View Full Version : The Pittsburgh Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger
HMC8404,
I am orginally from PA, actually Western PA. So I know all about the Steeler craze, except I would rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon than route for Big Ben. But my whole family is a BIG steeler fan. Things have gone downhill since Terry was the QB.
My two favorite players on the Steelers today are (in order but barely beating each other out) ...
Hines Ward and Ben Roethlisberger!
http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060903/060903_Roethlisberger_vmed_4p.widec.jpg
I'm extremely curious why you wouldn't root for Ben?
Can I ask a few personal questions to help fill in the blanks?
What is the foundation for your dislike of him?
What are your connections to western PA and where have you been living since?
How long have you been away from the Western PA area?
Who is your husband's favorite team?
If things went "downhill" since Terry as you say, then please answer these questions:
1. Why has there been such a consistent history of us going to the playoffs and AFCC games "since TB"?
2. How could we have possibly attended two additional Super Bowls since TB if that were true?
3. And how in God's great name did a 5th Lombardi gain residency over at Heinz Field in the Great Hall if that were true?
This diehard Steelers fan has an inquiring mind. ;)
I will politely and completely disagree with you that things have "gone down hill" and not only was I a native Pittsburgher before I joined the Navy, but I am a current Pittsburgher now living and working here on the north shore. I can literally turn around right now and look out my window here at work and see Heinz Field within walking distance I am that close. Educate me please.
newnavywife1
01-17-2008, 07:30
HMC8404
I was born and raised in Franklin Pennsylvania. I am been gone from PA since September. I am currently living in North Carolina since this is where my husband has been stationed.My whole family still lives there. I will admit, I had/have a steelers jacket, and such.
Although my foundations are silly and a little crazy for not liking Big Ben, I have no problem sharing them. First of all. I think that he is a cocky, self centered, arrogant person. Even though I have not personally met him, that is just the way he comes across to me. Second the most silly reason is because my whole family loves him and I just have to be different and not. Big Ben, just thinks that he is so much better than the rest of the team, and how dare anyone think that he's not.
My husbands favorite team is the Giants. My favorite team is the Tennessee Titans, but lately I have gotten more into watching the Giants than I have the Titans.
Your right there has been a consistent history of them going to the playoffs and the AFCC games since "TB", but I feel as the coaches and other players.. i.e. Hines Ward, Burress, Bettis, and a lot more have contributed to the reasons that they made those games more than just Big Ben. I think that Ben needs to wake up and realize that he is replaceable just like Stewart was. I can seriously hope that Mike Tomlin will "tame" him a little. But don't get me started on Stewart, that is a whole other subject that gets under my skin.
I know I am going to get a couple of raised eyebrows, but I would love to get to see a game there. I actually cried when they tore down Three Rivers.
Okay, so maybe what I should have said was even though they have won one for the Thumb and yes, it appears to be that they are better than before Ben, there is noone who in my eyes, can compare to TB and the steelers of the 70's and 80's.
I hope this answers your questions.
I think I'll just jump right in and give a very big oorah to newnavywife1. (http://corpsman.com/forum/member.php?u=706)
Yep ... you answered my questions just fine with these two sentences ...
Second the most silly reason is because my whole family loves him and I just have to be different and not.
My favorite team is the Tennessee Titans
... that said it all. So I'll group you in with all the other "I have to be different" folks running around town right now, too ... although I never met you ... you just seem "cocky".
Get my point?
Really Cocky = Philip Rivers running around and yelling up at the fans. You'd never see Big Ben do that. You never hear Ben throwing his Oline under the bus when a game is lost like you hear other QBs ... but EVERY DAMNED QB better have some cockiness in him or he's not worth the spit of being a QB. TB was one of the "cockiest" QBs going back in the 70s. You were barely alive for most of it and didn't watch it play out as I did! Because you don't live here anymore and because they're not "your team" you probably didn't watch the 75th's Team show where they had all the players voted on the team there and Terry himself talks about his "cockiness" and how all QBs better have that. How about don't get me talking about Kordell either ... that's a waste of talent that could've been good had he listened to his coaches and played to his strengths which was NOT being a QB.
But you said it ... you're not a Steelers fan. You're a Titties fan.
Case closed.
Tony? You hush up now.
