Collecting Ben Roethlisberger Cards : A Personal Dliemma

 

December 10, 1983 to September 26, 2004.

            That’s 7,596 days.

            Or 20 years, 9 months and 16 days.

            In Pittsburgh Steeler time that’s the amount of time in between the final start of Terry Bradshaw in a football and the first start of Ben Roethlisberger in one as well.

            Over 20 years in between franchise quarterbacks for a legendary team.

            And a lot of names came in between them.

            Cliff Stoudt. Mark Malone. David Woodley. Scott Campbell. Bubby Brister. Steve Bono. Todd Blackledge. Neil O’Donnell. Mike Tomczak. Some guy named Jim Miller. Kordell “Slash” Stewart. Kent Graham. Tommy Maddox.

            Granted a couple of guys only started one game. But it does go to show that for some NFL teams, even one as storied as the Pittsburgh Steelers, franchise quarterbacks don’t grow on trees.

            Not everyone can move from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers.

            20 years, 9 months and 16 days.

            Let’s go back to December 10, 1983 for a moment, shall we?

            Like Willie Stargell, I don’t remember a lot about Terry Bradshaw’s playing days. His legend was already sealed by the time I got into cards and into football. I liked him because of his legend. Wanted Terry Bradshaw cards because of those Super Bowls, and the local pride associated with them.

It’s funny to tie civic pride with a football team. Or it used to be to me. I used to shun the collective group-think on football Sundays. As I’ve aged, as I’ve spent almost 20 years away from Pittsburgh myself, I’ve had a chance to think on this and have grown to love and appreciate the special relationship between football team and city. I’ve actually missed being a part of it to some extent, although I still contend that a Steelers win or loss should not be the top news story the following Monday morning.

            And I wish I was old enough to really remember Terry Bradshaw’s heyday.

            But I do remember December 10, 1983.

            That was the last time Terry Bradshaw put on a Steeler’s uniform and started a game.

            I remember the game. Kind of. I remember the Steelers played the Jets. I remember that it was a big deal, Terry Bradshaw coming back this late in the season. He’d missed the first fourteen weeks yet somehow the Steelers found themselves at 9-5. I remember being excited. I remember the game being on loud at home. I don’t remember the two scoring drives. The first one a 17-yard pass to Gregg Garrity. The second score on a 10-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Sweeney. The second drive where Bradshaw felt a pop in his surgically reconstructed elbow.

            But I remember Terry Bradshaw on the sidelines with his head in his hands.

            I remember Cliff Stoudt coming in.

            I remember it feeling like an era was over.

            Topps even immortalized the game in Bradshaw’s last card.

            Or that was the day their photographer was in New York.

            Fun Fact: December 10, 1983 was also the final game the Jets ever played at Shea Stadium.

            Bradshaw played one final game in 1983 and he was the QB card in the 1984 set.

            No one wanted a Cliff Stoudt card.

            It didn’t seem inevitable at the time I got back into card collecting, though it should’ve been, that I was eventually going to start collecting football cards. But I have. Sort of. I’ve been buying cards of Pittsburgh Steelers, off and on, for almost a year now. The legends I grew up hearing about, or seeing the tail end of their careers. Terry Bradshaw, obviously. Franco Harris. Jack Lambert. John Stallworth. Mel Blount. Mean Joe Green.

            You know, all of those guys.

            I’ve managed to get the bulk of Terry Bradshaw’s playing day cards.

            Although his rookie card will allude me until I’m willing to cough up a few bucks.

            I bought some cards of the legendary players I remember best.

            I don't care what people say, I always liked this kid.

            I started collecting the present.

            (A little crooked, sorry...I need to invest in a good scanner if I'm to keep doing this)

            And I started collecting the future.

            But there are a lot of gaps in my Steelers collection. I have yet to buy any Hines Ward, Jerome Bettis or Troy Polamalu cards. Though I plan on it. I’d like to have a Steelers collection that’s pretty representative of the key players who came through the organization. All those great defensive guys. The running backs. The wide receivers. Some Heath Miller cards as I hope to see the second coming in Pat Freiermuth.

            Ah…but there is one guy though.

            And I just don’t know how I feel about collecting him.

            20 years, 9 months and 16 days.

            Okay, maybe 20 years, 9 months and 7 days.

