Michael Silver
SI.com
Posted: Thursday May 31, 2007 4:45PM; Updated: Thursday May 31, 2007 5:47PM
Ben Roethlisberger and his father, Ken, were driving the quarterback's dogs to the vet the other day in Pittsburgh (supply your own Michael Vick joke here), and the subject turned to the tumult of 2006. They began listing everything the young passer had experienced over the past year -- the life-threatening motorcycle crash, the appendix that nearly burst, the rocky season, the departure of a coaching legend -- and it all felt so overwhelming.
"When you really think back on everything you went through," Ken told his son, "it was a lot of stuff."
That realization triggered a few seconds of contemplative silence from Big Ben, who was driving his new black pickup truck and, for you non-Libertarians who fret about such things, was indeed taking the necessary safety precautions.
"I was wearing my seat belt," he assured me last Sunday during a phone interview. "I even had a helmet and shoulder pads on."
Yes, he was joking about that last part, and that in and of itself is a good thing. As the NFL's youngest quarterback to have captured a Super Bowl tries to re-establish himself as one of the league's brightest young stars, add levity to the long list of attributes that can help him pull it off.
Last season, Roethlisberger was understandably a bit touchy about the gruesome crash that very nearly killed him -- and which, even as he underwent seven hours of surgery with injuries to his jaw, head, sinus cavity, knees and mouth, brought out an ample share of bad-taste yucksters and righteous critics blasting him for not having worn a helmet.
"It kind of sucked," he conceded. "They didn't even know if I was going to be all right, and a lot of people were all over me. They were making jokes about a guy that almost lost his life. I don't know how that's funny, but I guess that's the way it is.
"The good thing is that my friends and I are at the point now where we can laugh about the crash and the appendix and all that stuff. The other day, my buddy Brian tripped and hit his head, and he gets up and yells, 'Damn, I should've been wearing my helmet.' "
Ben Roethlisberger looks forward to having more control of the offense in 2007.
Michael Fabus/WireImage.com
Last season, the competitor in Roethlisberger refused to concede that either the accident or his emergency appendectomy four days before Pittsburgh's season-opening victory over the Miami Dolphins (he returned 10 days after surgery and started the team's final 15 games) took a toll on his performance. His disappointing numbers included a 75.4 passer rating (down from 98.1 and 98.6 in his first two seasons), a league-high 23 interceptions and, most troubling to Big Ben, an 8-8 record that deprived the Steelers of a shot at defending their championship.
Now that he's somewhat removed from the turmoil, Roethlisberger realizes he had a great deal to overcome. And what excites him most about a potentially redemptive 2007 season is that, if all goes according to plan, he'll be asked to assume a greater share of responsibility than ever before. He'll make blocking adjustments at the line of scrimmage and get to show his improvisational flair, honed at Miami of Ohio, with the installation of the no-huddle offense. And he'll be coached by a man, 35-year-old rookie Mike Tomlin, whom he believes implicitly will trust him more than his former boss did.
Thrust into the starting lineup early in his rookie season after then-starter Tommy Maddox's injury, Roethlisberger, straight out of the MAC, accomplished more than any rookie quarterback since Dan Marino 21 years earlier. But even as Big Ben helped guide Pittsburgh to a 15-1 record and an AFC Championship game appearance -- and, in '05, followed up with the team's first Super Bowl victory in 26 years -- he felt he was treated like a little kid by Steelers coach Bill Cowher.
To be fair, it could be argued that Cowher's approach was somewhat merited: Roethlisberger struggled to learn the offense as a rookie, incessantly glancing down at the cheat sheet on his wristband during games and sometimes calling phantom plays in the huddle. His supreme self-confidence was not matched by a commensurate zest for film study, as he admitted to me shortly before Super Bowl XL.
That Cowher had lectured his quarterback about the need to wear a motorcycle helmet long before the horrific crash only reinforced the notion that Roethlisberger was the petulant teenager to The Chin's grumpy dad.
Cowher resigned in January after 15 seasons as Pittsburgh's head coach, and three months later Roethlisberger made some mildly critical comments about his former boss, telling reporters their "relationship wasn't great." In our conversation Sunday he clarified his earlier remarks, saying, "It wasn't the fact that I disliked Cowher. I like Cowher a lot, and I think he respected me. It's just that he'd been there so long, and I was kind of the young kid -- and that's how I was treated.
"I was always going to be that young guy to Cowher. I mean, think about it: He was in the league longer than I was alive. So of course he saw me as someone who needed to be treated that way."
Roethlisberger is aware of the perception that Tomlin is off to a rocky start in Pittsburgh. Many players believed former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or line coach Russ Grimm should have succeeded Cowher, and Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca has made waves with his displeasure over his current contract.
As Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, a Pittsburgh native who is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, told me Wednesday, "They've got a mess up there. They've got a new coach, players questioning whether he should be there. He's got to find a way to demand some respect. I don't know what to expect, to be honest."
There are rumors that many Pittsburgh players are unhappy with new coach Mike Tomlin.
Says Roethlisberger: "Guys were a little nervous at first. But people have been making a big deal about Alan, like everybody's mad and doesn't like Coach Tomlin, and that's not the case. I think the change is cool. The new thing is not necessarily a bad thing. He's come on and kind of brought some new, youthful playfulness to all the guys, and he seems to have brought a new, uplifting spirit."
When the new coach and incumbent quarterback met for the first time, dining at La Tavola Italiana in Pittsburgh, Tomlin told Roethlisberger, "I'm not trying to become your best friend overnight. The friendship, the respect, the lightness in our relationship, that's going to come over time."
Says Roethlisberger: "He's not going to try to force the issue, and I like that. I told [offensive coordinator] Bruce Arians, 'Treat me like a man. That's how I always wanted to be treated. Treat me like a man. You don't have to scream.' And that's the way it has been since Coach Tomlin arrived."
Roethlisberger expects to be more of a team leader this season, if only as part of an evolutionary process that accelerated with the offseason release of linebacker Joey Porter, who had become the team's largest locker-room presence upon halfback Jerome Bettis' retirement following Super Bowl XL.
"People say, 'The starting quarterback's got to be a leader.' I believe that 100 percent," Roethlisberger says. "But I never wanted to step on the toes of the leaders we already had in our locker room -- Jerome Bettis, Hines Ward, Joey Porter, Alan Faneca. Now Jerome's gone and Joey's gone, and my role will increase, though I'm still not going to step on the toes of Hines and Alan. It's all part of the maturation of me."
He may be older and wiser, but Roethlisberger isn't any less confident than he was before his 2006 struggles. "I said this before and I'll say it again -- I had a bad year," he said toward the end of our conversation. "It's probably going to happen again, to be honest." He laughed and continued: "Look at the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and all of them have had a bad season or two or three.
"Do I want to be that quarterback I was two years ago? No. I want to be better."
I extracted a couple of more mildly interesting responses -- yes, he rides his bike every day (with helmet), but it's a bicycle; he says he hasn't ridden a motorcycle since the wreck -- before the subject turned to Whisenhunt, now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, and Grimm, who signed on as Whisenhunt's assistant head coach/offensive line coach after being passed over in Pittsburgh.
Mindful that Super Bowl XLII will be played at the Cardinals' home stadium in Glendale, Ariz., Roethlisberger said, "I wish Whiz and Russ nothing but the best in Arizona. I hope we see them there for the Super Bowl. I mean, we're going to see them one way or another, but I hope they're in the game, too."
And no, this time he wasn't joking.
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