They just don’t play the game of football like they used to.
We’ve become accustomed to seeing yellow flags fly all over the place in the NFL in recent seasons with an emphasis on player safety and protecting defenseless players like the quarterback after throwing a pass. This has led to many roughing-the passer-penalties that can be questionable in the eyes of many.
That wasn’t the case over a decade ago. Quarterbacks were free game if they held onto the ball too long or stuck in the pocket, prey for oncoming defenders flying in for a big shot. Former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger knows this better than anyone, having taken some nasty shots and suffered numerous injuries during his career with the Steelers. Roethlisberger spoke about the physicality of the game and more specifically how physical the Steelers-Ravens rivalry games were as a guest on Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He joined actor/comedian Billy Gardell, who mentioned that he would pray before every Ravens game that Roethlisberger wouldn’t die during the contest.
“And die like legally,” Roethlisberger said on the DVE Morning Show with Baumann and Gardell. “You played Cincinnati, I would pray that I wouldn’t die from some illegal thing happening. Baltimore was like, you know, I know I’m going to get destroyed but it’s going to be within the confines of the game, but still.”
Every time the Steelers and Ravens would face off, you knew that pain would be inflicted on both sides. There have been numerous big hits throughout the years, like S Ryan Clark’s hit on RB Willis McGahee and Ray Lewis breaking RB Rashard Mendenhall’s shoulder. Roethlisberger took his fair share of hits in those games as well, repeatedly taking a beating from OLB Terrell Suggs as well as having DL Haloti Ngata break his nose in a 2010 game.
The Bengals games were a different story. You had guys like LB Vontaze Burfict and CB Pacman Jones looking to injure Steelers’ players on a regular basis. Pittsburgh managed to walk away with a win in the 2016 AFC Wild-Card round to the Bengals when many thought that the Steelers shouldn’t have won the game. It was a bloodbath with big hits on both sides, but Cincinnati gave Pittsburgh 30 yards on consecutive penalties to put K Chris Boswell into field goal range to kick the game-winner with Burfict taking WR Antonio Brown out of the game with a vicious hit.
The game has changed a lot since then as defenders aren’t able to get away with what they used to, dishing out punishing hits on a regular basis. Sure, there are still some big hits today, but the league is cracking down on them a lot more, handing out large fines nearly every week for big collisions that are well within the confines of the game. Roethlisberger sees his matchups with the Ravens in the same light, knowing he was going to get rocked, but at least it would be clean. The Bengals games weren’t the same story, but with the league’s actions to take intentional injuring of another player out of the game, those hits have become a rarity in the NFL.