Someone better tell the owner of the Panthers the Steelers have gone downhill .... ;)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson said Wednesday he never considered firing coach John Fox and general manager Marty Hurney, and is convinced the duo can put the struggling franchise back in the playoffs.
In a rare meeting with reporters, Richardson confirmed the two men will return next season, but suggested the team will make many personnel moves after consecutive non-winning seasons.
"I asked them what they thought they wanted our football team to look like," Richardson said. "They told me and I said it's real important that we all agree. We agreed."
Richardson said the plan involves emulating the hard-nosed style of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"You know how I feel about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Rooney family," Richardson said. "I would like for the Carolina Panthers and our team, and our work, and the way we operate our team, to emulate the Pittsburgh Steelers -- and John and Marty know that."
Da-Chief
01-17-2008, 10:38
I love it when women get nuts about football.. My Grandmother (God rest her soul) was the president of the Raider Boosters in Oakland CA.. back in the 70's.. (I still have her gavel!)
My advice Tony.. it's like watching Cougars Fight stand back..
HAH!
Darrell
8404 Shouts, "Girl Fight" while everyone encircles the two woman and watches.
And I thought Big Ben was that clock located in somewhere, USA.
I love it when women get nuts about football.
You've got men in tight fitting pants ... whats NOT to love about football for the healthy female Darrell? http://www.landofmarbles.com/phpbb/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif
Nuts? lol ... I was born and raised in the Steel City. Being a diehard Steelers fan was my birth right! That goes beyond gender in this blue collar working town! Did you also know that the team with the most female fans happens to be the Pittsburgh Steelers? Just some facts at ya.
Maybe I am a little "overboard" at times. I do have a "Steelers Room" in my house. All four walls and the ceiling are bedecked with blackngold. The ceiling is covered with pennants from each super bowl ... yeah, even XXX, along with MVP and standout performance pennants (Ben's rookie of the year, Hines MVP for XL, etc). The back wall is my "Wall of Fame" with various pictures of Steelers past and present surrounding this large banner hung in the middle of the wall ... http://www.pinatas.com/photos/NFLBPS-0.jpg. Some people think that they're "fatheads" ... but the truth is that they're not. Long before "fathead" wall mountings, I was cutting out posters of my Steelers so that it was just the man himself and all that crap that makes the rest of the poster was thrown away. I also bought pictures of players, actual photographs of them and cut them out as well.
On another wall I have various license plates I've had on my vehicles over the years mounted along with a variety of plaques, wall hangings, helmets, ticket stubs, and other miscellaneous collectables that can be mounted.
http://spln.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/p3400950reg.jpg
I have one of these clocks ... and I can go on.
My furniture in there is black with several different Steeler throws and pillows.
Naturally you can't hang curtains in a Steeler room so I did something else ... I already had mini blinds in the window -- that was enough, so around the window I made a yellow goal post. Each post is to one side of the window, another post sits below it with an extension to the floor. Now that idea I really liked!
I could go on and on ... but maybe I'll just take a couple of pictures of it and post it one day.
Just trust me ... nuts? Its a passion since I was a kid! I'd play it, too. I can't tell you how many times I stoved my fingers catching a pig under the street lamp at 11 oclock at night refusing to quit because it got dark.
My Grandmother (God rest her soul) was the president of the Raider Boosters in Oakland CA.. back in the 70's.. (I still have her gavel!)
Then she wouldn't like me for sure. You know her Raiders and my Steelers were fierce rivals back then. To this day I still hold a very strong distaste for Madden and his horrible "snot rag" days (that man was always blowing into his huge hankie in his damned pocket)!
8404 Shouts, "Girl Fight" while everyone encircles the two woman and watches.
And I thought Big Ben was that clock located in somewhere, USA.
No Tony ... that Big Ben is a clock in London my dear man ... LONDON, ENGLAND!
http://www.cepolina.com/freephoto/f/Europe.England.London/Big.Ben.clock.jpg (http://www.cepolina.com/freephoto/ab/a-Big.Ben.clock-England.htm)
Well shucks, I told ya I didn't know much, ha ha ha
8404 walks home, tight pants and all ......................................sigh!
newnavywife1
01-17-2008, 16:27
WHOOPS!! Looks like I started a fight with my comment. But please HMC8404, DO NOT group me in with the rest of the "I have to be different" category. Even though I may not like Big Ben and the Steelers, I do like some of the players on the team. Troy P, Hines Ward, and Fast Willie are a couple of my favorites. I also agree that the Rooneys are great owners, I just wish that Ole Man Rooney was still alive so that he could see what a mess the last couple of years with Stewart and Big Ben have done. With Stewart and the scandals and Ben with the motorcycle wreck.. and lack of license..
