Ben Roethlisberger finds a way to win -- at everything
Here's a little story about Ben Roethlisberger, one that hints at the skills required to make the kind of precision passes the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback made in the Super Bowl last Sunday.
It happened a few hours after the divisional playoff victory over San Diego, when Roethlisberger was unwinding at a Pittsburgh pub with a group of family and friends. They were playing the arcade game "2 Minute Drill," the object of which is to throw junior-sized footballs through holes for points over the course of two minutes. There are three holes, with the top being the smallest and most valuable. It takes a pinpoint spiral to squeeze through that one.
On his first try, Roethlisberger set a new record for the machine.
Whump. Whump. Whump. Whump. Pass after pass zipped through the top hole.
On his second try, he broke his own mark. On his third, he scored so many points that the three-digit counter rolled over. Two minutes without a miss.
The whole pub erupted in applause.
"You get kind of competitive when it comes to things like that," Roethlisberger said in a phone interview this week. "I wasn't going to let anybody beat my score. It started with me competing with the guys there. But then it got to the point where, well, let me shoot for the high score. So that was the next competition and I blew it away."
(Roethlisberger, by the way, won't be in the Pro Bowl today, not even as an alternate. It's more evidence voting for that all-star game is a joke, but more on that in a moment.)
Among the things separating him from other quarterbacks are his incredibly skilled hands. Those allow him to zip passes on target, whether he's throwing off his front foot, back foot, twisted the wrong way, or with would-be tacklers dangling off him like Christmas ornaments.
"As a quarterback, especially in the NFL, you can't just drop back every time and throw a regular pass perfect," he said. "There's always going to have to be a different angle you're throwing the ball, someone's rushing you, you've got to drop your arm a little bit and throw through lanes, whatever it might be."
The steel-city grip of his right hand also allows him to execute more complete and convincing pump fakes, the kind that can fool an entire secondary into shifting out of position, as he did in the winning drive against Arizona. Whereas other NFL quarterbacks might flinch a fake, Roethlisberger gets three-quarters of the way through his throwing motion before resetting, the ball crazy-glued in place.
"Any time that you get a little pump fake, the more realistic it is, the more the defenders are going to bite on it. It happened in the Super Bowl on the one to Santonio [Holmes]," he said, referring to the 40-yard catch and carry that set up the winning touchdown. "I pumped on it and everyone came flying up and he was open. I bet it happens at least once a game where you can affect multiple defensive players by doing that."
The biggest knocks on Big Ben -- that he holds onto the ball too long and sometimes takes unnecessary hits -- are also some of his biggest strengths. He's a tough quarterback in a tough city.
"People have their knocks, that's fine," he said. "If I don't hold onto the ball so long, some of those touchdowns don't happen either. Pittsburgh likes me because they say I'm tough, I'm nitty-gritty. I may not be the prettiest quarterback back there but you know what, you get it done."
And it comes back to the hands and the incredible athleticism. His agents, cousins Ryan and Bruce Tollner, have seen it for years. They've spent their lives around top athletes -- Ryan's a former quarterback at California; Bruce's dad, Ted, was USC's football coach -- but they've seen some things from Ben that have left them rubbing their eyes.
They've seen him play as a fill-in in a competitive softball game and, in five at-bats, effortlessly pump five home runs over the fence -- the only five of the game.
They've seen him shoot around with the Phoenix Suns, at the invitation of his buddy Steve Nash, and even beat ex-Suns forward Shawn Marion in a three-point contest.
And they've seen Roethlisberger's epic ping-pong battles with his dad, that ball just a little white blur.
"Anyone that spends any time around Ben ultimately will get frustrated because they'll lose in anything they compete with him in," Ryan Tollner said. "Any little game he comes up with -- which is part of his personality, you'll play games all day long -- he'll win. It's quite humbling."
Martin Nance, a receiver on the Steelers' practice squad and one of Roethlisberger's favorite targets at Miami of Ohio, knows this. He remembers a college game at Colorado State when Roethlisberger scrambled for an eternity -- 15 seconds, later verified by the game footage -- before throwing him a 30-yard strike.
"He scrambled for so long, the home crowd started to boo their own defense," Nance said. "I can remember losing my defender three or four times. Eventually, I found an open spot and stood there and waited for him to work his magic."
Last Sunday, a record TV audience watched Roethlisberger work his magic. With his performance in the playoffs culminating with his masterful two-minute drive in the Super Bowl, he went from a very good quarterback to an elite one. His name deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Peyton Manning's and Tom Brady's.
