Ben Roethlisberger Press Conference Transcript Wednesday February 2nd Super Bowl XLV
QUOTES FROM PITTSBURGH STEELERS PRESS CONFERENCE
QUARTERBACK BEN ROETHLISBERGER
(on the journey he’s taken and family support) “It’s awesome to have a great family and friends and a support group and I think everybody should have that regardless of if you have to go through things in life, it’s great to have. To get back to my faith that I grew up with and was installed by my parents is a great thing. You make mistakes in life and you learn from them. And I think that’s what I’m doing now.”
(on his young receivers) “You have to be able to trust those guys and in such a short time, obviously when you’re playing with a legend like Hines Ward for seven years now, you kind of get used to each other and you can trust each other. So to have a couple young guys come in that you haven’t really had any time to work with other than the preseason and training camp and stuff, and I have a lot of faith and trust in those guys that they’re going to make plays for me and they’ve shown that they’ve done that. Big catches sometimes. [Antonio Brown] doesn’t do a lot but he makes the big play at the end of the game. Emmanuel [Sanders] has gotten to the point where he is a legit third receiver for us. It’s just, I can’t say enough about those guys, how proud I am of them, the way that they step up in big situations and even just the basic stuff like practicing every day because I know how hard it is at this time of year for young guys. You know, you come off a long college season, you start training right away for the draft and everything and it’s just your body wears down and they call it hitting the rookie wall. And those guys, if they’ve done it, if they’re hitting it, they don’t show it. Every day in practice, busting their butt doing a great job, so I think that speaks volumes for their preparation and how focused they are.”
(on not playing in a pass-oriented system) “I have faith that if I played in a system like that I could put up big numbers and things, but I think that, I don’t know if the Steelers will ever go to that kind of a system. I think that’s just, they’ve been doing it for such a long time and they find ways to win doing it the way the way they do it. You know, you’re asking a quarterback if he wants to throw the ball more. Of course we do, we always want to throw the ball more but for me it’s about winning football games and however you can do that, that’s what I want to do.”
(on the zone blitz and facing a similar defense to the Steelers) “Well that has been a pretty popular question this week about being familiar with the other defense because we play against one but just because defenses are similar, the personnel and the players are different. So I think both defenses are exceptional defenses and it’s going to be a big challenge for both offenses. The first part of your question is, obviously when you break the huddle you’re just trying to identify. The first thing you try to find out is how many linemen they have, who is your MIKE linebacker and how are they cheating over. That usually can help give away if they are blitzing from one side or the other.”
(on his definition of an elite quarterback and if he has been recognized as one) “Well my definition I guess of an elite quarterback is one that wins football games. Obviously you put up numbers and I’m not saying you have to put up, throw for 350 yards a game or whatever, but putting up numbers, being consistent however you do it. If you’re throwing the ball 15 times a game, what’s your completion percentage? Are you completing most of them? Are they just five-yard passes or 10 to 15-yard passes, but at the end of the day to me, to be an elite quarterback is winning and losing.”
(on Terry Hoeppner’s influence on him) “Yeah it definitely is. If you were there yesterday I actually got a little emotional, a little teary eyed talking about him and thinking about him but yeah there isn’t a game that doesn’t go by that I don’t talk to him on the sideline.”
(on what Hoeppner would have said this offseason) “Well I know, he’s family, he’s a father to me so exactly the same things that my dad said to me and did to me would have been the exact same things that he did. I know I get a lot of, I still talk to Mrs. [Hoeppner] and Coach [Hoeppner’s] son Drew and the family so you know it would have been nice to have him here, to have another supporter and you know, mentor, but I know he’s still looking down and being the best up there.”
(on his assessment of the confidence in his game and his comfort level) “To assess all of the times that I get to be up here, you know the first time you do it, you know it’s very overwhelming. I mean, to sit here, you know how it is, when I see you guys, the Pittsburgh media, once a week, there’s usually five or six of you guys and now you have to sit in front of a bunch of people. So you know you learn to get more comfortable with it and enjoy it. The first time when I went to Detroit, I said it a bunch and I said it to myself, you just never know if you’re going to get back. But I think deep down, you’re like ‘I’m getting back.’ Now I think I’m taking the approach of, ‘You just never know, this could be the last one, so why not enjoy every aspect of it.’”
(on if all of the Super Bowl week is a distraction) “I think to me it’s about, all this stuff that you have to deal with, once you get on the field, its football. That’s what I think in Detroit I was, you’re overwhelmed, I obviously didn’t play well. Tampa was a little bit better and I hope that you just get a little bit more comfortable with it because you won’t have the same jitters that you had the first couple of times so you can go out there with the confidence that this is just another game and so I think that’s the approach I’m going to have and try and help these young guys have too.”
(on whether the Cowboys still being considered America’s team bothers him) “No, well I think, well I know, I shouldn’t say I think, I know that we have the best fans in all of sports. So I think the fans are the ones that make you America’s team or not you know. You can have your self-proclaimed titles or titles that people give you, but really it’s about how you feel and how your fans feel.”
(on if winning the seventh Steelers Super Bowl in Dallas would be special) “For me yes because it would be for Flozell [Adams]. I want it for him, I think it would be awesome. I know that Steelers fans and people are a little extra excited because of the old traditions and rivalries and the teams before, but for me it’s about trying to win one for [Flozell Adams] at Cowboys Stadium.
(on the key factor to win Sunday’s game) “I think for me, I mean obviously we have to try to score more points than they do. But for me it’s going to be about identifying their defense, trying to pick up their blitzes, and when you identify you have a better chance of doing that. You still have to execute you know and do your job and do your role, but if we can find a way to identify their defense and their blitzes and where they’re coming from I think that gives us a better opportunity, a better chance.”
(on Coach Tomlin’s biggest impact on him) “Wow, that’s tough. I mean Coach is a lot of fun to play for. You know, he’s a player’s coach, and you know he’s a good motivator but he doesn’t try to give you that ‘Win one for the Gipper’ type speech you know. He knows how to let us motivate ourselves and be professionals. I think he just, even if it’s just little notes. I remember, I don’t know if I’m even supposed to say this but he wrote me, I think it was before the Tampa Super Bowl, he wrote on a little note card, he put down like ‘Terry Bradshaw-4, Joe Montana-4’ and he listed kind of the Super Bowls and he said, ‘Where do you want to fit in that group?’ So just little things, and he kind of just left it in my locker or something. So just little things like that are pretty neat from him.”
