Whether its status as such was ever justified or not, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s weekly in-season radio show had become a lightning rod of controversy in recent years, in large part because he had a certain familiarity with his hosts in which he often felt comfortable speaking off the cuff.
I personally never really though that he ever said anything particularly bad, and yes that includes his comments about Antonio Brown running a route incorrectly. But his comments seemingly drew national headlines on a weekly basis, to the point where he previously said earlier this offseason that he was reconsidering continuing with it.
According to Pro Football Talk, his decision is in, and he has elected not to continue his show on 93.7 The Fan, which, full disclosure, we were happy to cover every week. From our perspective, it will be a bit of a disappoint not to have that resource anymore.
Granted, none of this is confirmed as of yet, it’s simply Mike Florio reporting that “a source with knowledge of the situation” informed him that Roethlisberger will not be continuing the show. He did say that he “hopes to call the team’s flagship station—WDVE—on a regular basis”. Mark Madden, to be fair, Tweeted out several days ago that Roethlisberger decided not to continue the show, but that didn’t really seem to be picked up, that I’ve seen.
It’s worth noting that, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there will be a new weekly show on The Fan, this one with third-year running back James Conner. He is not the only player with a show; Stephon Tuitt is another, so it’s not necessarily uncommon.
It’s a bit interesting from Conner, who doesn’t always seem to be the biggest fan of the media, and who generally prefers to give short and direct answers, though perhaps he has opened up a bit more this year. He has done more interviews this offseason, for example, with other outlets.
Hopefully he provides us with content worth writing about, but which fails to rise to the level of controversy. And as indicated, Roethlisberger still intends to be on the airwaves in some capacity this year, so it’s not as though we have heard the last from him.
And besides, there’s no Antonio Brown or Le’Veon Bell left to complain about what he has to say. When he called out James Washington, the young wide receiver responded positively, or at least claims to have. At the very least, he appears poised to have a much better second season working with Roethlisberger.
