Paul Kengor: The big picture on Big Ben

As Steelers fans size up the end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, I suggest not words but an image. The image sticking with me came at the end of “Monday Night Football’s” extended coverage of Ben’s final home game in Pittsburgh Jan. 3. This may sound sentimental, but I think it really fits: It was the poignant image of that big guy in the No. 7 jersey walking into the tunnel with his wife and little children.

That image personifies an individual who grew up before our eyes over the last 18 years. It was quite a ride. On the field, it involved the striking growth of a Hall of Fame quarterback who retires in the top 5 or 10 of major statistical categories, from yardage to touchdowns to wins, including two Super Bowl wins and three appearances — surely more if not for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots.

But Ben’s growth was more than that. Off the field, he evolved from frat boy to father. He was a wild man whose career could have ended not during the record number of times he was sacked (truly an iron man on the gridiron) but from a nasty motorcycle accident in June 2006. Not wearing a helmet, he launched headfirst into an approaching windshield. He required several hours of surgery. He missed the season opener. He could’ve been killed.

That wasn’t all. Sexual assault allegations were filed against him in 2009 and 2010, leading the NFL to suspend him for the first six games of the 2010 season and ordering him to undergo counseling.

That blowup came right amid the 2010 NFL Draft, prompting demands to trade Ben and reports that the fed-up Rooneys were seeking just that. For an illustration of how much public perception had changed, after the 2005 Super Bowl, T-shirts sold at Station Square declared, “On the 7th Day … Let There Be Ben” (I bought one), whereas in 2010, the same shop sold “Pig Ben” T-shirts. From saint to scoundrel.

Disgusted as they were, fortunately the Rooneys didn’t deal Ben away. Remarkably, Ben in the 2010 season led the Steelers to another Super Bowl appearance.

For Ben, the stay of execution allowed him what many young men wealthy beyond their imagination need: a chance to mature. He needed grace, and he got it — not just from the Rooneys but his faith. Providentially, he found his life’s partner, Ashley. They married in July 2011. She and his faith in God changed everything.

We watched a man-child become a real man.

Sure, struggles continued. In June 2020, Ben spoke to a Christian men’s group about his struggles with pornography and alcohol. “I’ve fallen as short as anybody,” he confessed. He is “not the best husband, not the best father, not the best Christian I can be.” His faith gives him the humility to admit his sins and the grace to seek to overcome them.

Today’s Ben is a better Ben, not only for career statistics but on the field of life. He finishes not with a coveted image of once more holding up a Lombardi Trophy but holding the hands of his wife and kids while exiting Heinz Field. That’s the image of Ben Roethlisberger to remember. It’s a better image for us all.