Ben Roethlisberger came out in defense of Derek Carr amid accusations the Oakland Raiders quarterback has lost the locker room over allegedly crying on the field during a recent game. While Carr has denied the incident occurred, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback doesn’t have any issues had his fellow signal-caller showed such emotion.
“I think as men in general we all need to show emotion,” Roethlisberger said this week, via PennLive. “I think there’s a misconception that as men we shouldn’t show emotion. And I think that’s wrong. I think we need to show emotion, whether it’s at a movie if you want to cry if it’s funny, if it’s sad. If [you] want to be around your wife or girlfriend, just because you cry doesn’t mean you’re any less manly. I think that, that’s a false narrative.”
As noted, Carr issued vehement denials via Twitter on Tuesday about his questionable status in the Raiders’ locker room. First, he took issue with the notion that he has a “fractured relationship” with his teammates, specifically due to his purported on-field crying during the Raiders’ 27-3 loss to the Oakland Raiders in London on Oct. 14.
Carr then entirely disputed the notion he actually cried in the first place.
Roethlisberger circled back to the argument whether or not Carr cried even matters during this week’s comments on the controversy.
“And so when it comes to football, if something hurts … I mean he might’ve been hurting, who knows? I know I’ve cried in the locker room before from both joy and pain,” Roethlisberger added. “You lose a football game, if you’re not showing emotion, if he’s not — or if he gets up from something like that and he’s laughing, then he’s going to get chastised for not showing enough emotion. So, I don’t know exactly the story you’re talking about, but I don’t think it makes us any less manly to show emotion.”
Carr presumably will be quite encouraged to hear that a fellow NFL quarterback made such supportive comments, even if it does little to change things for him in Oakland.
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