It took a couple of days but Ben Roethlisberger’s critique of the Pittsburgh Steelers losing their “Steeler Way” has become a mainstream discussion point. Skip Bayless and company are the latest to debate Roethlisberger’s comments during Thursday’s episode of Undisputed. To Bayless, Roethlisberger’s comments are an admission of two things.
The Steelers miss Ben. And Ben misses the Steelers.
“I think Ben is saying between the lines here, he’s trying to say they miss me,” Bayless told the show. “They don’t have me anymore on offense because they don’t understand what I did. I was the Steeler Way. I also think he’s saying between the lines, I miss it because I haven’t really found anything else to do with my life right now.”
Roethlisberger made the comments during the Monday episode of his Footbahlin podcast. Following back-to-back embarrassing losses to the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, everything about Pittsburgh is being called into question, including Mike Tomlin’s future. Beyond just the personnel and scheme, the Steelers may have lost the culture they created and upheld for so many years as the team transitioned from the old guard, guys like Roethlisberger, to this new era without him.
Bayless is hardly a go-to source for all things Steelers, but his points are valid. Roethlisberger made up the final pages of the previous chapter, entering the league in 2004 at a time when the sport looked and played differently than it does today. He entered a locker room that was veteran-laden, had a strong culture, and passed that down. Today, those guys are all out of the locker room. Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro, and Roethlisberger, it’s an entirely new group of players who can’t share that wisdom or draw on those experiences.
And while it’s a separate and longer discussion, it never seems like Roethlisberger was fully content with retiring when he did. That, to a degree, he was pushed out by an organization eager to move onto something new. The 2021 season was probably the right time for him to retire, Roethlisberger’s bad knees sapping his mobility and the offense beginning to sputter, but if given complete control over the situation, it’s not a stretch to believe he would’ve returned for 2022.
“[Roethlisberger] said, who on offense is grabbing a facemask and saying that’s not what we do?” Bayless added. “He’s saying they don’t have a me to do that, to grab a young player’s facemask. That’s not how we do it as Pittsburgh Steelers. So he’s saying the tradition is dying because I’m not playing anymore. That my deeper sort of psychological view of Ben.”
Putting aside Roethlisberger’s comments, the Steelers’ culture, especially on offense, seems to be in flux. This year has been full of nothing but frustration and anger and overall, it’s still a young and new group. Pittsburgh worked to add veteran leaders in the offseason, signing OG Isaac Seumalo and trading for WR Allen Robinson II, but it takes time to work into a system as they adjust to a new team themselves.
Defensively, there’s still DT Cam Heyward, part of those veteran Steelers teams that had their culture clear and defined. With Roethlisberger retired, the offense lacks that guy. It lacks direction, identity, culture and certainly lacks production.
