Steelers Ben Roethlisberger Is Not A Drama Queen
Rumors flew all over Twitter today about Ben Roethlisberger having a fractured bone in his wrist/hand. The ensuing tweets ranged from disbelief to horror that for Steelers fans, their franchise QB might not be on the field for the Bengals game. Those reactions are natural. What I didn’t get were numerous comments of “Here we go again.” “Damn drama queen.” came rolling out. Really? Drama queen?
Will Carroll, injury guru and regular reporter for Bleacher Report said on Wednesday morning that sources close to Roethlisberger say that he suffered a fractured hamate in his hand/wrist on Sunday against the Saints. That kind of injury is usually reserved for baseball players, but is not all that uncommon in other sports. What is unique about that injury is that for intents and purposes, Big Ben can still play. His accuracy just might come into question as the fracture would impact his grip on the ball just as it begins to leave his fingers – usually causing passes to sail high.
Whether you want to believe this “report” or not – it has been refuted by the Steelers and by Ben himself – is a secondary issue. What really bugs me is the fact that many out there feel that this kind of overblown injury report is standard during the Roethlisberger era in Steeler Nation. I just don’t understand where that comes from.
Most certainly, Ben gets hurt. A lot. He takes lots of hits a season, and that takes a toll on the body. But, Ben never really puts that out there on his sleeve. Throughout his career he’s never really pointed to an ailment, no matter how serious or trivial, and said that was the thing that kept him from winning the game. He’s a leader and champion, and that’s not something leaders and champions do.
I think what makes people feel inclined to gripe about Big Ben’s less than big deal injury rap sheet is that folks in the media make a huge deal about it. All of it. All the time. There are times that Roethlisberger has stepped up with the heroics by playing through an injury. No one can deny that he manned up back in 2011 when he suffered a high ankle sprain in Cleveland during the first half. He hobbled around the field for entire second half and still threw the game winning touchdown. The following week, much to the dismay of fans (and maybe even coaches), Roethlisberger was out there against the 49’ers. The cast did little to aid his ability to hobble around the field. It was pretty ballsy… dumb… but ballsy to go up a very good blitzing defense when you can’t even beat a 90 year old on a 10 yard dash. The media had a field day with that stuff. For two solid weeks, and then some. Roethlisberger? He wanted nothing to do with talking about his ankle.
The media feasts on the fear and potential for disaster. The Steelers have leaned on their QB for years. This team lives and dies on the field by how #7 performs. Performance changing injury that could tank a team’s season? You better believe they’ll be all over it. Ben’s one of the Ironmen in the NFL, and he pays the price for a consistently bad pass protecting offensive line. I’ve lost count on how many times since 2006 I’ve seen CBS or FOX pull up a graphic that shows a silhouette of a football player meant to be Roethlisberger that’s tagged with injuries sustained over a season or multiple seasons. Is he driving that narrative? Hell no. We hear the same things when Manning or Brady or Brees or Rodgers become injured… although that doesn’t happen as often because (shocker) they have offensive lines that actually protect their QB.
So please, if you’re one of those fans (or trolls) out there who think this is just another concoction of Big Ben trying to get attention – you need to check yourself and maybe screw your head on a little tighter. That kind of thing is being pushed by the major media outlets and janks like Mike Florio. Big Ben doesn’t care for talking about what ails him. He plays through just about anything, and I think many who think he’s an attention seeking drama queen forget that. They also forget that if they had a guy like Phillip Rivers playing for them, he’d be hauled off on a stretcher by now…. and we’d be left with Landry Jones. :cold shudder:
Think about that.