This is Ben Roethlisberger posing with a handful of Milledgeville’s Finest. The gentleman to Big Ben’s immediate right has been identified as Sgt. Jerry Blash, who would field the complaint of sexual assault from that 20-year-old about one after this photo was taken. Of course, the po-po snapped into defense mode.
Police Chief Woodrow Blue said he was not troubled by the photographs, adding that his officers handled the case correctly from the onset. “The photographs did not and have not affected the investigation at all,” said Blue.
And while Blash, an eight-year veteran of the Milledgeville Police Department, was the officer approached by the alleged victim and the officer who wrote the incident report, Blue said Blash had little involvement in the subsequent investigation. –Union-Recorder.
Obviously, the Sarge should have traveled back in time after the complaint and told his past self not to take the picture. Seriously, what the hell is the guy supposed to do? He lives in Milledgeville, Georgia. Big Ben is probably the biggest celebrity he’ll see in the next ten years. But here’s the fun part: other stories of Big Ben behaving like a horse’s ass are finally seeing the light of day. Read the rest of this entry »
I still haven’t found a great way to be critical of this new wave of talk about how the NFL is dealing with concussions, but I find all the discussion a bit condescending. Temporary brain damage could lead to permanent brain damage? Who knew?
The only substantive thing that we’ve heard is that the NFL and the Players were “close” to a deal. Right now, there is no deal, meaning that would be no league-mandated framework that would have precluded Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger from playing. Interesting that it was Roethisberger’s concussion and not, say, the one that Eagles running back Brian Westbrook suffered in Week 7, that prompted ESPN’s foray into Head Trauma 101, including a interview with Hines Ward, who was critical of Roethlisberger sitting out after participating in practice for most of the week. Ward, who has played with a concussion in the past, said the Steelers locker room was “fifty-fifty” on whether Ben should play.
Ward was rewarded for his candor by being labeled as “uneducated” on the “new learning,” as if concussions were now more dangerous than they were five weeks ago. Leading the charge has been Merril Hoge, the former Steeler who’s now trumpeting himself head trauma’s cautionary tale. I lost my vision. I almost died. Awesome, I guess. Hoge retired after multiple concussions in 1994. Hoge has worked for ESPN since 2007…so why bare his soul on-camera now?
Part of it, to me, seems like that ESPN is just kissing Roethlisberger’s ass again. Remember that ESPN sat on the story involving Roethlisberger being named in a Nevada civil suit. Could it be that ESPN is overly defending Big Ben to keep him from looking like more of a Big Gash? And if a new NFL policy was already in place before Ben was bumped, why was nobody (including Hines Ward, his own teammate) not aware of it? Surely the “new learning” would have been absorbed by the players before any of them wound up on a stretcher.
Why would ESPN make the effort to hammer home something that’s so obvious to everyone? The whole thing just stinks. But the irony is that the midst of all this, another NFL quarterback, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, had to leave Sunday’s game with turf toe. Why don’t you testify to Congress on that, Merril?
When Ben Roethlisberger was a late “scratch” in last night’s game against Baltimore, the hopes of Steeler Nation fell upon the narrow, womanly shoulders of Dennis Dixon, who was the third-string QB just last week, before Big Ben got his bell rung and backup Charlie Batch injured his wrist. Dixon played very well for a guy that entered last night’s tilt with one career NFL pass, taking his team into OT against the Ravens. And then…
[Ravens defender Paul] Kruger intercepted a Dixon pass to set up a 29-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff with 6:42 left in overtime, and the Baltimore Ravens outlasted the Steelers 20-17 on Sunday night.[..]
“To be a part of that victory is huge for me,” said Kruger, a rookie playing in only his fourth game. “It was a designed blitz. I was the dropper. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
Dixon said, “It was a situation where they were disguising the blitz throughout the whole game. We saw it. I basically tried to trust my instincts. The guy made a good play.” –FOX Sports.
Dixon finished 12/26 for 145 yards, with a TD pass and TD run along with that pick. And then he probably ate a sandwich or something, because football makes a lot of people hungry. We’ll have more on the concussion stuff later, but in other NFL news, the Colts are still perfect and Eric Mangini still sucks.
So that “concierge” from the Reno Harrah’s that filed a civil lawsuit against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has quit her job at that hotel, according to sources confirmed by Pro Football Talk. And I understand that said job was not necessarily prefixed by “blow” or “hand.” Yes, we just recycled a joke from three hours ago.
The woman was not forced out from her job, but she resigned reluctantly after returning to work.
As one source with knowledge of the situation told us, “She quit when she couldn’t get any colleagues to sign on with her and they began to avoid her.”
That’s too bad. I mean, her civil suit blew up and now she’s apparently unemployed, but at least the Steelers are out of first place in the AFC North. I wonder if someone could hire her to fall on Troy Polamalu’s knee. She asked with her eyes, didn’t she Ben? She asked with her eyes…
By now, you’ve already learned that Pittsburgh beat Tennessee 13-10 (OT) in a four-star NFL opener last night. Noteworthy items from the game: Al Michaels’ hair looks even faker this year, and Troy Polamalu was injured in the first half and is expected to miss 3-6 weeks after spraining his MCL.
With the score tied late in the fourth, 10-10, Hines Ward fumbled deep in Titans territory for what could have been a game-changing turnover. A score from Ward–or even a “knee” and subsequent field goal–would have locked up a win for the Steelers. But after recovering the fumble, Tennessee, pinned at their own 4-yard line with less than a minute to play, chose instead to run out the clock and seek his team’s fortunes in overtime. The call seemed like a no-brainer at the time, even after Pittsburgh marched the field and scored on the extra period’s only offensive drive. But in settling for OT, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher might have cost his team their best chance to win.
A lot of people hate the NFL’s overtime format–where the first team to score wins, regardless of whether each team gets a chance to play on offense–but it is what it is and we won’t debate that here. But the one thing for which nobody ever gives the NFL credit is that their extra frame creates more incentive to win games in regulation than any other.
True, Tennessee had no possession in OT, but Jeff Fisher was aware of that possibility, as he was also certainly aware that his defense had no answer for Ben Roethlisberger [363 yards passing, 1 TD, 2 picks]. Instead of working with that possession he did have, Fisher forfeited it and hung his hopes for a win on a coin toss. And nothing about the ending to last night’s game was more unfair than that.
The Reno, NV resort employee who filed a civil lawsuit against Ben Roethlisberger last month is getting desperate. Okay, more desperate. Ooh, that’s a clever burn, because I insinuated that she was already…eh, you get the idea. She’s trying to settle, according to reports on a county filing late last week:
The conditions are that: first, he must admit that he assaulted her; he must deliver to her a letter of apology withdrawing “the false statements and allegations that he and his agents have made about her.” And, lastly, he must donate $100,000 to the Committee to Aid Abused Women in Reno, Nev., “or a similar entity designated by the plaintiff.” via.
You can guess what happens next. [He fixes the cable?] I’m ready for this whole story to go away, so it’s nice to see it finally winding down. Who knows whether or not Roethlisberger’s camp will file a countersuit against the woman, the hotel, the city of Reno, America, Jesus Christ or the Easter Bunny. I’d argue that it’s mighty difficult to besmirch an idiot that quarterback that can’t ride a bike without nearly killing himself. If I ever learn how to read, I’ll be a great lawyer.
