Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger almost retired this past offseason and one of the biggest reasons why is he can’t stand ‘today’s’ player.
It’s not hard to connect the dots on who one of the main culprits is that bothers Roethlisberger to no end.
He let it all out this morning during his appearance on 937 The Fan which is always pure gold from Roethlisberger.
“He got upset because he was open, which I can understand, sometimes that happens. It’s not like I intentionally missed him, it’s not like I intentionally didn’t throw it to him,” Roethlisberger said on 93.7 The Fan. “I was doing what my reads tell me to do, I don’t even want to say I made a mistake, because I was reading the side I was supposed to read. It’s just unfortunate that it happened, and it’s unfortunate that he acted and reacted that way.”
The most striking comment from Roethlisberger was saying how Heath Miller who was the ultimate pro as a teammate would have handled the situation.
“I told him on the sideline, ‘A.B., just come talk to me, ask me what happened, tell me that you were open,” said Roethlisberger. “You know, if that were Heath Miller, I’d probably ask Heath on the sideline, ‘Hey Heath, were you open?’ and he’d probably tell me ‘No’! because he wouldn’t want you to feel bad, that’s just who he was and that goes a lot further than throwing a temper tantrum.”
Roethlisberger even brought up how Brown’s tantrum could have an effect on a young receiver like Juju Smith-Shuster. Roethlisberger’s comments on his weekly radio show then forced it to become a popular subject at Mike Tomlin’s press conference.
Tomlin’s Take on the situation:
“It can be a distraction ,” Tomlin said. “I didn’t see it on Sunday. I heard about it after. You know A.B. is a competitor. And we all know and understand that. It aids him, it aids us. But we’ve got to control it. He has to control it. If he does not, it can work against him. It can work against us. Those are some lessons you learn along the way. Sunday was a big game, obviously for a lot of reasons. Emotions are capable of getting away from you. It doesn’t need to happen, it shouldn’t happen. Hopefully it won’t moving forward. Hopefully he’s learned a lesson through that.
“Hopefully others have learned a lesson through that. I think that’s one of the things that you really have to focus on when you talk about something like that. We’ve got young people on our team, they need to be taught good things, good lessons, ways to conduct themselves as professionals. We all make mistakes. He made a mistake. I’m sure he’s ready to move on from it. But I also think there’s a lesson to be learned or a lesson to be taught there and I hope he addresses that element of it as well as he moves forward.”
Source: 937 The Fan