The Pittsburgh Steelers have a storied history that is often looked at in a positive light. Recently, however, legendary quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has found himself in storylines involving former teammates. Most notably, Joey Porter Sr. went on the Not Just Football with Cam Heyward podcast to allege that the future Hall of Fame was not a good person when he was with the organization. These comments have led to plenty of responses from other individuals that shared a locker room with the retired signal-caller.
Jason Bridge / USA Today Sports
Former Steelers linebacker Joey Porter Sr. hypes up the home crowd during a game at the then Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA.
During the 2019 and 2020 seasons, cornerback Steven Nelson spent time with the Steelers and was a formidable defender for the franchise. He got a chance to play with Roethlisberger for a couple of years. While Porter only played with the quarterback for three years, he ended up being on the team's coaching staff from 2014 to 2018. Without there being any overlap between Porter and Nelson, the cornerback recently gave his thoughts on Roethlisberger.
Via a video on YouTube, Nelson essentially blamed Roethlisberger for being the big man on campus. Despite having incredible talent on defense, the unit was apparently affected by the financial commitment to the two-time Super Bowl champion.
“So that defense, what I’m about to say is that it fell off tremendously after Ben’s cap issue," Nelson stated. "If people wanna know really why I was upset, it’s because the defense — I just rattled off how great that defense was. You had me, Joe Haden, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds, Mike Hilton in the slot — great blitzer, instinctive player, on the smaller side, but a great player, great tackler."
Nelson went into more detail about the talent that the defense possessed, and he can't be faulted for listing several impressive players, all of whom were productive at some point, or still are.
"You had Cameron Sutton as a role player. [He] could play inside corner, could play outside corner, can play dime, can play safety." Nelson said. "He’s a Swiss Army knife. You got TJ Watt, Bud Dupree, Stephon Tuitt at the time; Cameron Heyward. We just drafted a young Alex Highsmith. We had Robert Spillane."
It got interesting after these comments, as Nelson stated that all the franchise cared about was making Roethlisberger happy, and the cornerback directly blamed the signal-caller for how his time in the Steel City ended, which was a contract getting terminated.
"I was upset because they let Ben dictate keeping that roster together moving forward," Nelson explained. "That’s why I was upset. They didn’t kick me out of Pittsburgh. They tried to betray me, they tried to trade me, and [then] they tried to make me take a pay cut for who? Big Ben, a guy that was declining in his career.”
The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, so it's not surprising that a corner entering the third and final year of his deal would get the boot, but this did occur in 2021 offseason, which would be Roethlisberger's last.
Jared Wickerham / Getty Images
Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger runs with the football while wearing a throwback jersey.
Nelson backtracked a little and attempted to say that he wasn't trying to slight Roethlisberger in any way; however, it sure seemed like he then immediately went to accuse his former teammate of having way too much power inside the Steelers' building.
"This is no knock on Big Ben, that’s not what I’m saying. So for context, I was saying the team did not look out for the team’s best interest. Moving forward, the team was more interested in appeasing Big Ben and doing whatever Big Ben wanted. To me, that was just selfish and negligent. You had a good young team right there, a great team that was meshing really well, and you sabotaged the whole thing for one person," Nelson stated.
It was some of the final comments from Nelson that truly took a shot at Roethlisberger. Essentially, the cornerback accused the retired quarterback of ruining the franchise.
"They let one guy sabotage the entire organization."
It always gets murky when teams have a top-tier signal-caller. Front offices want to take care of, and pay these players, but it's also important to field a team around them. According to Nelson, Roethlisberger got in the way of Pittsburgh doing that. It comes off a little bit petty, but it is interesting to note that the Steelers seriously investing in the defensive side of the ball via cap space began shortly after Roethlisberger retired.
Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images
Former Steelers cornerback Steven Nelson tries to tackle Stefon Diggs during a Week 14 regular season game in 2020.
Steelers Will Always Be Very Grateful For Roethlisberger
Nelson is technically just a small pebble in the shoe for Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger, however, took the team to three Super Bowls, and won two of them. Some guys that weren't around the signal-caller for all that long may have certain thoughts, and Nelson made his very clear. It's truly up to someone's opinion if investing in Roethlisberger was worth it later in his career, but the comments from Nelson highlight a recent trend of former teammates bagging on the future Hall of Famer.
#SteelerNation