It’s been a crazy year or two for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but Ben Roethlisberger is ready for things to go back to normal.
It has been an up and down ride for the Steelers over the past few years. One minute, the ‘Killer B’s’ are on top of the world. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is putting up numbers that belie his age, Antonio Brown is among the best receivers in the game, and Le’Veon Bell is a dual threat in the air and on the ground. The next, it’s all gone sideways and fans have sadly gotten used to is in disarray as Pittsburgh limps to a 9-6-1 record and misses the playoffs.
Bell, tired of being franchise tagged and wishing to redefine the market for running backs, drew the ire of Steelers fans for sitting out the entire 2018 season in a contract dispute before taking a free agency deal with the New York Jets for less money than Pittsburgh was offering him.
Brown one-upped Bell by missing meetings going into Pittsburgh’s week 17 game against the Bengals (a game he did not play in), and publicly airing issues with the team, before being traded to the Oakland Raiders for two picks in the 2019 draft.
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Roethlisberger (the last of the remaining ‘Killer B’s’), recently signed a new contract worth $85 million over three years.
One could forgive the quarterback for his relief that the storm seems to have passed:
“‘It’s been a little crazy the last few years, maybe more so than usual that we’re used to dealing with,” said Roethlisberger in a media session from his camp. “To kind of get back to quote unquote normalcy is kind of nice.'”
Despite the ways they left Pittsburgh, Bell and Brown are still two very good football players. It’s not exactly an optimal situation to have them sticking around the AFC, but they’re out of the AFC North and the distractions they bring are out of the Steelers’ locker room.
This should help the Steelers get back to their usual business of competing for division titles and locking up playoff appearances in an effort to return another situation back to normal: their status as the NFL team with the most Super Bowl wins.
Roethlisberger and his team travel to New England on September 8 in prime time to kick off the 2019 season, and they will have to stand there and watch Tom Brady and the Patriots celebrate their sixth Super Bowl championship, matching the Steelers’ record. That should be just the kick in the teeth this now distraction-free team needs to return to the summit of the league’s history and get that seventh ring.