And yes I do love football. I think I love it more than AVT.
newnavywife1
01-17-2008, 16:28
Aww 8404... don't take your toys and leave us.. lol
I need ya on my side
WHOOPS!! Looks like I started a fight with my comment. But please HMC8404, DO NOT group me in with the rest of the "I have to be different" category.
Well you didn't start a "fight" ... but I"ll grant you this ... you did shine a huge spotlight on your ignorance on my team. I can't take lack of knowledge as anything other than ignorance on the topic. I have dealt with far too many Browns, Bengals, Cowboy, Raiders, and lately, *Patriot fans who know how to have a good smack down over football, and they have gone miles further than you.
I highly doubt you read up on my team as much as I do ... the good and the bad. I can't "fight" with someone who lacks the common knowledge neccesary to even argue with. It sounds like you're still stuck on rumor mills.
Even though I may not like Big Ben and the Steelers, I do like some of the players on the team. Troy P, Hines Ward, and Fast Willie are a couple of my favorites. I also agree that the Rooneys are great owners, I just wish that Ole Man Rooney was still alive so that he could see what a mess the last couple of years with Stewart and Big Ben have done. With Stewart and the scandals and Ben with the motorcycle wreck.. and lack of license..
What "scandals" of Stewart do you speak of? Because someone called him gay? Hell ... they call everyone gay. Lately even Brady Quinn because of this picture here (he is the one on the right grabbing the dude's crotch)...
http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/resources/2007/05/yipesbrady.jpg
If you didn't know who Brady Quinn was, then that illustrates my point on lack of football knowledge to really smack down about the sport. If all you have is old "hearsays" that are stuck in your memory banks ... things you never bothered to look up on and read into the stories? Then you shouldn't repeat them as if they are gospel truth.
Anyway, calling someone a fag is a common derogatory comment thrown out by many fans. There was never any truth to that. Had there been it would have been a matter of public record if that were true of that incident back then. Just like you hear of all the Bengals being in the news for their arrests last year or ... or ... Pacman Jones of your Titans. In fact ... after being suspended for over half of last season you'd think he'd have learned his lesson ... but here he is in the news again this month accused of accosting a woman in a "strip club" on Jan 3rd.
So Big Ben likes riding motorcycles. Wow ... I wonder how many others on this board alone like that as well? He is not alone in enjoying the thrill of riding a bike. Several NFL QBs have over the years. Just because a lady in Pittsburgh made an illegal turn into traffic cutting him off you're going to smack on him when he was seconds from dying? Damn that's cold woman! Although it may be wrong, it's not uncommon for NFL players to have their licenses in their home states only. A lot of them simply either forget or skip getting another license in the states their either playing in or just visiting. He was wrong there and admitted it. After his accident several other players admitted to doing the same thing and put away their bikes. But the Steelers are going downhill because a player likes riding a motorcycle? Thats a lame reason to dislike a kid who came into the NFL wearing PFJ on his shoes all the time. Well, he wrote "PFJ" on his shoes every game until he was told by the NFL that he wasn't permitted to do that. Do you know the story about that? It's something he's worn on his shoes through high school and college. He "Plays For Jesus" ... and when he gets a touchdown and it looks like he's pointing #1? He's not. He's pointing to heaven for two reasons: #1 God and #2 for his mom. His mother who was killed in an auto accident on her way to visit him for the weekend. She let his father raise him because of his connections with sports and she would have the visitations with him on weekends. On a weekend she was enroute to visit with him, while he was outside playing football with his stepmom outside waiting for her, the news came about her accident and death. He was in high school. She had great faith in her son and that death really sent him on a spiritual journey. He's a very spiritual guy. Do you know anything about Ben Roethlisberger at all? I mean really know anything? Just remember you're talking to someone who owns many books on the Steelers, including Dan Rooney's latest.