Manning is the AFC's starting quarterback in the Pro Bowl. The reserves are Jay Cutler and Kerry Collins, who is replacing the injured Brett Favre. (Notably absent are Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers.) Fans, players and coaches vote for the Pro Bowl, and the teams are determined before the regular season ends.
"It's funny because I remember when it got announced," Roethlisberger said of the Pro Bowl roster. "People were coming up to me saying, 'Man, I can't believe you didn't make it.' I'd say, 'You know what? It's all right. I'll just go out and get a Super Bowl now. I'd rather have a Super Bowl than a Pro Bowl any day.' I'm just glad that it worked out.
"Pro Bowl's a credential thing, that's all."
Somehow, you get the feeling he's gotten over the disappointment.
Funny how a second Super Bowl ring can do that.
Copyright 2009 Los Angeles Times
Tomlin was special coach from the start
MORGANTOWN -- In 1994, Virginia Military Academy was not a very good football team and brought in a new coach to attempt to build it into something respectable. The first two games of what would be a disastrous 1-10 season were close, losing to Richmond, 34-31, and to East Tennessee State, 31-21.
The next week the Keydets traveled to William & Mary and were dissected, 45-7. In the midst of that rout was a wide receiver for the Tribe who caught a 67-yard touchdown pass and netted about 150 yards receiving.
His play enthralled the VMI coach, as well it should have, catching 101 passes in his career for 2,046 yards and a school record 20 TDs.
"He caught passes. He blocked. He cracked on the linebacker. Nothing flamboyant. He played like Hines Ward plays today," Bill Stewart said.
Bill Stewart today is the head coach at West Virginia.
That wide receiver at William & Mary who caught his eye made something of himself in the coaching profession, too.
You probably paid some attention to him Sunday.
His name is Mike Tomlin, and he coached the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.
A year later, Stewart found himself shuffling his staff at VMI, something you do after those 1-10 seasons.
One of his VMI assistants was Dan Quinn, himself a pretty fair coach considering he is currently an assistant coach with the Seattle Seahawks.
"That Tomlin kid may want to coach," Quinn suggested to Stewart. "Why don't you call Jimmye Laycock?"
Laycock was - and is - the William & Mary football coach.
"Tell me about Mike Tomlin," Stewart said.
"The greatest," answered Laycock.
Stewart learned that Tomlin was from a working class family, his mother working in a shipyard and that he had a blue collar approach to everything.
He contacted Tomlin about becoming his receiving coach.
"I'm going to law school," Tomlin said, not unexpectedly for an intelligent graduate from a school as prestigious as William & Mary.
"Bull," said Stewart. "You're coming to Lexington to coach receivers."
As Stewart says today, "The law profession lost a great lawyer."
Tomlin joined Stewart at VMI. He was there only one year, but Stewart knew he had found his diamond in the rough.
"The guy just had it," Stewart said. "He was so detailed, so advanced. He was mature way beyond his years." Tomlin left VMI to become a graduate assistant at Memphis, moved on to Arkansas State and then as defensive back coach at the University of Cincinnati, where he began drawing attention to himself.
When he took over the Bearcats, their secondary ranked 111th in the nation. He got that down to 61st in one year, and the next year it was eighth in the nation in interceptions and fourth in the nation in turnovers.
Tony Dungy took note of that and brought him to Tampa Bay.
With the Buccaneers, he simply took over at his first team meeting, even though John Lynch, his safety, was older than he was.
"He was a natural," Stewart said. "Nothing false about him, nothing pretentious. He's demanding. He gets along with the young guys."
Tampa Bay developed one of the best secondaries in the NFL under Tomlin and rode it into Super Bowl XXXVII, pulling in four of the five Tampa Bay interceptions and returning two for touchdowns as the Buccaneers won the NFL title.
In 2006, Minnesota hired him away from the Buccaneers as defensive coordinator, and it paid immediate dividends as the Vikings ranked eighth in total defense, first against the run, not allowing a 100-yard rusher all season.
The next year Bill Cowher decided to retire as coach of the Steelers. Talk about longshots, Tomlin was the longest of shots trying to land a job that both Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm coveted. Each was a Steelers assistant, each seemingly in line for the job.
But Tomlin blew away owner Dan Rooney and President Art Rooney II in a pair of interviews, showing them detailed plans for the next 12 months. He was ready to take over before he was named to the job.
