I don’t know that there has been a more important elbow in the recent history of sports than that of Ben Roethlisberger’s. The 17-year veteran quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers is attempting to return to a high level of play in 2020 after missing the vast majority of the previous season after he suffered three torn tendons in his throwing elbow, so needless to say, it has been the prevailing storyline for the team throughout the year.
Though he acknowledged that the elbow issue was not sudden—even if the tearing perhaps was—his going down seemed to provide an abrupt and premature end to the team’s hopes. They nearly salvaged a playoff campaign, but the Steelers return this year looking to compete for a championship with a healthy Roethlisberger.
And to that end, they are looking to ensure that he enters the regular season as healthy as he can. He has been on a regular throwing schedule for months now, he told reporters, which is already out of the norm, as he normally doesn’t throw much outside of team activities during the offseason, but his comments suggest that his training camp schedule will be familiar.
“We threw a lot of balls yesterday, and kind of waking up today to see how it feels, and it feels great”, he told reporters yesterday. “That’s kind of what I anticipated, because we’ve been working more than usual in the offseason in terms of throwing”.
“I’ve been together a regimen of really two to three days a week throwing for the last two months, if not longer than that”, he added. “I think the plan is still to kind of [have me on] a pitch count, if you will, through training camp. I worked really hard yesterday, in terms of a lot of throws. I’ll throw, maybe about half that amount today, then tomorrow just really back off again, and just really see how it’s gonna feel”.
Roethlisberger has been on a schedule like this for years, throwing heavily on Wednesdays, then light work on Thursdays, and then having Fridays off—or whatever the equivalent days would be relative to a training camp schedule.
Everything continues to be positive with respect to his progress as he looks to continue his Hall of Fame career. He told reporters that he intends to add a couple more Super Bowl trophies to his resume by the time that he is eligible, however, so there is work to be done, trying to become just the fourth quarterback to ever win four Lombardis.