In that book Dan talks about fighting to get Ben. He talks about how he regretted staying silent when his father was letting Johnny Unitas go when he believed we should keep him. If you don't know who Johnny Unitas was look that one up ... one of the best QBs ever in NFL history. He talks about how he stayed silent during the draft when we passed over Dan Marino, a hometown kid right out of Oakland and PITT, even though he felt it was a mistake. Then he goes on to say how he was IN NO WAY going to be silent on a kid who fit into the Pittsburgh Steelers framework for character, ability and integrity ... Ben Roethlisberger.
Do you have any idea about the rigorous screening exam that players take before becoming a Steeler? The Steelers are known for their tenacity of being picky over players. It's quite the pyschological screening exam ... meant to filter out the thugs and punks. The Steelers do not tolerate that stuff ... unlike your Titans or the Bengals or the Cowboys of past.
You need to put down the Inquirer and read real news worthy articles because all you're doing is spouting off second hand gossip. That's not fighting ... that's just being uneducated.
Because you don't know who Ben Roethlisberger is ... let me educate you.
This One's For Hep
Ben Roethlisberger and Terry Hoeppner vowed to come back together from injury and illness. One didn't make it. Now the Steelers quarterback is playing to honor his old coach and compatriot
Posted: Tuesday October 30, 2007 11:11AM; Updated: Tuesday October 30, 2007 11:14AM
http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2007/writers/lee_jenkins/10/30/big.ben1105/p1_roethlisberger.jpg
Ben Roethlisberger keeps one copy of the poem folded in the console of his car. He keeps another framed above the desk in his house. He had a third laminated for the inside of his locker, just in case he ever needs to recite a line before wind sprints.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you never can tell how
close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the fight when you're
hardest hit;
It's when things seem worst
that you mustn't quit
The poem, entitled Don't Quit, is standard motivational fare, the kind that football teams silk-screen onto T-shirts during training camp. But the words are not nearly as important to Roethlisberger as the man who used to read them aloud. Terry Hoeppner taught Roethlisberger the poem long before either of them really needed it. When Hoeppner was the coach at Miami (Ohio) University and Roethlisberger was his quarterback, Hoeppner would recite it until his players rolled their eyes.
Then, in 2006, the poem took on new meaning. After Roethlisberger suffered multiple facial fractures in a June motorcycle accident and Hoeppner suffered a recurrence of a brain tumor, Don't Quit became a mantra for a quarterback and a coach both plagued by clouds of doubt.
During one of many hospital visits, Roethlisberger and Hoeppner struck a pact: If one of them made it back onto the field, so would the other. "We talked about it a lot," Roethlisberger says. "We even called ourselves the Comeback Kids. We were going to return -- together -- and be successful together."
On June 19, 2007, Hoeppner died of complications from the brain tumor, leaving behind a wife, three children and four grandchildren. Roethlisberger, having lost his partner on the comeback trail, decided he'd play the 2007 season for both of them. Of course, he has other motivation too. Last year, in addition to the motorcycle wreck, he underwent an appendectomy, suffered a concussion on the field, threw 23 interceptions, missed the playoffs and fell from the ranks of the NFL's top quarterbacks.
But Roethlisberger is at his best when relegated to the margins, as he's proved ever since he was the third quarterback taken in the 2004 draft. So he doesn't want anyone to notice that the Steelers are 5-2 this season, have outscored opponents 184-91 and have climbed back into the conversation in the AFC. Despite having a rookie coach, Mike Tomlin, the Steelers don't look much different from other recent Pittsburgh teams. Vicious defense? Check. Battering ground attack? Check. The main difference is the quarterback's suddenly expanded role.
Under Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers' offensive coordinator until he was named the Arizona Cardinals' coach last January, Roethlisberger was given the game plan and basically told not to muck it up. Under Bruce Arians, Whisenhunt's successor, the quarterback helps create the game plan and is encouraged to tweak it when he sees fit. "It is definitely a change," Roethlisberger says. "It gives you a lot more confidence to know that your coach believes in you."
The Steelers are not quite in the class of the Patriots and the Colts this season, and Roethlisberger is not yet in the same class as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. But he is himself again. Over Roethlisberger's first seven games last year (he missed the opener), he had seven touchdown passes, 14 interceptions and a 72.2 rating. This year, in seven games, he's thrown 15 TDs and just six interceptions, and his rating is 102.2. He looks bigger than he did last season but just as nimble -- still able to sidestep pressure, skip out of the pocket and throw on the move.
