Will 2017 be the final season for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger? It’s still really hard to say at this point and the quarterback reiterated what he had said about that topic several months ago during several sit-downs with the media ahead of the team’s first training camp practice of 2017 at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
During his several interviews with the local media on Friday, Roethlisberger left his future past the 2017 season up in the air and also cited the recent CTE study as a reason why he might be willing to retire in 2018. According to Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Roethlisberger called the recent CTE study “alarming” and indicated that he needs to seriously consider his health moving forward and especially when it comes to his family.
“I want to play catch with my kids. I want to know my kids names,” Roethlisberger said. “As much as I want my kids to remember what I did and watch me play the game, I also want to remember them when I’m 70 years old.”
Roethlisberger, who has already suffered a few concussions during his long career, also said Friday that he plans to try a different helmet again this season and one that removes all of the air and is scanned to fit his own head.
“The pad fits snug on the head,” Roethlisberger said, according to Rutter. “It looks like the old one, but it will be different on the inside.”
For now, we’ll just have to sit and wait to see how Roethlisberger’s 2017 season goes and in no way should we make any assumptions that he’ll play past then even though he’s currently under contract through the 2019 season.
It’s certainly hard to find fault Roethlisberger’s year-by-year thought process at this point.
