He is “not the best husband, not the best father, not the best Christian I can be.” His faith gives him the humility to admit his sins and the grace to seek to overcome them. “I’ve fallen as short as anybody,” he confessed. In June 2020, Ben spoke to a Christian men’s group about his struggles with pornography and alcohol. We watched a man-child become a real man. She and his faith in God changed everything. Providentially, he found his life’s partner, Ashley. He needed grace, and he got it - not just from the Rooneys but his faith. Remarkably, Ben in the 2010 season led the Steelers to another Super Bowl appearance.įor Ben, the stay of execution allowed him what many young men wealthy beyond their imagination need: a chance to mature. From saint to scoundrel.ĭisgusted as they were, fortunately the Rooneys didn’t deal Ben away. For an illustration of how much public perception had changed, after the 2005 Super Bowl, T-shirts sold at Station Square declared, “On the 7th Day … Let There Be Ben” (I bought one), whereas in 2010, the same shop sold “Pig Ben” T-shirts. That blowup came right amid the 2010 NFL Draft, prompting demands to trade Ben and reports that the fed-up Rooneys were seeking just that. Sexual assault allegations were filed against him in 20, leading the NFL to suspend him for the first six games of the 2010 season and ordering him to undergo counseling. Not wearing a helmet, he launched headfirst into an approaching windshield. He was a wild man whose career could have ended not during the record number of times he was sacked (truly an iron man on the gridiron) but from a nasty motorcycle accident in June 2006. Off the field, he evolved from frat boy to father.
On the field, it involved the striking growth of a Hall of Fame quarterback who retires in the top 5 or 10 of major statistical categories, from yardage to touchdowns to wins, including two Super Bowl wins and three appearances - surely more if not for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots.īut Ben’s growth was more than that. That image personifies an individual who grew up before our eyes over the last 18 years. 7 jersey walking into the tunnel with his wife and little children.
This may sound sentimental, but I think it really fits: It was the poignant image of that big guy in the No. The image sticking with me came at the end of “Monday Night Football’s” extended coverage of Ben’s final home game in Pittsburgh Jan. Roethlisberger era, I suggest not words but an image. As Steelers fans size up the end of the Ben
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