His only regret is that Hoeppner is not around to nitpick his footwork. "He always used to tell me I was overstriding," Roethlisberger says. "I think about that every time I miss a pass. So I guess that means I think about him every day."
They met in the summer of 1999, when Hoeppner was in his first year as coach at Miami and Roethlisberger was coming off his junior year at Findlay (Ohio) High, where he'd spent the season as a receiver, catching passes from his coach's son. At Miami's football camp for high schoolers, Hoeppner noticed that the big wideout also threw a pretty nice pass.
Findlay's coaches had noticed too. Roethlisberger was the jayvee quarterback as a freshman and sophomore, and he earned the varsity job in his senior year. After he tossed six touchdown passes in his debut, against Elida High, Hoeppner hurriedly offered him a scholarship. By the time Ohio State called the following month it was too late.
"The relationship between Ben and Terry was like father-son," says Shane Montgomery, an assistant under Hoeppner at Miami and now the RedHawks' coach. "Actually, it was beyond father-son." When Roethlisberger left Miami for the NFL after his junior season, Hoeppner accompanied him to the draft ceremony in New York City. After Roethlisberger joined the Steelers, he would call Hoeppner on the Friday before every game. And when Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle on June 12, 2006, Hoeppner drove from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh and camped out in the quarterback's room at Mercy Hospital.
By then Hoeppner was the coach at Indiana. Six months earlier doctors had removed a tumor from his right temple, but he'd been back on the field for spring practice. If he could recover, so could his old quarterback. "You are going to be O.K.," Hoeppner told Roethlisberger in the hospital room. "You are going to be great."
They both spent the fall of 2006 shuttling from football fields to doctors' offices. Roethlisberger had the appendectomy in September and suffered the concussion in October. Hoeppner's second brain tumor was diagnosed in September, and he had another operation shortly thereafter. He returned to the Hoosiers' sideline two weeks later. Both men finished out their seasons, neither too successfully: Roethlisberger had a career-low 75.4 passer rating as the Steelers went 8-8 and missed the playoffs; Hoeppner's Hoosiers finished 5-7, and Indiana failed to make a bowl game for the 13th straight season.
Roethlisberger, fully mended, participated in the Steelers' minicamp last May and took a trip to the West Coast in early June. He was in L.A. when Hoeppner, 59, slipped into a coma. Doctors told the Hoeppners to call everyone in the family. Terry's son, Drew, called Roethlisberger.
The quarterback chartered a flight from Los Angeles to Bloomington, Ind., and drove to the hospital. He sat by Hoeppner's bedside, just as Hoeppner had sat by his the previous summer. "It was so right that he was there," says Hoeppner's wife, Jane. "It was so comforting."
Less than a week later, on June 19, Hoeppner died. Roethlisberger, back in Pittsburgh by then, chartered another flight to Bloomington, this time for the memorial service. Several of his former Miami teammates were in Pittsburgh and hitched a ride on his plane to pay their respects to Hoeppner. "That flight was a chance for all of us to be together and reminisce about Coach Hep," says Martin Nance, a former RedHawks receiver now on the Minnesota Vikings' practice squad. "I'll always appreciate that Ben gave us that experience."
Roethlisberger does not believe he will ever relate to another coach the way he did to Hoeppner. Who else would trust him so implicitly? Who else would support him so thoroughly? Who else would have given him a scholarship based on one game?
Bruce Arians does not give out scholarships, but he does deal in trust and support. For the past three years he was the Steelers' receivers coach, which meant he usually studied Roethlisberger from 20 yards away. But when the Steelers hired Tomlin to succeed Bill Cowher as coach last January, Arians was promoted to offensive coordinator. He was charged with spreading the field, incorporating the tight ends -- and playing a little golf with Roethlisberger on the side.
One day in May, Arians and Roethlisberger were coming off the 7th green at Treesdale Golf & Country Club in Gibsonia, Pa., discussing formations, when the coach stopped talking about pieces of the puzzle and drew the big picture. "I want you to know something," he said. "This is not my offense. From now on this is your offense."
