Whenever an athlete does a bad thing - like cheat on their wives with a best friend’s wife, rough up a girl, rape a girl, carry a loaded weapon, rob a Dunkin’ Donuts (ok, maybe not), is caught with cocaine, take HGH and so on – fans are generally forgiving. As long as he “wins” all that matters is what they do on the pitch, ice, court or field.
Not in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has standards. I’m not kidding. Eight in ten Pittsburghians (?) want Big Ben disciplined or traded. They don’t mess around in Steeltown. When Ben Roethlisberger escaped formal prosecution for allegedly raping a girl, he probably thought he was in the clear. Instead, he was suspended by the NFL for six games while the Steelers apparently entertained offers from other teams to dump the double Super Bowl chump. After all, this is a franchise and city that sent two-time Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes and his bad attitude (because there really is only one B.A. Baracus) to the New York Jets.
That is bullshit. They want some minor punishment. Fans anywhere in the league would want the same and more if their quarterback turned out to be a rapist, scumbag, douche-canoe. Don’t pretend Pittsburgh has a conscience. Pittsburgh fans are no better than other fans; in fact they are much worse. They’re okay with the band-aid to hold on the severed limb. Lets trade away the great WR and keep the mediocre QB (9 for 21 with 2 picks and no scores in the SB is not an good QB)! That way people will pretend this team still has morals.
From the top to the bottom, the Steelers are a classless organization. The Rooneys are complete hypocrites and attempt to conceal their financial investments in Pennsylvania casinos and horsetracks, both of which are banned by the NFL ownership agreement, but the NFL favors the team so much that it won’t investigate an obvious rule breach. Shady owners, shady players – it goes hand-in-hand.
Thanks Matt. Interesting take on things. I especially like the final paragraph.
I for one would love to see Ben traded. Isee it from a Mom”s point of view…his behavior must break her heart. What most men don’t understand is the correlation between how their treatment of women speaks to mom, sister, grandmother’ and aunts. They would’nt want them to be treated like he has been treating other women. I think men got really short changed with that X chomosome.
There’s definitely many angles to this. It’s interesting how many people want him traded/disciplined according to the article in the link.