Roethlisberger Won’t Be A Team Captain This Year

Added on Sep 06, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

The Pittsburgh Steelers have elected their team captains this year, and to the surprise of no one starting/suspended quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is not among the four players selected. Pittsburgh’s captains this year are receiver Hines Ward, tight end Heath Miller and linebackers James Farrior and Keyaron Fox. No argument with any of those players, nor the exclusion of Roethlisberger.

‘Big Ben’ had been one of the Steelers’ team captains every year since 2007. He was overwhelmingly selected during his previous sexual assault allegation, which was seen as a vote of confidence in the starting quarterback. Of course one allegation like this is at worst an ‘aberration’ and at best someone looking to make a score off of a high profile celeb. Multiple allegations–especially ones as well documented by official witnesses and Internet gawkers–become a ‘pattern of behavior’ that its difficult for teammates to overlook. ESPN’s James Walker makes the understatement of the year when he says that Roethlisberger “now has to earn the trust back from his team.”

This is a real bad situation for the Steelers and a serious repudiation of Roethlisberger. It’s a sign that his teammates not only question his ability to lead, but his character and manhood–his ‘off field’ lifestyle has his teammates doubting his ability to be a ‘field general’.

NFL players as a rule aren’t particularly judgmental of their teammates off-field behavior. Assuming that said player does his job on the field, there’s a real ‘live and let live’ mentality. That’s why players can come right out of prison and join NFL teams like Michael Vick, or can hold out, commit crimes, and do any number of other things and still be welcomed as a teammate.

This is no different for the starting quarterback, even though he’s held to a higher standard–he has to have the ability to lead his team. That’s why Sam Bradford ultimately got the Rams’ starting job over seasoned vet A.J. Feeley–his teammates respond more to his leadership. Even though quarterbacks have a greater demand on their character, preparation and intensity–leadership is a vital intangible but a tough one to define–that’s never meant that they were judged harshly for what they did off the field. For every Johnny Unitas, who lived and breathed football to the point he couldn’t take the time to get a decent haircut and for every hyper-religious Kurt Warner there’s been a Joe Willie Namath or a Jim McMahon. Namath was at his peak the biggest rock star in pro sports, who wore pantyhose and partied constantly. McMahon was a notorious carouser and troublemaker as well. Both men never lost their teammates because they could be counted on when the gun sounded on Sunday. Even Brett Favre–the biggest diva in pro sports–seems to have a good handle on leading his teammates.

So it’s not clear if Roethlisberger can do anything to regain his teammates’ trust. This isn’t a case where he threw an interception in a key game, or was pulled over with a bag of ’da chronic’ in his car. His teammates were given an opportunity to give him a ‘vote of confidence’ and did just the opposite–and this means there’s something more serious at work. It could be the repeated allegations of sexual assault causing them to question his integrity, or it could be the fact that a grown man and pro football player is still trolling for skank in the college sorority scene. Either way, it’s not a good reflection on his character and one that may ultimately be impossible for him to overcome.