Ben Roethlisberger had a very successful 18-year tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers before his final season in 2021. However, as any player starts to grow older and get further from their prime, they start to understand that they may no longer have it anymore.
On his Footbahlin podcast, Roethlisberger and his co host, Spencer Te’o, discussed Aaron Rodgers’ comments earlier this week about expecting 2025 to be his last season. Te’o asked Roethlisberger whether he knew the 2021 season would be his last one.
“I think I knew going in. No, I definitely knew going in,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday. “We knew, but I didn’t make it known to everybody else, until like, okay, this is my last home game. Kind of like at the end of the season, we started making it a little more known.”
While Big Ben’s tenure with the Steelers was terrific in just about every aspect, the end of his career was somewhat brought on due to an elbow injury he suffered in 2019. That year, he only played in two games. He was able to come back the following year and actually had a lot of success. In 2020, he helped Pittsburgh start the year 11-0 before a late-season collapse, the Steelers eventually losing to the Cleveland Browns in a thriller in the first round of the playoffs.
Even in his final season in 2021, when Roethlisberger clearly wasn’t in his prime anymore, he still managed to put up solid numbers. He completed 64.5 percent of his passes with 233.8 passing yards per game and 22 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Throughout that year, Ben Roethlisberger knew it was going to be his last. That gave him some extra motivation.
“I wanted every week to be special, I wanted to enjoy going back to Baltimore, I wanted to enjoy Cleveland,” Roethlisberger said. “I feel like I took my time some of those places, like walking off Cleveland. When you know it’s your last go around, it makes every game a little more different, a little more special.”
For what it’s worth, this is a slightly different take from Roethlisberger about his retirement a few years ago. Back in 2022, also on his Footbahlin podcast, Roethlisberger also said he knew 2021 would be his last season. However, back then, his reasoning was that the Steelers didn’t want him back. He may still feel that way, but it’s interesting that he didn’t bring it up today.
A few years later, the Steelers find themselves in a similar situation with another legendary quarterback. Now, Rodgers is heading into what’s likely his last year, and his own version of a farewell tour. Pittsburgh will hope Rodgers has a similar sense of motivation as Roethlisberger did.
