The Ben Roethlisberger era for the Pittsburgh Steelers concluded with Roethlisberger's retirement following the 2021 season. Roethlisberger received what was nothing short of an amazing send off from Heinz Field following his final home appearance. In a fitting manner he would dispose of the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football ending their playoff hopes. A last second interception by the Steelers Defense would put Roethlisberger back on the field for a final kneel down as emotions ran high throughout the entire stadium.
Jordan Schofield / Steeler Nation (Twitter: JSKO_PHOTO)
Ben Roethlisberger Final Snap at Heinz
His career would ultimately end during the Steelers blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs during wild card weekend. Not exactly the ending anyone wanted, but not everyone gets a Jerome Bettis send off. A few weeks later Roethlisberger would announce his retirement, which was no surprise.
Throughout the past year we've heard Roethlisberger say several times that he felt like he could still play, but the Steelers namely Kevin Colbert didn't want him to return for 2022. Roethlisberger had to take a pay cut prior to the 2021 season just for the Steelers to bring him back for one last year. Had they wanted him back last year would he have played? No one knows.
But today Roethlisberger joined 105.7 The X with host Mark Madden to discuss a variety of topics. Madden asked Roethlisberger about all of the other quarterbacks we've seen throughout the years that have retired only to unretire. And from there Roethlisberger dropped a bombshell confirming a rumor that the San Francisco 49ers did in fact reach out to him after they lost quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for what would be the rest of the season.
"I will say this, last year there were some truths to the 49ers thing," Roethlisberger said. "Just in the sense that they were reaching out for some, just maybe to gauge my interest. So, I had some discussions... I don't want to sit here and say that I was going or anything like that. They called to gauge interest, okay? I had conversations with my agent, my wife, my family, I prayed a lot about it. And you know I'd be lying if there wasn't a small part of me that was intrigued 'like oh man I could still do it'. Like prove to people that I could still do it. But at the end of the day, I just can't see myself in anything other than black and gold."
Back in December, Roethlisberger spoke on the topic, but never said that the 49ers actually called him on an episode of his podcast Footbahlin. He joked about it while pretending to warm up his arm.
Photo Credit: Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger Podcast
“I thought about it,” Roethlisberger replied smiling and performing arm circles as if he was warming up. “That team is one of the better teams in football and that defense is really stinking good and they did it with Purdy.”
Would the 49ers have actually offered him a contract if Roethlisberger decided to give it a try? Who knows. But it never got that far because Roethlisbergers love for Pittsburgh wouldn't let him even get that invested into the thought.
"Even though I thought they had a great chance to win a Super Bowl, it would've been hard to go try and win a Super Bowl anywhere but here," Roethlisberger continued. "So at the end of the day it was the smallest little bleep in my heart to go play again."
It would be pretty hard to see Roethlisberger join another team after 18 years in Pittsburgh. Joe Montana never looked right playing for the Chiefs, and Aaron Rodgers definetly isn't going to look good for the New York Jets.
What would you have thought if Roethlisberger joined the 49ers for a playoff run? Let us know in the comments below.
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