Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger seems to be making the media rounds this week to mostly talk about his recent graduation from Miami of Ohio and Wednesday he was on the Dan Patrick Show to discuss that and answer several other questions that host Dan Patrick had in addition.
The topic of bounties came up during the interview and Patrick asked the Steelers quarterback if he would know if another team was doing something above the call of duty to take you him of a game. Roethlisbeger replied, “Maybe! I mean sometimes you get guys, you know things happen under piles and the little extra twisting of the ankles and poking and things like that, but I don\’t know about this whole bounty thing. I don\’t know if I would sit there and say, wow that guy really tried to end my career. Honestly I don\’t know.”
Patrick followed that answer up by asking Roethlisberger when the last time he played in a game where he felt that the opposing team was going after his knee, ankles or head and Roethlisberger answered, “That\’s tough because I don\’t really complain about that stuff either, but I think when we played San Fran I felt like there was some things going on. Now obviously I did have the ankle, and I was playing, so maybe there was a bull\’s-eye on there anyway, but for the most part it\’s just guys playing tough and you go into games expecting it. I expect to be tougher than them.”
Roethlisberger was later asked by Patrick if he has any permanent injuries that are there every single day now and the Steelers quarterback replied, “Yeah, my ankle is still not quite better, but they say it will get better. I mean it still pops, my shoulder still hurts sometimes, but nothing that really scares me to the point that I feel that I want to stop. You know I don\’t have headaches everyday and I know that I have had some concussions, but I don\’t have headaches and even last year in wearing this new helmet that I have been wearing, I\’ve been getting dinged way less than I ever have before.”
Patrick asked Roethlisberger if he would ever take himself out of a game after getting hit and Roethlisberger replied, “If I felt like I couldn\’t help the team and I was in serious danger, yes. I think the important thing is being honest. If you be honest with the coaches or training staff, they should take you out. And if I felt that I was honest and I couldn\’t go back in, and I didn\’t think it was smart to go back in, and they tried to put me back in, then I would say, listen, I don\’t think its right. But I feel very fortunate with the team that I play with that they\’re not going to do that. But if the severity of it was that bad, yes I would.”
Patrick also asked Roethlisberger during the interview about the addition of both David DeCastro and Mike Adams via the draft and his role in the upcoming Batman movie as well. You can listen to the interview in its entirety below.
[audio:http://danpatrick.directv.com.edgesuite.net/Podcast/DP-Ben_Roethlisberger-05-09-12_Interview.mp3]