Tomlin immediately established himself as the man in charge, a difficult thing to do replacing a coach such as Cowher, but that is how the great ones do it. At one point, for example, running back Willie Parker complained that the team was getting away from Steeler football, throwing it more than running it.
Tomlin's response was terse and to the point.
"Every morning when I come to work, I walk past five Lombardi Trophies, not five rushing trophies. The issue is winning," he said.
"People say he's a great young coach," said Stewart. "He's not a great young coach. He's a great coach."
He might have been a great lawyer, too, but you have to wonder how he would have been when you know his defense never rests.
Associated Press content (c) 2009
How Joe Paterno Retroactively (And Hypothetically) Screwed Larry Fitzgerald
I've been blankly staring at this PennLive.com article on Larry Fitzgerald for a few minutes and trying to understand. Maybe you can help my tiny lizard brain get it. There are plenty of reasons to criticize the Penn State program. This? This is reaching.
The logic goes something like this: In high school, Larry Fitzgerald really wanted to attend Penn State but the PSU coaches turned him away because of grades. He went to Valley Forge Military Academy to get his academics in order and decided to go to Pitt. Then, the wheels begin to fall off the writer's strugglebus:
Nevertheless, it is difficult to argue that Fitzgerald would have been better off in Blue and White than in Blue and Gold. In 2002, Penn State's lefty QB Zach Mills wouldn't have provided the same deep ball arm as Panther southpaw Tyler Palko.
Actually, this is true, but mostly because Rod Rutherford was the Pitt starter in 2002 and 2003. Palko completed 2 of 3 passes in 2002 and redshirted in 2003, the year Fitzgerald finished 2nd in the Heisman voting and allowed him to subsequently bolt for the NFL. We can only assume that Palko would have thrown plenty of deep passes to Fitzgerald if they had been on the field together at any time during their Pitt careers. Who knows, maybe one of those two completions were thrown to Fitz. Dude catches everything, after all. Still, they must have been quite the connection on the practice field.
[Also, it's "Zack" Mills, which is nitpicking because 40% of Penn State fans still make that spelling mistake, but come on -- you work for a newspaper. One of the biggest newspapers that covers Penn State with regularity. Try a little harder.]
In addition, Pitt coach Walt Harris made the precocious freshman star the center of his offense. That wouldn't have happened at Penn State.
Totally. If there's anything we've learned about Joe Paterno, it's that he won't play freshmen if they're truly needed on the field.
That year the Lions floundering program was rekindled by another Larry, Larry Johnson, and his record 2,159 yards rushing. Despite his extraordinary talent, Johnson had to wait behind less talented upperclassmen and did not start until he was a senior.
At Pitt, Fitzgerald's talent made him No. 1 from day one. It's easy to say that a freshmen Fitzgerald wasn't going to turn Penn State into a pass-happy offense. Heck, he might not have even seen the field.
First of all, let's get one thing straight -- Larry Johnson didn't receive more playing time in 2001 because of Larry Johnson. He was a malcontent on a team with a few other pretty good running backs (Eric McCoo and Omar Easy). At some point, the little light bulb in his head lit up and he became the best running back in the country. A Voltron-ish receiver of Larry Fitzgerald duct taped to Cris Carter stapled to Jerry Rice -- let's call him Larcris Ricegerter -- wasn't going to turn Penn State into a pass-happy offense in 2002. We had this guy.
Nevermind the fact that Bryant Johnson was about to become a first-round draft pick and Tony Johnson was a year away from falling apart as a wide receiver. Still, I'm pretty sure that true freshman Larry Fitzgerald could have worked his way onto the field somehow. And if not, hey, he would've been redshirted in order to concentrate on his classes. I realize that's a cardinal sin in modern NCAA football, but it's how things are often done at Penn State. Kids who are academic risks are given time to adjust to their new surroundings.
What about next year? Would Fitzgerald have helped State's moribund 3-9 2003 season? Would he have been featured then? Odds are the answer is yes to both questions.
Odds are? Really? With Tony Johnson and Maurice Humphrey as our primary receivers in 2003? Of course the answer is "yes." Exactly what the hell is the point? That Joe Paterno could have buried Larry Fitzgerald behind Kinta Palmer and Terrance Phillips for four years in Happy Valley? Apparently, only the immortal Wlat could have known that Fitzgerald could have possibly made an immediate impact as a freshman or sophomore receiver. All praise Wlat!
