Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger made his return to the field this past Sunday after missing the previous three games due to a rib and shoulder injury suffered in the game against the Kansas City Chiefs and the belief was that he would be wearing a custom-made protective vest and shoulder pads that included Kevlar padding to help protect him. As it turns out, he didn\’t wear much more than he usually does.
“I didn‘t wear anything different other than I had a little bit of padding on the outside of my shoulder pads and It was a little bulky so I took it off,” said Roethlisberger, when asked how the extra protective worked against the Chargers.”
Roethlisberger looked like his normal self on Sunday outside of a few bad throws at the beginning of the game, where it looked like the football might have stuck to the gloves he wearing. The Steelers quarterback was under pressure for most of the game, however, and that forced him to scramble for yardage on five plays where he took a little additional contact than was planned. He was also sacked once and hit on three other drop-backs in addition.
So how is Roethlisberger feeling a couple days removed from his first game back?
“Normal Wednesday,” he said. “No major setbacks, so I actually feel pretty good.”
The Steelers quarterback was asked if there was ever any talk about him coming out of the game in the second half when the score was out of hand.
“Not that I know of,” said Roethlisberger. “And if coach would have said something to me I would have told him, \’no\’. It doesn\’t mean that I still wouldn\’t have been out, but I would not have wanted to come out no matter what the score was. That\’s just not me.”
“I want to be out there,” Roethlisberger added. “I never want to quit.”
Quitting is certainly something that he will never be accused of.
