Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was interviewed by Mike Prisuta of DVE radio on Tuesday and the interview was broadcasted this morning. Prisuta asked Roethlisberger a whole range of questions that included his thoughts on his style of play, his meeting with Art Rooney II and also about the reputation that precedes new offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Roethlisberger admitted to Prisuta that he has not yet sat down to talk with Haley and also shared his thoughts on how he thinks Haley should coach the players differently in regards to how he talks to them.
Below is a partial of the transcript and you can listen to the interview in it\’s entirety below as well.
Re: On why his style of play is his style of play.
Roethlisberger: You know what, there\’s something about, obviously just throwing touchdown passes is awesome. Five step drops, hit while I throw, make the completion, touchdown, that\’s awesome. But there\’s something a little bit fun about a guy hanging on your leg, and you push him off, and you scramble out, and a receiver breaks his route off, and the defense thinks they have you sacked, and the coach is yelling, and you throw a touchdown. There\’s just something a little special about that. I don\’t want to do those all of the time, but it\’s neat and fun to do. Its fun to see how it demoralizes the defense.
Re: On if the meeting with Art Rooney went well?
Roethlisberger: Yeah, I think so. I think it was pretty much that he just doesn\’t want me to get hit. He wants me to stay on the field and not be injured and I feel the same way. So that\’s why it\’s not too much of a big deal and I didn\’t make too much of a deal when I first read and saw and heard about it, because it wasn\’t worth making a big deal about. We probably all feel the same way. I\’m sure my dad would say the same thing. So it was good, it was just more make sure I am healthy so I can stay on the field.
Re: On if there were any specific demands on how the offense was supposed to play:
Roethlisberger: No, nothing quite like that, but the biggest thing is we both obviously feel the same way, our ultimate goal is winning games and that\’s where we both see our offense, our team in general, its just about winning games. You know I feel that we had a good talk. I know some of it was pretty private so I don\’t want to get that too much into it, but I think I have an understanding of where I think he is coming from as an owner.
Re: Will the Steelers still throw the ball a lot or even most of time?
Roethlisberger: I hope so. Shoot if we go no huddle, I\’ll make sure we do. [laughs] I just don\’t see how you can get away from it when you\’ve got the talent at receiver and the tight end that we have. It would be a waist of their skills to not use them.
Re: Has he expressed that desire to Rooney II and what type of response did he get?
Roethlisberger: Yeah we definitely talked about that. I told him that I think that we\’re just so good and a young offense and I knew we could win a lot of games as a young group and he aggress. He thinks we\’ve got a great group of young guys that can contribute. I don\’t think, and I got it from the media, I never came away from that meeting thinking that he says, OK we need got to run the ball more. I don\’t think that. I came away from that meeting with, you know what, let\’s just win ballgames, however we need to win ballgames.
Re: On Todd Haley being known as difficult to work with.
Roethlisberger: Well I definitely heard a lot of things. I\’ve talked to a lot of his former players and equipment and just everybody and he does have a reputation that precedes him but I\’m not going to jump to any conclusions until I have a chance to sit down and talk with him and see how the thing plays out. I\’m going to come in with an open mind, an open book and just say let\’s go to work and see what happens and form my own opinion. I think that we\’ve done it around here, at least as long as I\’ve been here, even before I got here, it\’s about the players and it starts at the top with the Rooney\’s and I understand that and the coaches, but the players now how to do it around here and it\’s always been that way since I\’ve been here. Whether it was a for Joey Porter, Hines or Jerome, they were always the kind of the leaders, so I don\’t foresee that changing, I don\’t think it should, I don\’t think it will.
Re: How might the Steelers players respond if Haley turns out to be a hard ass.
Roethlisberger: We\’ll have to see how it is. A good coach in my opinion knows how to coach players and each player. It\’s kind of the same way with me as a quarterback. Each guy gets motivated in a different way, each guy from linemen to wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, they all need to be kind of led in a different way or if I\’m upset if one of them screws up, each one of them you need to get in their face a different way. Some guys you just need to talk to, some guys you kind of need to yell at them. I think each player is that way and as a good coach you have to know what each player, what motivates each player and how you coach each player, because not every player is the same. So sometimes when you talk to a guy, that\’s just as good as screaming and yelling and getting in their face. So if he\’s as good of coach as we\’ve all heard he is, then I think he\’ll learn how to coach each guy individually and get the best out of each guy.
Re: On being yelled at personally.
Roethlisberger: I\’ve been yelled at plenty. To me because it\’s such a cerebral position, and Byron and I have talked about this and Charlie and Dennis, at the quarterback position it is not one where you want to do a lot of screaming to because he\’s kind of your leader and the guy that has to be clear minded. So I\’ve been yelled at, it\’s not fun to be yelled at, I don\’t think anyone likes it, but to me you get just as much, if not more, out of me if you just talk to me whether I screw up or do good. Just talk to me or so we can work through my reasoning instead of getting yelled at.
Re: If Hines Ward would return to the Steelers and if he has any thoughts on that.
Roethlisberger: I don\’t know. Honestly that\’s probably the million dollar question everybody wants to know and I\’m not sure. We\’ll kind of see how it plays out in these next months and whenever they make these decisions.
Re: Thoughts on the loss to the Denver Broncos and if they dropped the ball this season.
Roethlisberger: Well, it\’s tough you know because you feel like you got it and you\’re right there and then you don\’t. So it\’s tough. We feel like we should win every game, but you know we just didn\’t do enough to win it and offensively we\’ve got to be better.