The takeaway from the PennLive item, other than Walt Harris' genius? Penn State was Larry Fitzgerald's #1 choice, but because Joe Paterno decided not to bend the academic rules for an immensely talented high school player, Joe Paterno is at fault and Walt Harris is the good guy for putting the guy on the field as a true freshman.
Also, when a writer wakes up and says "I'm going to use Larry Fitzgerald's success to zing Joe Paterno and Penn State for no obvious reason!", basic logic and minimal research are not requirements for publication.
Copyright 2008 Sportsblogs
Steelers are Super because of Big Ben
PITTSBURGH - There always seems to be a "yeah, but" when discussing Ben Roethlisberger.
Yeah, he went 13-0 in his regular season starts as a 22-year-old rookie, but he was surrounded by great players. All he had to do was stay out of the way.
Yeah, he won a Super Bowl during his second year in the league, but he was horrific in that game (9 for 21 for 132 yards with a pick).
Yeah, he's 51-20 as a regular-season starter and 7-2 in the postseason, but he doesn't play pretty and disciplined. Half his big-play throws have a strong whiff of good fortune to them.
Know what? It's time to take the "yeah, buts" out of the conversation and call it the way it is.
Thanks to the Steelers' 23-14 win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship, 26-year-old Ben Roethlisberger is headed to his second Super Bowl. He is one of the league's three best quarterbacks right now and the arc of his career is putting him on pace to be a legend.
Roethlisberger and that Steelers defense are the reasons Pittsburgh is headed to Tampa Bay to play the Arizona Cardinals. The numbers don't testify, (16 for 33 for 255 yards and a touchdown), but people do.
"His record speaks for itself," said Steelers tight end Heath Miller. "I don't care how he gets the job done. I don't care if he scrambles around and it's not pretty. I just care that he wins."
Said Ravens defensive lineman Trevor Pryce, "I have one piece of advice for the Arizona Cardinals. Don't pass rush. Don't let him play recess football because if you let him play recess football, he's the best in the business."
The recess reference from Pryce was a tribute to the game's biggest play. A scrambling, freelancing, desperation lob to Santonio Holmes that went for a 65-yard touchdown. The play was busted. Just like Big Ben likes it.
"You rush him and that's what he wants you to do," Pryce said. "Beating their offensive linemen is not hard. It seems like they want you to beat them, they want you to get inside and let him go outside and get on the run. And when he does that, he's a playground football player and that's what makes him what he is. And he's a damn good one."
While Peyton Manning and Tom Brady - the consensus best quarterbacks in the league - are surgeons, Roethlisberger's a mad scientist. And his offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians, loves it.
"He's not even close to getting the credit he deserves," Arians said. "He carries this offense on his back. It all falls to him. He loses his main man in Hines Ward (the wide receiver injured his right knee in the first quarter). He gets knocked down over and over and gets back up. The guy's tougher than nails. This is his second Super Bowl in five years. How many guys have done that? He doesn't get near the credit he's due."
With an often porous offensive line and a stuttering running game, this season, the Steelers' offense has been all about Big Ben.
And were it not for another "rabbit out of his hat" touchdown throw to Holmes in Baltimore during the regular season, this might have been a road game for Pittsburgh.
"He's got an unbelievable knack for that," Arians said. "People stay on him to throw the ball away. We say, 'Go create a play.' He creates plays and we score. His creativity is the best in the league. He's an unbelievable player."
So he's an acquired taste. So his numbers aren't going to make fantasy football fans high-five awkwardly. The bottom line is, only one player in NFL history has more playoff wins in his first five seasons in the league. Brady had nine. Roethlisberger now has seven.
And in less than two weeks, he's going to get No. 8. And all the credit he deserves.
(c) 2009 NBC Sports.com
Broncos sending four to post season games
KALAMAZOO - For the first time in Western Michigan football history, four Broncos will be participating in postseason all-star games as Louis Delmas will play in the 60th Annual Senior Bowl and Londen Fryar, Branden Ledbetter and Jamarko Simmons will participate in the Third Annual Texas vs. The Nation Challenge.
Prior to the 2008 season the highest number of WMU football players to earn a spot in a postseason all-star game was two. That feat has been accomplished three times beginning with the 2000 season when Robert Sanford and Steve Neal both participated in the 2001 Hula Bowl.
