Former Pittsburgh Steelers Ben Roethlisberger would sometimes call his own plays during his playing days, even if the coach wanted something else called. Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher talked about some of Roethlisberger’s “selective hearing,” when the team would send a play in and Roethlisberger would sometimes tap his helmet as if he couldn’t hear the play call.
“I kept thinking we’re having problems with our communication, he would go ‘Coach, there’s no problem, I can hear everything in this helmet,’ I would go, ok, let me look at the second alternative here, maybe it was selective hearing,” Cowher said earlier this week on The Dan Patrick Show.
Cowher said a lot of times they would give the quarterback options for different plays, but every now and then Roethlisberger would go off-script and call what he wanted instead of what the coaching staff wanted called.
More often than not, it seemed to work out for Roethlisberger, who is on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Under Cowher, Roethlisberger went 29-11, won the 2004 AP Rookie of the Year Award, and won Super Bowl XL over the Seattle Seahawks. Roethlisberger was a young quarterback when Cowher was his coach, playing the first three seasons of his career under him, but he was clearly confident enough to know what he wanted to run and what he thought would work.
Current Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett exhibited some Roethlisberger-esque traits last Sunday by changing WR George Pickens’ route to a go route when the Baltimore Ravens came out in zero coverage in Pittsburgh’s 17-10 win last Sunday. Pickett hit Pickens on a 41-yard go-ahead touchdown strike, helping the Steelers advance to first place in the AFC North.
Pickett isn’t nearly at the level of Roethlisberger when it comes to taking control and calling plays at the line of scrimmage, but some of Pickett’s best football has come in hurry-up settings when the team might go a little bit off-script. He needs to be more consistent in all facets of his game, but for a young signal-caller, it’s impressive to see how Pickett handles himself in late-game situations or hurry-up/no-huddle situations.
Roethlisberger went on to have a lot of success under Mike Tomlin, who succeeded Cowher, and I’m sure his selective hearing remained throughout the course of his career. Roethlisberger was notably finicky with his offensive coordinators, and it’s not a surprise that he occasionally ignored the play call and ran what he wanted to run. But so long as it worked, I don’t think anyone on the field or on the coaching staff had any issue with it.
Watch the full segment with Cowher and Patrick below:
