The Pittsburgh Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger have been linked for almost two decades. Roethlisberger has been a polarizing media figure during most of that time. He has nearly killed himself, was accused of criminal activity and exonerated, suspended, and injured. Most of the truly bizarre incidents are over a decade old, and Roethlisberger’s personal life could not be more stable now.
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Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger and his family at PNC field before he threw out the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game.
The future Hall of Fame quarterback started his Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast last year. The podcast has welcomed guests like Bill Cowher, Merril Hoge, and Mike Tomlin. It has been the source of personal confessions that drew praise from Pat McAfee on The Pat McAfee Show for his honesty about initially rooting against Kenny Pickett. On Episode 31 of the podcast, Roethlisberger dropped a nugget about his return to the gridiron as a coach for his son Benjamin’s youth football team.
Episode 32 premiered on Thursday night before the Steelers' final preseason game. Roethlisberger and his co-host Spencer T’eo carved out some time to discuss how Coach Roethlisberger was faring with his foray into coaching his son and his 10 and under team.
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Steelers former QB Ben Roethlisberger smiles before recounting a story about his coaching debut.
“He had his first game last week,” Roethlisberger began. “We go to the first game we are playing Avenor. We’re getting ready to play the game, and here is the best part: they’re introducing the kids. They introduced every kid on the team. So the announcer gets his number, and he’s like Benjamin Ro-ethlen-is-berger.”
The younger Roethlisberger was probably surprised to find his name mispronounced in and around Pittsburgh. T'eo certainly was surprised. When he first joined the team in 2004, mispronunciations were common, but in 2023, people might not be able to spell it, but it is not common for it to be misinterpreted that badly. The former Steelers Super Bowl champion took it surprisingly well.
“I was like, 'YES! He screwed it up,'” Roethlisberger continued. “If he had said Benjamin Roethlisberger, people that didn’t know would have been like, 'Wait, how many Roethlisberger’s are there?' It’s not like Miller, Smith. There were a lot of letters he put in there. Part of me was like, 'Couldn't believe he did that, really?' Part of me was like, 'Yes, maybe no one will put two and two together.'"
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Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger's family at then-Heinz Field.
It is a lot of pressure for young athletes when they are following in the footsteps of a big brother who was a good athlete. Following behind a father likely headed to the Hall of Fame and playing the same position is unbelievable pressure. Roethlisberger validly points out that name recognition for an under-10 football player is a lot of undue stress, especially when you have the same name as your famous father. To his credit, the former Pittsburgh quarterback seems to be doing everything possible to relieve pressure on his son.
“There has been news around me coaching,” Roethlisberger confessed. “Local news, and then I got an email from Fox & Friends want me to go on and talk about coaching. To me, it's about the kids. It’s not about me, so I don’t want to do anything because I’m just helping. I’m the fourth guy on the depth chart.”
Steelers Legend Ben Roethlisberger Hints At Triumphant Return To Gridiron As A Coach
Fans in Pittsburgh were clamoring last season for Roethlisberger to return to the Steelers as an offensive coordinator. The former Pro Bowl quarterback has repeatedly shot down speculation that he would return to the NFL as a coach. He stated in his previous podcast that quarterback coach at the high school level is where coaching ambitions end for him. Roethlisberger then shared how the team fared in the season opener.
"We won the toss, so we'll take the ball," Roethlisberger described. "First play, minus 1 yard. Second play, minus 2 yards. We go 3 and out. 4th and 13, we are going to punt, which at this age is not the easiest thing to do. So, 4th down, they tackle our punter. Our punter caught the ball, and they tackled him. They scored two plays later.
They do a directional kick, Danny Smith would be proud. They recover it and score three plays later. We ended up, I won't bore everyone with the details, at halftime down 40-0. The final score was 40-0 with minus 23 yards of offense."
Youth football can be challenging to coach for anyone, and Roethlisberger learned that lesson the hard way. A 10-and-under football team is all about learning the fundamentals. Roethlisberger told T'eo that his competitive drive almost kicked in during the game, but discretion was the better part of valor.
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Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger celebrates a touchdown run with Hines Ward In Denver.
The NFL veteran delivered the perfect message to a youth football team coming off a blowout loss. Stressing effort and improvement over the final result is how the kids improve. Roethlisberger reserved higher praise for one of the coaches postgame thoughts as a nugget he thought could help his former team on Sundays that don't go so well.
"There's definitely different things going on. During the game, there were some kids wrestling on the sideline," Roethlisberger added. "I almost said to them, 'Look, if you don't want to be here, just leave.' I was afraid they would really leave. That made my feel like I can't do that.
Afterwards, I just told them, 'They can be better than you, but I want to know what your effort looks like. Are you hustling, or are you quitting? You can get beat if you're trying. It happens.'"
"One of the other coaches, I love him," Roethlisberger concluded. "It was something I'd never heard, and I wanted to tell [Mike] Tomlin to go with it. He said something along the lines of, 'We just got beat real bad. When you go to a restaurant and have a bad meal, you don't go back there and eat it again; you spit it out and move on.' That's the early stages of a Tomlinism."
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Steelers retired QB Ben Roethlisberger visits practice.
The Steelers hopefully will not have to deal with any blowout losses in 2023, but it is good that their former quarterback stands to assist if they do. The question is if his former coach will pay royalties if he adopts the phrase. The popular podcast will likely resume a steadier schedule after the season kicks off, two weeks from Sunday at Accrisure Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers.
What do you think, Steeler Nation? Are you excited to see if the coaching bug bites Roethlisberger harder than he expects? Let me know what you think. Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq.
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