            Let’s visit September 19, 2004, shall we?

            It’s week 2 of the 2004 NFL seasons, and the Steelers are in Baltimore playing division rivals, the dreaded Ravens. Tommy Maddox was starting at quarterback for the Steelers. Tommy Gun as us Pittsburghers called Maddox. Tommy Maddox was a journeyman quarterback who managed to put together two solid starting seasons in Pittsburgh. Us Pittsburghers love guys like Maddox. They become local folk heroes. We give them cool nicknames like Tommy Gun.

            Or The Big Nogowski anyone?

            Anyway, Tommy “Gun” Maddox gets knocked out of the game in the second quarter on a sack fumble. His replacement was 22-year-old Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers 11-th overall pick, drafted just a few months earlier. After a shaky start, an incomplete pass, an interception, the rookie Roethlisberger managed to put together an impressive two touchdowns and 176 total passing yards, in a 30-13 loss.

But Ben Roethlisberger would get the start the following week, our fated September 26, 2004, against the Miami Dolphins. It would be his first NFL win. The first of the next 14-straight. The Steelers would end that 2004 season 15-1, losing in the AFC championship game to the New England Patriots, 41-27.

It would later be revealed after that September 19^th game, that Maddox had a torn ligament and tendon damage in his elbow, and would be out for six weeks.

But by then it didn’t matter.

The Big Ben era had begun in Pittsburgh.

I had my own franchise quarterback.

My own Terry Bradshaw.

And having Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback was everything a Steeler fan could imagine. They won the Super Bowl is in his second season. And then another in 2008. The Steelers went to another Super Bowl in 2010. Ben Roethlisberger, in 18 seasons in Pittsburgh, has never had a losing one. He’s a 6-time pro-bowler. A 2-time Super Bowl champ. Big Ben ranks 5^th in all-time passing yards, ahead of Dan Marino. He’s 8^th in passing touchdowns. Ben Roethlisberger is a Steeler legend. And in 5-years he’s Canton bound.

But then…

There was Nevada.

And then there was Georgia.

Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault. Not once. But twice. The first was from a worker at a Nevada hotel who claimed Roethlisberger had her come to his room to look at a broken TV. He grabbed the women and tried to kiss her. Blocked the door when she tried to leave. Then threw her on his bed and raped her. Roethlisberger denied the claim. The woman was discouraged from filing a criminal complaint. The NFL never punished Roethlisberger and the case was settled in court in 2012.

The second instance involves a 20-year-old college student, who claimed that Ben Roethlisberger raped her in the bathroom stall of a Georgia nightclub in 2010. The woman said that Roethlisberger had been buying her and her friends shots all night. A bodyguard later grabbed her and took her to a waiting Roethlisberger in a hallway. The woman fled to the first door she saw, which happened to be a bathroom. It is alleged that Roethlisberger followed her into the room and raped her in a stall. A medical examination showed the woman to have “superficial laceration and bruising and slight bleeding in the genital area.”

The victim didn't want to go forward with her case.

But the NFL suspended Roethlisberger for 6-games for that one.

But then they reduced it to 4 games…for good behavior?

WTF?

This is still a sports card blog right?

I didn’t collect cards when all of these stories about Ben Roethlisberger came out. If I had, well, I’m not sure what I would’ve done. My inclination is always to believe women in sexual assault accounts. In both of these cases, I believed the women. I stopped being a Ben Roethlisberger fan almost immediately. Yes, I still admired his talents on the football field. I still got excited when he did something amazing. Then the hollowness hit. Nevada. Georgia. I got rid of my #7 jersey. I couldn't honestly support this. And, for years, I watched The Steelers from afar.

I did not have my own Terry Bradshaw.

But here’s where it gets contradictory.

            If our card collections tell a story, then what kind of story would my budding Steelers football card collection tell? A simple blast from the past? One full of some of the best Steelers to play the game? A collection of black and gold with one gaping hole? The decision came down to whether or not I was going to add Ben Roethlisberger cards to my collection.

            My answer?

            I did.

            I even have a couple of favorites.

            

        I don’t believe in cancel culture. Cancel culture is something made up by disgruntled white men

who do not want to cop to the wrongs they’ve done, the people they’ve hurt; and they do this with a 

little help from white women who stand by them, and certain media outlets who act more like right-

wing propaganda  rather than actual news. Personally, I don’t cancel authors. Or actors. Or 

musicians. Or anyone else that has been revealed, in such a fashion, to be a general d-bag. Hell, if I did, 

I’d have no books, movies, or music to listen to.

