The Problem With Being Ben

Ben Roethlisberger keeps getting asked about his ongoing attempts to improve/correct/repair/distance himself from his previous persona.  This has been getting a lot of traction in the media recently.  Gregg  Giannotti, who must have ZERO sense of irony, spent over an hour on the radio complaining about how much airtime is devoted to knuckleheads talking about Ben’s lifestyle choices.  Roethlisberger himself stated this week that he is making every attempt to be the best teammate, husband and future father he can be.  He told reporters (nicely) that he is making more time for them and is overall, being nicer to the press. So, in the immortal words of Major Frank Burns: “It’s nice to be nice to the nice”. 

Ben has referenced the day of his motorcycle accident as the salient point in his maturation process.  If you were the type person to want to throw silly things like facts around, you might see that there were some uhh, fairly big missteps following the accident.  But hey, I have revised a little bit of my own history so I suppose Ben can do the same.  One event that almost every rational person could point to as a tipping point in Roethlisberger’s path to redemption would be the 4 game suspension to start the 2010 NFL season.  Ben has been on his best behavior since then.  Whether that good behavior is due to finally being able to purge the personal demons from his life or knowing that Roger Goodell can suspend anybody for anything his wishes remains a mystery.

My only concern is that it looks like it takes Ben Roethlisberger a great deal of effort to be nice.

Steeler Nation Speak:  Where do you come down on the Roethlisberger debate?