YinzPitt

Well, this is pretty huge news I guess.  Sports Illustrated published an article with first hand accounts of Big Ben being….wait for it…..an idiot!  GUFFAW!  Who would of thought!  This is some serious news we have to talk about!

This story, is probably one of the first stories published so far that have “first” hand accounts all around the city.  Which, it’s not really a surprise, and even if it was a surprise, it never should of been.  The story is a winding journey on what it’s like to be Big Ben, as well as believing in the tall tale persona us Yinzers idolized him as.  I guess that strange thing about this, is that we, the fans helped build his persona to larger than life.  There’s no way anyone can deny that.  Anyways, here’s a few excerpts taken from the Sports Illustrated Article: The Hangover:

At least one person close to Roethlisberger, his agent, Ryan Tollner, says that recent events have served as a wakeup call for his client. (Roethlisberger, who has been undergoing league-mandated behavioral evaluation, declined SI’s request for an interview.) “What you’re going to see is a guy who’s been humbled by the process and ready to reemerge as a better person,” Tollner told SI. “He admitted to me that maybe he got too caught up in the Big Ben persona. Maybe he kind of ran with that too much. But at heart he’s a good person who doesn’t want to be remembered as the kind of guy who’s being presented to the public right now.”

Well Ben, everyone is going to remember this.  I assure you, no matter how many Super Bowls you win, this will never be forgotten.

A few months after the accident, a reporter and a cameraman for KDKA-TV, the CBS affiliate that broadcasts Steelers games, were driving on I-376 in Pittsburgh when they saw two men on motorcycles and recognized one as Roethlisberger, who was not wearing a helmet. They began shooting footage, which showed Roethlisberger giving them the finger as he sped away, but the video never aired. The station’s news director at the time, John Verrilli, and its current assistant news director, Anne Linaberger, deny that any such tape existed, but several people who saw the video gave SI similar accounts of the tape; sources believe the story was killed out of fear that it would damage KDKA’s relationship with the Steelers. “If we had been the other affiliate [which doesn't broadcast the games],” says one of the people who saw the tape, “it would have been A-1 news.” (A neighbor who lives near Roethlisberger in a tony section of Gibsonia, Pa., but did not want to be named has also seen the quarterback on his motorcycle. “I’ve never seen him with a helmet,” the neighbor said.)

This is where the journey of stupidity really began to grow in the public light.  He hasn’t learned, nor will I believe he ever will that his actions speak volumes.  It’s just another proverbial accident waiting to happen.

A man who agreed to be identified only by his first name, Craig, says that a few weeks before the Milledgeville incident, he overheard Roethlisberger making lewd comments to a pregnant waitress at a Pittsburgh T.G.I. Friday’s. The waitress, when asked last week, recalled Roethlisberger’s saying such things as, “Did your boyfriend forget to pull out?”

This above is probably the most damning evidence I’ve read of him locally.  The only thing, it’s not a real name, nor is it witnessed outside of this person and the presumable pregnant person.  If it is true, it’s despicable.

Feel free to check out the article, it’s a good and very in depth look at the troubled super star.

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