By Bob Condotta/The Seattle Times
Ben Roethlisberger figures he always will like Seattle a lot more than the city likes him.
“I love Seattle,” Roethlisberger said. “What a great place.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback said he has been to Seattle “two or three times. ... I’m a big outdoorsman, so obviously great fishing up there, and just visiting.”
What Roethlisberger, who ranks 13th all-time in passing in NFL history, has never done in Seattle is play a football game. In fact, CenturyLink Field is the only current stadium in which Roethlisberger has not played - he was drafted in 2004 and Pittsburgh most recently played in Seattle in 2003.
There was a time Roethlisberger might have been viewed as public enemy No. 1 among Seahawks fans for his role in one of the most frustrating games in Seattle history - a 21-10 loss to the Steelers in Super Bowl XL.
Roethlisberger’s 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter - Seahawks coaches, players and fans contend he still hasn’t crossed the goal line - was among several controversial calls in the game that didn’t go Seattle’s way.
The game no longer is the most frustrating defeat in Seahawks history - that “honour” goes to last season’s Super Bowl loss to the Patriots. So the reception for Roethlisberger might a little more muted, he thinks.
“Early on I did,” he said this week when asked if he still hears from a lot of Seahawks fans about the play and game. “I think since they’ve won their Super Bowl and went back to back, I think I haven’t heard nearly as much as I did early on.”
And Roethlisberger actually seems happy to throw Seahawks fans a little crumb that maybe they were right all along.
Asked this week if he thought he scored on the play, which came on third-and-goal at the 1-yard line and put the Steelers ahead 7-3 at halftime, Roethlisberger said: “Absolutely. Referees are never wrong, right?”
Regardless, the Steelers got the win, and a few weeks ago held a reunion of the 10-year anniversary of that game.
That made it sort of odd for Roethlisberger and three other Steelers - tight end Heath Miller, snapper Greg Warren and linebacker James Harrison - who were part of that game and are still playing. (The Seahawks do not have anyone left on the roster from that game, and only two remain active in the NFL _ Hasselbeck, now with the Colts, and kicker Josh Brown, now with the Giants.)
“That’s how you know you’re old when they’re doing reunions and you’re still playing,” said Roethlisberger, who turned 33 in March.
His game is aging well, though. After serving a four-game suspension by the NFL in 2010 because of sexual-assault allegations, Roethlisberger has continued a career that almost certainly will land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He missed four games this season because of a knee injury but has recovered and is coming off one of his better games of the season _ 379 yards and three touchdowns Nov. 15 against the Browns (the Steelers were off last Sunday).
Through the years he has become accustomed to playing home and away games in stadiums filled with fans of the Steelers, of one of the league’s marquee teams. This time, he said he’s looking forward to feeling like a true visitor.
“You hear so much about the 12th man, you hear about how loud it is, you hear about how awesome the fans are, so I’m excited,” he said. “When you play for a franchise like the Steelers, you’re used to seeing a lot of Terrible Towels and a lot of fans and you always want to go to places that have that same reputation.
“I know the team feeds off of it and it’s always an exciting thing, because it is the NFL and you want to experience what it’s like to be around something like that.”