Roethlisberger had been waiting to hear those words since he left Coach Hep and Miami. For the three previous seasons the Steelers had been Cowher's team, and the offense Whisenhunt's. Roethlisberger would run the system, not question it. Under Whisenhunt, Roethlisberger typically got the game plan when he arrived at the team facility on Wednesday morning. Under Arians, Roethlisberger is at the facility on Monday and Tuesday helping to create the game plan. The final draft is faxed to his home on Tuesday night. "It feels great to know your coaches have trust in you and will sit down and talk to you," Roethlisberger says.
Arians picked a strange time to let Roethlisberger loose. The quarterback was coming off his worst season. But here was a chance to show trust, to offer support. Arians basically handed Roethlisberger the playbook last spring and let him edit it. Roethlisberger slashed some plays and renamed others, coming up with terminology that is easier for him to spit out in the huddle. He used acronyms and word associations. A Post In Comeback route, for instance, became PIC.
In training camp Roethlisberger went 12 practices without an interception. Coaches compared him to a pitcher working on a no-hitter. Charlie Batch, the Steelers' backup quarterback, stood on the sideline and said to himself, Ben is back.
In Week 1 of the season, at Cleveland, Roethlisberger called protections for the first time in his pro career and was free to change plays at the line of scrimmage. He responded with four touchdown passes as the Steelers trounced the Browns 34-7. "He's becoming a Peyton Manning-type quarterback, making calls and checks," says Browns defensive end Orpheus Roye.
Roethlisberger does not like flattery. He prefers to be told that his passing yards are down and his fantasy ratings are low and that someone, somewhere, is saying he'll never be the same. "I like being the underdog," he says. That might sound unlikely for a quarterback who won a Super Bowl in just his second season, but at 25, Roethlisberger has already traced the full arc of sports celebrity: rapid rise, dramatic fall and now rustlings of another ascent.
Teammates who were skeptical of him during the rise were inspired by how he handled the fall. When the Steelers went 15-1 in 2004 and won the Super Bowl the next season, Roethlisberger was probably given more credit than he deserved. But when they went 8-8 last season, he unquestionably shouldered more than his share of blame. "We didn't want him to take the brunt of it, but he did anyway," says tackle Max Starks. "He stepped up and took the responsibility on his own accord. He became that seasoned veteran. He is now ready, finally, to assume the leadership position here."
In years past Roethlisberger could barely be heard over running back Jerome Bettis and linebacker Joey Porter, Pittsburgh's loquacious leaders. Now that Bettis has retired and Porter is in Miami, Roethlisberger's is one of the few familiar voices left. The Steelers need him to speak up.
Before a game against San Francisco in September, as the Steelers stretched on their half of Heinz Field, Roethlisberger ran from one teammate to another, shaking everybody's hand before kickoff. After the game he waited in the tunnel to the locker room to make sure everybody was inside for the postgame meeting. "When we got him, he was a young guy thrust onto a veteran team, and he was given a pretty short leash," says Bettis, now an NBC analyst. "But the new staff has given him more of the reins. He's been given input. And whenever you're given input, it gives you ownership. You can see that carry over to the way he plays."
Arians and Roethlisberger talk about formations in the lunch room, the training room and the office hallway. Their offense may still need work, but their rapport does not. "I know how much Coach Hoeppner meant to him," Arians says. "That's not a relationship we have yet. I don't know if we ever will. But I hope it grows into that."
On Oct. 13, before Miami played its homecoming game against Bowling Green, the RedHawks held a ceremony to retire Roethlisberger 's number 7 jersey. He stood on the field, his parents on one side of him, Jane Hoeppner on the other. "The big unspoken was who was not there," Jane says.
Before the ceremony Jane presented Roethlisberger with another jersey, one that he had been trying to find for years: the old number 20 that Hoeppner wore as a defensive back and halfback at Franklin College.
"Terry's presence was so great that day," Jane says. "We both sensed it."
Fittingly, Roethlisberger was not the only one being celebrated. Miami also honored Hoeppner with a plaque that will hang inside the Cradle of Coaches Plaza at Yager Stadium, alongside those commemorating such illustrious predecessors at Miami as Paul Brown, Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. Jane was given a replica of the plaque for her house.
