Welcome to the Ben Roethlisberger Radio Show Transcript (Volume 2, Chapter 7). Last we left our co-host, he was talking Todd Haley, Le’Veon Bell and Patrick Peterson.
This week on Roethlisberger’s weekly appearance with 93.7’s “Cook and Joe,” believe it not, two of those guys came up again.
• On the Browns firing “Coach Todd” and head coach Hue Jackson after their Sunday loss to the Steelers due, in part, to a power struggle. The relationship between Roethlisberger and his former offensive coordinator is, to much documentation, complicated. This time, Roethlisberger took the high road. He also only said “Coach Todd” once. Today’s over/under was 2.5.
“It’s hard. I was kind of surprised, you know? I don’t think you typically hear both a head coach and a coordinator,” Roethlisberger said. “You wouldn’t think that, at least. I thought that maybe Todd would’ve got the job, but obviously they wanted to go with the defensive coordinator instead, Gregg [Williams].”
What is it about Haley that seems to rub people the wrong way?
“He’s a very passionate coach, you know? He’s passionate about [wanting] to win. He wants to get the best out of his players, and you know, I think that there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that’s what you need. You want to have passion from a player, you want to have passion from a coach. Sometimes, whether it’s from a player or a coach, sometimes it can come across — we talk about it with [Antonio Brown] sometimes or with other players — sometimes it can come across in a negative way, but when you’re passionate about wanting to win, that’s always a good thing in a coach.”
• On those two successful QB sneaks against Cleveland. “You know you’re gonna get hit and put your head down and try to get your one yard. I took a hit on the second one, but it looked a lot worse than it was. I know that guys on their team were yelling that they thought I was knocked out, which I wasn’t. I was kind of laughing when they were saying that.
“But it’s a crucial point in the game. You’ve got to get that one yard whether it’s second down or third down and we were 2 for 2, so that’s important.”
• He very much doesn’t want to discuss Le’Veon Bell. James Conner, though ... The off week has come and gone. Bell is still absent, and Roethlisberger would rather forget about him for the time being.
“I think I’ve said it after this last game. Like, I don’t wanna talk about him, because he’s not here. When he gets here, we’ll talk about it. Until he’s here, I’m not — I’d rather just talk about James and the guys that are here, that are helping us win now.”
Fair enough. How is Conner handling the whole situation? He rushed for 100-plus yards and two touchdowns (again) and has fans at Heinz Field chanting his name.
Roethlisberger is pleased with his approach.
“I think he’s handling it like a professional. The whole Le’Veon stuff, it can’t be easy. But I think he’s finally not looking over his shoulder. A couple weeks ago I teased him about, ‘Well, this was your last game, thanks for all your hard work.’ Obviously joking about that. But I think he’s kind of settling in, like ‘OK, I can handle my own up here. I’m doing some good things.’
“And I told him after the game on the sideline, on the sideline, I said, ‘Hey, those chants were awesome.’ I said, ‘And I’m proud of ya, I think you’re doing some great stuff. There’s still some things we need to improve on.’ And watching film yesterday, same thing. I talked to him again, like, ‘Hey, there’s five or six things that popped up on film that we need to improve.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got it.’ It’s not too big for him.”
The biggest development might’ve come after the game at Roethlisberger’s home, where his son Benjamin wanted to play catch, “much to my wife’s chagrin because the ball’s flying everywhere.”
Every time the kid caught the ball, he said, “CONNER!”
“And so I texted James, I told him, I said ‘James,’ I said, ‘Must’ve been pretty cool to have the whole place chanting Conner. But you want to know something that’s even cooler? When I come home and play catch with my son and every time he catches it, he’s you.’
“I said, ‘Thanks for being a good role model and please don’t ever stop thinking that everything you do, you have a chance to be an amazing role model.’ And so I wanted him to know that.”
And hey, now he knows that.
• Before the show, Roethlisberger attended the funeral for Cecil and David Rosenthal, who were killed in Saturday’s Tree of Life synagogue shooting. Their sister, Michele, worked for the Steelers as their community relations manager.
Roethlisberger said he learned of the Rosenthals’ deaths during Mike Tomlin’s Saturday night address to the team, when he received a text from former Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel. Michele Rosenthal has moved on to work with Keisel’s foundation.
“I’ll be brutally honest, I kind of broke down right there. I don’t really remember what Coach Tomlin said. I was so kind of overwhelmed with emotion and caught up because Michele is such a dear friend,” Roethlisberger said.
“And [Tomlin] did address the team and talk about the shooting, but honestly I don’t remember what he said because I was just in prayer and thought [with] a heavy heart for Michele.”
Sean Gentille: sgentille@post-gazette.com, Twitter: @seangentille
First Published: October 30, 2018, 4:42 p.m.