            I exaggerate…but you get the point.

            I've always made it a point to separate the artist from the art.

            And, I guess, the man from what he does for his sport.

            That said, I do believe in inclusiveness. Instead of cancelling someone, right your damned wrongs. Have more authors of color out there telling their own stories. More Transgendered authors, or actors instead of cis person playing the role. Make your music roster at your big record company more diverse. Don’t just remove someone and move on.

            This is easier said than done in sports.

            At least it was over a decade ago.

            Had Ben Roethlisberger been accused of sexual assault now, he may very well have been booted from the NFL, instead of given a 6-game suspension, I’m sorry, reduced to 4-game, for good behavior. Trevor Bauer anyone? 

               Or maybe he just had to take a stand against systematic racism for that to happen?

             Hmmmmm.....

            The culture is different now. But it’s hard to be more inclusive in a sport that is gendered. The Steelers couldn’t very well replace Roethlisberger with a woman, or add more women to the team. Sports aren’t books, movies, or music.

            I fear I’m getting off track here.

            My point is, if I have a point as to why Ben Roethlisberger cards are in my Steelers collection, is that I want my cards to tell a story. The story. Not including Ben’s cards is an erasure, which, as I’ve stated, I don’t believe in. Having Ben’s cards in my collection works on various levels. One the one hand, the very base hand, I have a collection of cards of one of the greatest Steelers quarterbacks of all-time. On the other hand, having Ben’s cards in my collection remind me of what he did. What men often do. And how they get away with it.

            They remind me of losing my personal franchise quarterback.

            I don’t know how deep into collecting Ben Roethlisberger cards I’ll go. For now, I bought his base Topps cards. And I have his rookie card coming, though it should’ve been here by now. Thanks ComC! I don’t believe I’ll become a Ben collector beyond his base cards. Ironically, I just want some representation.

            Maybe I’ll collect T.J. Watt.

            Like almost all Steelers fans, I paid pretty close attention to Ben Roethlisberger’s final season. I watched the team when I could. While there wasn’t much to be excited about, even though the Steelers somehow managed to secure a Wild Card spot in the playoffs, I found myself cheering at each Fourth Quarter comeback. Excited when the sparks of the old Roethlisberger showed up. I found myself mesmerized by the old clips of Ben Ben in the pocket. I raised my arms and cheered that Super Bowl pass to Santonio Holmes back in Super Bowl XL III. I clapped with everyone else during Roethlisberger’s final game at Heinz Field.

            But I also felt sad.

            Sad because of what happened to those women.

            Sad because we live in a society that allows that to happen to women.

            Sad because men get away with it. Or they get slapped on the wrist.

            4-games for good behavior?

            WTF.

            Least importantly, I felt sad for myself because, Ben Roethlisberger’s actions, made me miss out on being close to all of those years of greatness.

            Mostly I felt glad that Ben Roethlisberger was gone, and it was time to turn the page. The next guy behind center for the Steelers might not be the franchise quarterback. Hell, I can almost guarantee that he won’t be. And we may never see another Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh. It took 20 years, 9 months and 16 days just to get from Terry Bradshaw to him. But I do hope that the next Steeler’s quarterback is someone whom I can root for without feeling a dark pit in the center of my stomach.

            That would be nice.

            But I’m going to put those Ben Roethlisberger cards in my collection. I’m going to put them there and I’m going to use them to remember. Because I can’t think of Ben Roethlisberger without thinking about that woman in Nevada. That coed in Georgia.

And if I’m a true fan, I shouldn’t want to.

Thanks for Reading! Happy Collecting!

In doing research for this I came across a great podcast called Special Teams which actually has an episode on Terry Bradshaw's last game. It looks like it was their actual LAST episode. You can find it right HERE.

The Guardian published a pretty good article on the complexities of cheering on a retiring Ben Roethlisberger, which you can read right HERE.

NEXT FRIDAY: Russell Streur will be back on Junk Wax Jay, discussing Rube Foster, the founder of the Negro National League. I'll be back on February 20th, talking about my Henry Aaron cards, and revisting my quality vs quantity conundrum.