Super Bowl Sunday. The story lines, the trash talk, the history, the heroes, and finally the plays and players we will always remember. This Sunday’s football comes layered with a little extra something on every play. It is in this light that we need to give a little credit to those who have lead their teams to victory and give a little more credit to those who deserve it. In the beginning of the season I went as far as to say that the Pittsburgh Steelers would not make the playoffs because of them not having their starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger due to some off the field issues that will not be commented on by this blogger as he has taken plenty of grief for his mistakes already. In addition to that Ben Roethlisberger will never be remembered to me as a great off the field person, because no one cares what he does off the field, he’s the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and that is all we really care about.
Roethlisberger has been one of the most consistent quarterbacks in the NFL and has an outstanding record when it comes to games that matter. If Big Ben is able to gain a victory on Sunday he will join an exclusive group that includes both present and future hall of famers. The group is quarterbacks that have won three super bowl titles in their career. Names like Montana, Bradshaw, and even Brady come to mind when thinking about this group. Notice how inside this group you will never find a Manning, Brees, or Rivers. Nothing against those quarterbacks but when it comes to winning the big game those three just aren’t cutting it, however when you ask people around the league who the best quarterbacks are these are most of the names you hear. In a quarterback driven league these quarterbacks may be winning MVPs and putting up huge numbers but they are not helping their teams win titles, which really means more? Manning and Brady continuously put up big numbers every season but only one of them has won more than one super bowl, and there in the background is Big Ben, not a flashy guy, not a trash talker, a guy who goes out and wins football games for his team every Sunday. I mean the guy played his college ball at the University of Miami Ohio, not a Tennessee, not Michigan, or even an NC State. This guy has persevered and even got his subpar college team to win football games.
As a football fan is this what our fan hood has come down to, just being interested in the flashy players and not giving the guys who win football games their due? Big Ben is one of if not the best in the league at winning big football games, he’s right up there with Tom Brady and sure there are people who will argue that Ben has a great defense but when a team loses a big game it’s the quarterback that has a record and a reputation for losing the big games not the defense. If Big Ben wins it might be time to start tipping our caps and giving him a little bit more credit than he’s gotten in the past.
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