Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger appeared on The Sirius XM Blitz Thursday with Bruce Murray and former teammate, Bruce Gradkowski.
Roethlisberger explained what it was like for him to sit out in 2019.
“It was tough on the sidelines last year. All of us are competitors, right? We all want to be out there. It’s what we love to do. As a quarterback, you feel like, ‘That’s my team out there and I want to be out there leading my guys. I want to help them and do everything I can, to go through the battle with them.’ And when you can’t do that, it’s so hard and it just tugs at you.”
“It put a little fire into me — this is not the end for me. This is not how I’m going out. I’m going to bust my butt to just give myself a chance to come back and try to be better than ever. I know that sounds kinda crazy; as you get older in life to get better. Your physical attributes might fall off, you might not be as fast or as big or whatever. But you still can be as sharp because you can be mentally sharp and maybe hone your skills differently.”
“I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I still feel like I’ve got gas in the tank and I’m excited.”
While it was difficult for Roethlisberger to watch helplessly from the sidelines, he was thrilled with what he saw from the defense.
“That whole defense was so much fun to watch,” Roethlisberger said. “Guys just stepping up; taking their game to another level. Man, it was fun watching those edge rushers come off the edge. It reminded me of [James] Harrison and [LaMarr] Woodley. It was neat to see in the backend seeing Minkah [Fitzpatrick] and T [Terrell Edmunds] and all those guys.”
Roethlisberger went on to say how the Steelers defense will be such an integral part of their championship run this season.
If the defense plays like it did in 2019 and Roethlisberger doesn’t suffer a setback, there’s no reason why they can’t be in the mix.
