Ben Roethlisberger Nearly Left Steelers

PITTSBURGH — Ben Roethlisberger’s career was spent entirely with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two-time Super Bowl champion played 18 seasons in the Black and Gold, cementing himself as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks of all-time.

Now that Roethlisberger is retired, it’s easy to forget how difficult the last few years of his tenure with the Steelers was. As the veteran QB aged, the Steelers wanted to find a successor, something that Roethlisberger pushed back on throughout his career. There was even a point where Big Ben was unsure if he would return to the Steelers, and he recently spoke about it on the Sports Spectrum podcast.

”At the end of my career, I had a chance to go play somewhere else, and I chose not to,” he stated. “I chose to go back to Pittsburgh, one last year, because I couldn’t see myself anywhere else.”

Unfortunately, Roethlisberger didn’t reveal what time he was referring to. Instead, he discussed why he ultimately turned down the offer and returned to Pittsburgh to close out his NFL career.

“Eighteen years with one team, it felt too special,” he explained. “It killed me. I was a Joe Montana guy, to think of him with the (Kansas City) Chiefs, or those guys that went to other teams, it’s like, ‘No, don’t do that.‘”

To piece together some of Roethlisberger’s comments, this likely happened following the 2020 season. He had come back from a devastating elbow injury suffered in 2019 and looked excellent. Still, the Steelers were uncomfortable paying their 39-year-old QB an enormous salary. That’s likely when other teams reached out and pitched themselves to Roethlisberger.

The Steelers and Big Ben came to a new agreement before the 2021 campaign. They restructured his contract to reduce his salary, and that ended up being his final year in the NFL.

Overall, Roethlisberger ended his career with 249 NFL games, 247 of which were starts. He compiled a record of 165-81-1 with the Steelers, as well as 64,088 passing yards and 418 touchdown passes. His two Super Bowls stand tallest in the history of the organization, and thankfully he never had to wear another uniform while in the NFL.