Craig Wolfley: What is "it"?

SteelersLIVE Xtra
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

I don’t know exactly what “it” is. It’s one of those intangible things that you are hard pressed to measure, weigh or tabulate. Some will refer to it as “that,” after they’ve already seen what it is. Others will use words like confidence, character, leadership, poise, composure and the like. An Ivy Leaguer might refer to it as a winning attitude. All I can tell you is that when you see it, you know it, and that it looks an awful lot like “that” guy, Ben Roethlisberger.

Trying to quantify it would seem to be a relatively easy matter in terms of wins and losses, stats, you know, those sort of rather mundane things. But it is not relegated to mere statistical comparison. Nor is it just a seasonal thing, because it can turn to that in the post-season faster than you can say “That’s what it is!” And even then, it appears more often than not in games where the stakes are the highest, in moments of time where tension and internal combustible pressure the greatest.

Just a minute or so prior to kickoff, as the crescendo in the RCA Dome was building to a ground swelling roar, the offensive unit of the Steelers grouped on the sidelines at the 30 yard line in preparation to take the field after the opening kickoff.

I was standing just a few yards and more than a decade removed from being a part of that mass of high strung players head butting each other like Mountain Goats as they waited to take the field. Watching them, I could feel the remnants of collisions past vibrating in my bones. Once you’ve had that feeling, you never forget. (Especially when you shake your head, and it feels like something is rattling around loose in there, you get those too, don’t you?)

In a stride as calm as a guy taking a stroll in South Park, Big Ben cruises down the sideline away from the boys and stands right in front of me. He stopped, looked up into the swelling mass of humanity in the stands as if he’s just noticed them for the first time, and who for the most part are wishing him ill-will, and slowly a smile breaks across his face and his eyes light up like a child unwrapping his favorite Christmas gift. He then proceeds to start clapping his hands to the rhythm of the mayhem and break out an even bigger smile, as if all the roaring going on in the building were just for him.

Then, after a moment of taking in the near riotous atmosphere of the RCA Dome, he stops to chat with one of the guys on the chain gang, the first down marker guy. He’s joking with the guy! Nodding his head and smiling like a butcher’s dog, Ben’s doing a little give and take with a guy who’s never been there or done that, enjoying himself, and taking in every minute of the hype surrounding him. C’mon, doesn’t this guy understand what’s at stake here, I thought to myself?
Oh, but he does, every bit of it. And that’s when I realized I was looking at it, or that, whatever you want to call it. The ability to focus, the strength to keep your poise, and the quiet confidence of a Christian holding four aces, as Mark Twain would say.

Ten plays and five and a half minutes later Roethlisberger returned to the same, now much quieter, confines of the Steelers bench area after completing six of seven passes, including firing the opening salvo to Randle El in the end zone for six. He didn’t appear to be any more ruffled than when he left.

Craig is co-host of "In The Locker Room with Tunch and Wolf" which can be heard weekdays from 7-10 a.m. on Fox Sports Radio 970. Wolf is also the sideline reporter for the Steelers Radio Network and played for the Steelers from 1980-89.