She still lives in Bloomington and keeps a number 7 Steelers' jersey on her wall. Every month or so she sends Roethlisberger a box filled with mementos that her husband would have wanted him to have. She tries to watch the Steelers on television but usually gets the Colts' broadcast, so she monitors Pittsburgh's scores on the Web. Jane Hoeppner is planning to take her children to Heinz Field to see Roethlisberger play the Bengals on Dec. 2. By then the Comeback Kid just might be the comeback player of the year.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...105/index.html (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/lee_jenkins/10/30/big.ben1105/index.html)
The things you hear when you're out and about ... here's something else on Ben for you ...
Saturday, 11/3, I went up to Mt. Pleasant to visit my mother and stepfather.
My Mom had my daughter's birthday present for us to come and get, and it was a great time to go out for an Autumn's drive to see the leaves. So, I had made plans with my mom to visit with her as well as drive around and look at the leaves. She suggested that we drive up to Shanksville as well to visit ground zero since I haven't been there yet. She talked about the country side up there being beautiful this time of year. So we made plans for my daughter and I to arrive around 10am and have brunch along the way at a place my mother suggested; the Oakhurst Tea Room in Sommerset (http://www.oakhursttearoom.com/cfms/index.cfm). I said sure. So up we went and as you can see by the link I provided above, the Oakhurst Tea Room was a nice quant stop and the breakfast buffet excellent! I had NO IDEA that I would hear for myself yet another story of our young Ben Roethlisberger ... very BC (before crash), to dispell the "uppity" and "cocky" stereotypes some have slapped on him in the media.
You pay for the brunch after you're done and leave your table. As I walked out front I went to the wrong area. As I stood there waiting for someone I looked at all the STEELERS STUFF displayed on the wall there (old signs, flags, banners, etc)! Naturally that stuff grabs my attention wherever I go. As I looked at everything a framed picture hanging on the wall caught my eye. It was a picture of a bunch of people wearing Steelers gear ... and then I saw him ... Ben Roethlisberger standing in the middle of the back row towering over everyone else in the picture. As I was inspecting this picture I heard an older man's voice call me to another counter and I followed. As I paid I asked him about the picture.
He told me that Ben and several other Steelers have homes near Seven Springs and stop in from time to time. On that particular day he, the manager, had a group upstairs celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary. Because the husband had been a diehard Steeler fan all his life his children made it a Steeler-Themed party and everything was black and gold and everyone was wearing Steeler jerseys.
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2006/0612/roethlisberger_275.jpg
While this group was upstairs celebrating ... talk about great timing! Up rode Ben on his motorcycle with a bunch of his motorcylce buddies (to which I quickly butted into the story and asked if this was before the crash which the man confirmed it was). He said that Ben and friends were seated and served in the main section on the first floor diningroom.
At this time the manager made a point to mention to me that his staff is told to strictly 'not' gush over any Steelers asking for autographs and to ensure their privacy, treat them as any other guest, and make sure other customers respect their space.
He went on to say that when Ben's group were finishing their meal, one of Ben's buddies got up to pay the tab. As this buddy was standing at the counter paying for the meal he noticed all of the people wearing Steelers gear walking around back and forth from upstairs to the restroom on the first floor. So he asked what was going on and when the manager told Ben's friend, the guy went back and told Ben. Ben then approached the manager and asked if he could go up and wish the couple a happy anniversary, to which they obviously said "YES!" Ben went up and joined the party signing autographs, posing for many pictures, as well as mingling with them for over half an hour. Let me repeat that because the manager made sure to do the same to me ... he repeated it as if still amazed that Ben actually stayed visiting with them for "half an hour" before leaving with his buddies on their motorcycles. A young kid out with his motorcycle buddies stops and pays attention to an elderly couple and their family celebrating 50 years of marriage.
I wasn't surprised by this and even laughed with the manager and told him that I have had conversations about the rumors that Ben "isn't sociable" and we both agreed that it only takes one bad day in public where that kind of a rumor can get started. Lord knows I've had my bad days in public ... ;)
So, there you go ... a true story and I saw the picture to prove it. My daughter heard the whole thing, too. Better yet ... get the story straight out of the manager's mouth himself and place a call.
I guess what I'm saying is this ... don't judge someone because you heard something. Would you really want someone to do the same of you? If you don't want me to group you into that group "I have to be different" ... just think of what you're doing to Ben based upon what? What really? Because mom and dad and the family like him? Maybe there is a really good reason they do. Seriously!
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