Another story to throw on the mountain high pile of stories that prove that, either people have an amazing desire to spread lies about Ben Roethlisberger, or he is a bad citizen and a jackass.
I think you know where I stand.
Here’s a lawyer saying he investigated a sexual assault claim against Roethlisberger.
Thanks to profootballtalk.com for the heads up.
Give Ben Roethlisberger credit. He managed to use his first public statement since his birthday party-gone-bad in Georgia to make himself look like even more of a jackass.
We won’t even go into his appearance.
Bob Smizik did a great job of summing it up on his Post-Gazette blog.
He wrote that Ben acted like a guy whose team had just won 48-0 when it was really more like 10-7.
I do want to thank him for asking God to bless me at the end, though. Nice touch.
Here’s something that’s not being talked about enough: The guy came within minutes of dying from head injuries resulting from a motorcycle accident. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Am I nuts or is there a pretty obvious lesson to be learned from that experience?
Not long after recovering from those injuries and not long after seeing and hearing the massive outpouring of sympathy and support from people all over the country, he was seen riding a morotcycle IN PITTSBURGH without a helmet.
Ben Roethlisberger is a lot of things: immature, arrogant, rude, dishonest, narcissistic, but he’s not stupid.
And let’s be clear. The story about Roethlisberger riding without a helmet is not a rumor. It is a fact. There was a video tape but the news director of one of the local TV stations destroyed it.
Do you think the Rooneys know about it? I don’t know. The news director was obviously trying to protect the Steelers from embarrassment when he destroyed the tape. But, did he tell the Rooneys about the tape?
I’m guessing that he did.
Does Roger Goodell know about it? If he doesn’t, shouldn’t somebody tell him before he hears Roethlisberger tell him that he’s sorry and that he’s learned a lesson?
If Roethlisberger is suspended for somewhere between two and four games, will that serve as a wake up call?
For most players, I would think so.
But if coming within a few minutes of dying doesn’t get your attention, what’s missing a few football games going to do?
I’m no lawyer but Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com is and he seems to think that Ben Roethlisberger agreed to a financial settlement with his accuser.
Here’s another excerpt from my forthcoming book, “Just Watch The Game”.
Terry Bradhsaw is the best quarterback in Steelers history and, for that matter, the best quarterback I’ve ever seen.
Bradshaw’s opinion of Ben Roethlisberger is the same as just about everybody else who has met him.
Jackass.
And I’ll bet Bradshaw doesn’t know that, shortly after his motorcycle accident, Roethlisberger went back to riding without a helmet.
By the way, I covered Bradshaw for seven years and I worked with him for two or three. I can honestly say that I have never had one person tell me anything bad about the guy. He’s had some family issues and he’d be the first to tell you that he’s not perfect. And he’d tell you that he screwed up his relationship with Chuck Noll and Steelers fans, but, to this day, I have never had anybody ask me why he’s such an a______.
I couldn’t begin to count the times I’ve been asked that question about Roethlisberger.
I heard enough from the press conference in Georgia to stand by what I said in my original post.
Ben Roethlisberger is a jackass and a bad citizen.
The DA said a couple of times that the victim (Was not using the word alleged a Freudian slip?), despite the decision not to pursue prosecution, has not recanted any of her testimony.
I think any man who has been in close proximity to an underage, female college student who was falling down drunk can draw a pretty good picture of what happened in that bathroom based on what the DA said today.
The constant truth through all of this has been that, no matter the legal ramifications, Ben convicted himself of being a bad guy on that Friday night. Of course, as I’ve said all along, in my mind, he was guilty of that a long time ago.
Eventually, we’ll have access to the letter that her lawyer sent on her behalf to the DA, but it seems pretty obvious that she and her family were not up to pursuing a case that the DA said he couldn’t prove.
Roethlisberger has never been popular among his teammates and none of this is going to make them like him any more. Some of his teammates may, and justifiably so, hold him partially responsible for Santonio Holmes being traded. The two of them did a nice job of pushing the Rooneys to the brink. Maybe, if not for Roethlisberger’s stupidity, they wouldn’t have felt compelled to dump Holmes.
I still have to think that both Dan and Art Rooney would like to get rid of him. Chris Mortensen of ESPN is saying that he thinks Roethlisberger will be suspended by Roger Goodell and/or the Steelers.
The Steelers can’t let the DA’s announcement be the end of this story. Unless they think that they can come up with a convincing argument for trading Holmes for his behavior and letting Ben off the hook.