Last year when Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger played a game after missing practice because of the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols, he had perhaps his best game of the 2020 season in a rout of the Cincinnati Bengals and joked that maybe he should take off every week.
There was no such humor in Sunday night’s 41-37 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers, but Roethlisberger again played well despite being away from his team for seven straight days. This time, it was because he actually had COVID-19, and after the game he explained how his bout with the virus went from a whirlwind of a positive test that sidelined him for last week’s Lions matchup to a tedious routine of waiting for symptoms to subside while being tested every 24 hours. Then, finally, a separate flight from the rest of his teammates Saturday to Los Angeles.
“It’s a crazy process — testing every day, lots of vitamins and minerals,” Roethlisberger said with a chuckle. “I’ve just got to give a lot of credit to [Steelers head trainer] John Norwig and the rest of the staff. … You’re literally just taking a test and hoping every day that it’s negative. That’s kind of what it is. It’s a very interesting process.”
Speaking for the first time since his diagnosis last Saturday — the day before the Detroit game — Roethlisberger acknowledged the praise he received from some for self-reporting symptoms, knowing that it could keep him on the sidelines. But he shrugged off that credit because all he did was call Norwig to tell him he wasn’t feeling well, and that he should hold off on going to the team hotel to make sure he wouldn’t get anyone else sick.
“I just assumed I had a little bug,” Roethlisberger admitted. “He said, ‘Ben, we’ve got to test you, because if you have any kind of symptoms and you don’t get tested, it [could be] trouble.’ ”
So, Roethlisberger drove to the team facility on the South Side for a test that he otherwise wouldn’t have taken on a Saturday. Like many people around the world over the last year and a half, he still figured it was nothing.
But by the time he got back home, he found out his test came back positive. He called that evening “the worst night” as he dealt with a fever and general sickness.
“By Sunday, I started to feel better,” said Roethlisberger, who, like most Steelers players, is vaccinated. “Then, by Monday, I knew I felt fine physically. But just because you feel fine doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to pass the test. Credit to the doctors and staff for helping to get me out here.”
It makes sense, then, that Roethlisberger was just about full-strength while going through virtual meetings with the coaching staff all last week. He didn't necessarily know if he’d be able to make the trip to the West Coast and suit up, but he was preparing as if he would.
Friday, after his first negative test, he did some throwing outside with his personal trainer just to stay active in hopes that a second negative was on the way. Around that same time, he began a sort of “three-day ramp-up” of cardio exercises at his home gym, further getting his body ready for a full game if everything came to pass. So it did, and in the end, a 39-year-old, 18th-year veteran who might have thought he’d seen everything at this point in his career had what he could only sum up as a “different” experience.
“I think the MVP of the week is my wife, because it was not easy for all the kids to be home, me to be home, a grumpy husband that probably wants to be at football,” said Roethlisberger who has three children under 10 with his wife, Ashley. “I just had to be the backup substitute teacher. It was a lot of interesting time — me wearing a mask at home and trying to help with homework, and still trying to spend time on meetings and looking at the iPad and going over plays.
“It’s tough not getting practice perspectives, watching practice from behind [the huddle]. I know I don’t always participate in practice, but at least you’re there and you can see it firsthand. It’s different watching it on film at night. It’s definitely a different process. But we got through it.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: November 22, 2021, 4:41 p.m.
