I'll have a Roethlisberger... hold the sex charge

Well this is blog number one, which means there's a good chance no one will be reading it, but it comes at ANOTHER controversial time in the Pittsburgh sports scene. Big Ben has yet again been accused of taking liberties with a young lady, who of course may or may not be telling the truth. But on my way home from work today I was listening to a popular sports talk radio show host, (you should know who, because there is only one popular one in town), and he raised a good question... Have our straight edge, we wont take any crap, image conscious Steelers gradually lost control of the players? Among the recent arrests were Skippy Reed going UFC on a Sheetz paper towel dispenser, among however many other disorderlies he's piled up. But hey you gotta admit it is kinda cool to have a kicker who gets all drunked up as long as hes splitting the uprights on sunday. Plus a little disorderly conduct is nothing compared to domestic abuse and rape, a couple of the Steelers favorites apparently. There was the Najeh Davenport closet pooper incident, which does have a level of hilarity to it until you get arrested. Cedric Wilson was another on the domestic abuse wagon. As well as Santonio Holmes, formerly of "Cheech and Santonio." But back to Big Ben. Guilty or not is yet to be proven, but an old saying goes where there's smoke, there's fire... and this is the second time smoke has come from the same place. I just don't see how he can lack the common sense to avoid the situation. I mean he's 28 years old and hanging out in college bars til 2:30 in the morning, where girls as young as 18 are allowed in but wear bracelets to say that they're underage. There are so many things that can go wrong in that situation where girls are flocking to you in a bar when you are a person of his fame and stature. If you didn't figure it out the first time Ben, you are a target, whether you do anything wrong or not. Is it a lapse of judgement or is it something more? Does he have the same sense of entitlement that Tiger Woods referred to? Is it possible that Big Ben just doesn't care about the rules, or that they don't apply to him? It's hard to say and we will probably never know because it is highly likely that this will either be plea bargained down (see Ray Lewis, same lawyer) or settled out of court. Whatever happens, I think it's obvious the Steelers need to do something about this and attempt to at least calm down his lifestyle a little. The team only has one business objective and that is to win football games, which Roethlisberger has been pretty damn good at, so they need to ensure that he is on the field and not in jail. He either has to tone it down or they have to tone it down for him. He brought the Steelers two Super Bowls and now two sexual assault charges. And those hurt his great quarterback image whether they are true or not. And the fact is we'll probably never know because he hired a lawyer who got a double murder down to an obstruction of justice charge, and i know there aren't too many people who believe Ray Ray didn't have something to do with it.