I hope you’re sitting down for this one, but it turns out, Colin Cowherd is not a big fan of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The radio show host laid into the 17-year veteran yesterday following general manager Kevin Colbert’s comments pertaining to his contract status.
Although Roethlisberger has a salary cap value of nearly $42 million, he is only actually owed $19 million this season, which is the total amount of money that could actually be moved, and the only way you can move all of that is by outright releasing him, or having him retire.
While Colbert’s remarks sounded on the surface to be skeptical about Roethlisberger’s future with the team, the reality is almost surely that the two sides will work out an agreeable renegotiation of his contract that will give them some cap relief and keep him under center—under a new center, of course, for one more year.
For Cowherd, however, he doesn’t believe the Steelers have ever gotten out of Roethlisberger what they have paid for. Citing merely things he’s ‘been told’ over the years, he laid into the future Hall of Famer, accusing him of not committing to the team, or to his profession.
“Ask yourself this if you’re a Steelers fan. What are you getting from Big Ben? What’s he giving you? Getting to the playoffs doesn’t mean anything for Pittsburgh.”
— @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/IxDGx8QXK8
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) February 17, 2021
When you look at Ben, he’s never truly been committed in the offseason. That’s why he’s fallen apart physically. So if I’m sitting there running the organization—we’ve committed to him, we’ve gotten him players—he hasn’t committed like a [Drew] Brees physically. He doesn’t commit like a Russell Wilson physically. I think he’s just a very limited quarterback. I’ve heard this for years. He has a very simplistic audible system. They’ve had to cater to Ben. He doesn’t get along with this coach, they fire the coach. He doesn’t get along with this running back, they get rid of the running back. He can’t run a more sophisticated audible system, they simplify it for Ben. It’s always been bending over backwards for Ben—which would be fine if I felt I was getting the ultimate payoff. When is Pittsburgh winning big playoff games? He’s aged poorly because he’s never been as committed as other peers in his generation. He just hasn’t. He’s not as committed as [Tom] Brady. He’s not as committed as Brees. I don’t think he’s ever been as committed as Russell Wilson earlier in his career.
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Ask yourself this if you’re a Steelers fan. What are you getting from Big Ben? What’s he giving you? Getting to the playoffs doesn’t mean anything for Pittsburgh. That’s like saying for the Packers, ‘oh, I made the playoffs’. You think that’s the standard in Green Bay, is making the playoffs?
Despite Cowherd being a blowhard who spews half-truths and whole lies on a regular basis, though, the state of the team’s fanbase is such that they will be accepting of this non-committal narrative, since they already want to see Roethlisberger walk away anyway.
