Ben Roethlisberger to start for Pittsburgh Steelers - ESPN
Playoff picture just got a little more interesting when the Steelers announce Ben will start this Sunday.
I thought his ribs were dislocated and it would be life threatening him to play. Oh, the Big Ben drama continues.
I wonder if this will spark a Steeler fan controversy, like the Jets/ Batch led them to a big win over the Ravens.
Let's get this out of the way first: Ben *is* a drama queen regarding injuries, and I'm sure Steelers fans everywhere would prefer he not prattle on about his ailments. But the fact that he draws attention to his injuries doesn't make the injuries themselves somehow less real, or serious. Well before Ben made any comments about his ribs (literally, the day of the KC game), there were widespread media reports of the injury being "highly unusual" and "dangerous".
And as Deus points out, he's now been out 3 weeks, so it's not as if playing this Sunday (the day he was expected back) somehow proves he was faking everything. (FWIW, the actual Pittsburgh-based beat writers had a field day with that wacky LaConfora report--Roethlisberger was NOT cleared medically last week, and they noted this is the same LaConfora who's been in Pittsburgh exactly 2 days--in training camp--this year. LaConfora famously predicted that Casey Hampton would be cut outright three years ago, so the quality of LaConfora's "sources" is considered dubious, at best, among Pitt writers).
I get that some amount of Steelers-bashing is to be expected on another team's board--and as I said, Ben brings a lot of it on himself with his tendency to dwell publicly on his injuries. But it's ultimately pretty benign (if annoying)...and in this instance much ado about nothing IMO.
(BTW PatsNut, I think you were joking here...but LOL there is no chance of a "Batch/Ben" QB controversy, even if Ben throws 20 picks Sunday. Obviously, Sanchez/Tebow/McElroy is an entirely different animal)
