Big Ben Won’t Play If It Hurts Too Much
Added on Dec 30, 2011 by Jack Thurman in
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With few exceptions–like the Buffalo Bills’ Harvard grad quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick–NFL quarterbacks aren’t known for being Mensa members. In all fairness, the banality of the mainstream sports media often makes them sound stupider than they really are due to their questioning and superficial coverage. Despite this, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger may have set sports medicine back at least a decade with his deadpan statement of the obvious this week: he’s planning to play on Sunday, unless it hurts too much for him to do so.
It’s like the old joke: a guy goes into the doctor and makes a movement with his arm. “It hurts when I do this.” To which the doctor replies “Don’t do that. $100 bucks please.” Basically, Roethlisberger articulated the dynamic that every professional athlete faces when he considers playing with an injury. He plans to play unless the injury is limiting or if it hurts too much. Here’s what he had to say about his high ankle sprain:
“As long as I can deal with pain, I’ll be out there. I don’t want to let the guys down, so I’ll do what I can to be out there.”
Actually, it’s not quite as ‘cut and dried’ as all of that. The working plan is for Roethlisberger to start the game and play somewhere between 20 and 35 plays before giving way to backup Charlie Batch. A Steelers’ victory–combined with some help by the opponents facing their conference rivals this week–could give Pittsburgh an advantageous home field draw throughout the playoffs. Nevertheless, with their fate not entirely in their control there’s no reason to put Roethlisberger at risk for the playoffs. And that’s what Steelers’ offensive coordinator Bruce Arians said:
“I want him out there but not at the risk of injuring himself. If he can’t move around and get out of the way, there’s no sense in getting him out there.”
Roethlisberger has been fully participating in the Steelers’ practices this week (saying he was ‘a little sore’) but if he can’t go the team has confidence in Charlie Batch. Batch played well against St. Louis last week and is capable of managing the team on a short term basis. A few Las Vegas sports books have started to post a line on the game despite the uncertain status of the Steelers’ quarterback making Pittsburgh a -7 point football betting favorite.