Jason Babin holds the honor for being invited to the most postseason all-star games with four invites (Blue-Gray Game, East-West Shrine Game, Hula Bowl and the Senior Bowl).
Delmas, who finished the season with 111 tackles en route to earning First Team All-Mid-American Conference Defense, will become the seventh Bronco to play in the Senior Bowl and the first since Babin.
The game, airing on CBS College Sports Network, will be played on Jan. 24 at 3 p.m. in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
Delmas learned of his invitation to the game during preparation for the 2008 Texas Bowl.
Fryar and Simmons learned of their respective invitations just this week, joining Ledbetter who was informed earlier this season.
The trio will join James Blair as the only four Broncos to participate in the game, which will take place in Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala. (site of the GMAC Bowl) on Jan. 31, at 7 p.m., airing on the NFL Network.
Fryar ended his career fifth on the all-time pass break ups list (27), Ledbetter is the only Bronco tight end with six touchdowns in three seasons and Simmons rewrote the WMU receiving record book by becoming the program's career leader in receptions (260) and single-season record holder in receptions (104) and yards (1,276).
These four invitations extends WMU's streak of at least one player participating in an postseason all-star game to six seasons dating back to the 2003 campaign.
Western Michigan laid claim to nine wins in 2008, tying the most in a season in program history, and its second bowl appearance in three seasons.
dowagiacnews.com
Small town fights proposed NFL stadium
Little Walnut, a bedroom community in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, finds itself at the center of the opposition to a proposed NFL stadium in nearby Industry. According to the Tribune, Walnut is the odd man out because other surrounding cities support the stadium:
A leading opponent of a proposed National Football League stadium in the San Gabriel Valley will meet with Industry officials today in an effort to stop the stadium. Walnut Mayor Joaquin Lim will meet with Industry Mayor Dave Perez. Lim has threatened to sue the city of Industry if it approves an environmental report later this month that would allow construction of the stadium to go forward. "We are hoping that Industry will remain a good neighbor of ours," Lim said. "I am hoping that the meeting between Mayor Perez and myself and our staff will be fruitful." The city of Industry is backing the stadium plan as proposed by billionaire land developer Ed Roski Jr., whose company Majestic Realty is headquartered in Industry.
Copyright 2009 Los Angeles Times
Pace, Little, Holt may be finished with Rams
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Three stars from the St. Louis Rams' glory days may have played their last games with the team.
Tackle Orlando Pace, wide receiver Torry Holt and defensive end Leonard Little were all part of the team that won the 2000 Super Bowl and made it to the 2002 Super Bowl.
Holt is 32, Pace is 33, Little is 34. If they stay, Holt would count $10.2 million on the salary cap next season. Pace would count more than $9 million, and Little $7.6 million.
After a 2-14 season that included losses in the final 10 games, the Rams are expected to make significant changes as they begin the effort to rebuild.
Ironically, the Rams' season ended with a 31-27 loss at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the site of Super Bowl 34.
"You go into that locker room and it brought back some good memories of probably the best feeling I've had since I've been here," Pace said Monday as he cleared out his locker at Rams Park. "It's one of those things. It's tough to end the season with a 10-game losing streak. You don't feel good at 2-14. You want it to be over with so you can begin thinking about next season."
Pace, a seven-time Pro Bowl player, had a bit of a comeback year after two consecutive seasons shortened by injuries.
"You know, beside the record, this has been a good year for me," he said.
Holt is also a seven-time Pro Bowler, but had the worst numbers since his rookie season, finishing with 64 catches for 796 yards and three touchdowns. He did not have a 100-yard game.
Holt declined to comment on his future when he last spoke to reporters on Friday. He did say how frustrating this year has been.
"I don't think I've made it a secret, it's been very, very disappointing this season for our football team, for the organization and for me personally," Holt said. "It's been challenging. No one is immune to being released. No one is immune to being released from this organization."
Little had six sacks and two forced fumbles to go along with 18 tackles but played hurt for the second straight season. A hamstring injury slowed him, and he didn't start in the finale.
He doesn't know if he'll be back.
"That's a funny question because I've seen a lot of guys ... like Isaac (Bruce), I thought he would be here forever," Little said. "He's a future Hall of Famer, he's still playing well in the league, and he's not here. That tells me that anything can happen, so I have to prepare for anything to happen.
"I wouldn't mind coming back. They have some decisions to make, I know that. If they don't, there ain't nothing I can do about it."
(c)2008 SportingNews.com
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