Like many others before him, former Pittsburgh Steelers WR Antonio Brown has slowly grown to realize that the grass wasn’t necessarily greener away from the team and his teammates, such as former QB Ben Roethlisberger, of whom he’s said some unflattering things over the years since leaving the team.
But it didn’t take Brown too long after forcing his way off the team in 2019 to start thinking differently. Even in February 2020, he already acknowledged he didn’t realize how good he had it. He discussed Roethlisberger among many topics in a recent interview with Jason Whitlock.
“Ben Roethlisberger is the best quarterback I ever played with, as far as the skill level and the skill set and the intangibles of what we was able to do”, Brown told Whitlock. “Like, sometimes I did some stuff and Ben just, he already knew what I was gonna do and he just threw the ball and laughed because he knew”.
Of course, Roethlisberger and Brown had nine years to forge a connection. He never had anywhere near that length of time to build the nuances with Tom Brady that he had elsewhere. But Roethlisberger is a Hall of Fame quarterback in his own right, and the numbers with Brown speak for themselves. What’s notable, however, is that Brown also spoke glowingly about his off-field relationship with Roethlisberger.
“We had Big Ben house, playing basketball, cookouts in the pool”, he noted, going back to his rookie season. Brown also referenced the many workouts Roethlisberger organized at Georgia University. Recalling that Roethlisberger was under great scrutiny in 2010 during Brown’s rookie season, he recalled his rare relationship he built. “I was one of those players that was able to get open with him”, he said.
Brown also referenced a wide variety of experiences he and Roethlisberger shared, including flights on the quarterback’s private jet. This is a very different tone than the one he took while attempting to orchestrate a trade. He painted a picture of a soulless organization that didn’t care about him as a person. Today’s equivalent, I suppose, is unfollowing your team on social media.
Roethlisberger’s relationship with Brown, though, is unquestionably on the field, and Brown understands what that means in terms of his legacy. “Ben is one of my best teammates. That’s one of the quarterbacks and one of the teammates I had the most fun [with], and being able to have the most success, of becoming who I was because of him”, he said.
But more than that, he seems to regret the deterioration of the relationship they had off the field. He admits that in hindsight perhaps he “should have opened up and expressed more” during his schism from the team. Brown said that Roethlisberger is the last person he spoke to before the trade. Roethlisberger offered him very thoughtful advice, he suggested.
“Big Ben was always a bright spot for me at the Steelers and somebody that always uplifted me and was there for me as a big brother”, Brown said of Roethlisberger. One wonders what kind of presence he has influencing his life today. I’m sure he would like to redo many things over the past five years, but life doesn’t work that way.
