’s not just another monthly Fan Photos post, at this time of year we’ve given it a festive holiday flair! And fans aren’t just decorating it Steelers Style this year, they are living it:


Cutest little elf!

“Our son Wyatt enjoying his first Steelers Christmas, Black & Gold tree and all!” — Jaime & Cy Greer

Steelers training camp in December?


That’s what Sarah Swenson thinks about when she attends camp during the summer!

“I picked a photo from each training camp visit I’ve made and had an ornament made. I have 2 on my tree now and just need to have 1 made from this year’s trip. Thought you might enjoy my festive tree.” — Sarah

A Steelers Family Christmas card!


John & Rochelle Kenny and their daughter Arielle pose in their favorite jerseys. John was born and raised in Mt. Oliver on the South Side.

“I married into the dynasty 15 years ago and root for the team 365 days of the year whether we are having a good season or not.” — Rochelle

Is that a….a shoe in the family Christmas tree?


Yes, it is! This is Mary Rafail’s shoe…or rather Ben’s shoe! Mary was one of Ben’s Birthday Wishes Drawing winners back in September of 2011. She decided her autographed shoe from Ben needed to take center stage on her Steelers tree!

“I love my Ben shoe. It is the center of my home, lol! My husband has a signed photo of him, and one of Dick Butkus, and a football signed by Mike Singletary…but my Ben shoe is the most popular of all! Everyone wants to touch it!” — Mary

You can see Mary posing with her birthday shoe here! You can see a full photo of her Shoe Tree here!



Wait! There’s more holiday cheer!

We have four pages of some of the best looking Steelers Christmas trees, a wreath, a rather overzealous elf, and of course, the best fans in the world dressed for the season all right here.

We also have some adorable Lil’ […]

“Wausau PD is very proud of its K-9 program for the integral part it plays in our drug prevention and enforcement efforts. With the financial support from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, Wausau Police will expand the K-9 program and have a larger impact on our community. We will continue to aggressively enforce drug laws to make Wausau a great place to live and visit. We are very grateful for the generosity of the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation. Additionally, we want to thank the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin for being the fiscal agent of this grant.” — Wausau Police Chief Jeff Hardel.

Today, Ben announced that his Foundation, in association with The Giving Back Fund, will be distributing a grant to the Wausau Police Department, approximately 90 minutes east of Green Bay where the Steelers will play the Packers on Sunday, December 22nd.

The Wausau Police Department will use the grant to purchase and train a new K-9 for their unit.

During the 2013-14 NFL season, the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation will be distributing grants to K-9 units of police and fire departments in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers. The Foundation will also distribute several grants to the Pittsburgh area and will consider a grant to a non-NFL market city in the United States for each playoff game in which the Steelers compete. The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation invited police and fire departments across the country to submit proposals detailing their needs.

This marks the seventh season that the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units. The mission of the Foundation 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 and the Foundation also strive to support Make-A-Wish.

The Foundation distributed more than $135,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2012 NFL season and has distributed in excess of $1 million since 2007.

In commenting on why the mission of the foundation is so important to him, Ben said, “We’re very fortunate to be in the position that we are able to help these K-9 units. The work that is performed by the dogs and their handlers as well […]

“I’m just trying to play this game and this snap. This is a physical game, as we see every week. You’ve got to take it one play at a time. I’m going to give everything I have on every play and if that leads to me playing every play, then we can talk after the season about what it felt like.” — Ben

Highlights from Steelers.com:


How far would you say the no-huddle has come this year? Are you guys constantly adding to it as the year has gone on?

Yeah, we’re tweaking things, changing things, adding things and taking things out. I think it’s come a long way. I think it’s evolved for the better.



Impressions of going to Lambeau Field:

I don’t yet. I’m excited, obviously, all of the rich history, the tradition. From what I saw from the forecast, I’ll get the full effect of it. Just excited to go up and to be a part of something that has been around, and the people that have played there, it will really be neat.


Were you there in 2005?

No, I wasn’t. I had my knee surgery a couple days before that so they didn’t want me to fly. No flying after surgery, so I stayed at home and watched it on TV.


Have you thought much about the Super Bowl since then?
Nope.


Not even this week?

Nope. [Smiles]


Not even looking at film?

Nope. [Laughs]


Are you lying to me right about now?

Maybe. [Laughs] How do you not? The Green Bay media asked me the same thing and it’s, “What do you remember?” I said, “Losing.” That’s all that matters. That’s all you remember from a game like that. It’s here and now. That was a few years ago. We’re a different team and they’re a different team. It’s not like let’s go get some payback or revenge or things like that. It’s just let’s go up and take care of the business that we set up to try and take care of.


How have the Packers changed?

They’re a different team. They’ve had some injuries on defense, but they still have some of their main guys – [A.J.] Hawk, Clay [Matthews] and [B.J.] Raji. They’ve got some guys that are going to create some issues for us that we’re just going to have to do the best we […]

“You know me, I think the fans know me – the most important thing to me is wins and losses. To me, personal records are things you look back on when you’re done playing, and say, ‘Wow, that was pretty cool’. But like you said, to break the great Terry Bradshaw’s record…I don’t know exactly what year he he retired (he is told 1983 was his last year), but a record that’s held for 30 years, a record of one of the greatest quarterback’s of all time, and one of the greatest franchises of all time. To be able to break his records means a lot to me.

“I hope that Terry feels the same way, I hope it’s an honor to have someone who has played in one uniform and has played as long as I have. I hope it’s an honor for him to have the record broken. Records are meant to be broken. This past year Zack Dysert, the quarterback for Miami, who is now in Denver, broke some of my records. I texted him and told him ‘congratulations’. I just think it’s really neat that records get broken and by good people…I hate to break a record when we lose though – that kills me.” –Ben, when asked about breaking his own record for single-season completions as well as breaking Terry Bradshaw’s record for touchdowns.

More from KDKA-93.7 The Fan:

Ron Cook asked Roethlisberger if the offense’s recent success is putting to rest the speculation that Offensive Coordinator Todd Haley will not be back in 2014.

“I would think so,” Roethlisberger said. “The points we’re putting up, the production, I would think that that would be enough for people to be like, ‘Relax a little bit.’ and to see that our relationship is more than fine. We have a great relationship. We went to dinner last week. There’s no issues.”

Roethlisberger added that he doesn’t want to see any changes, although he knows there will be some because of free agency and rookies.

Cook asked Roethlisberger about his ability to stay healthyand take every snap through 14 games.

“You do have to get lucky. A great offensive line doesn’t hurt either, and I think that’s part of the reason that I’ve been able to (knock on wood) stay healthy is because I thought they’ve done a great job of protecting […]