After two and a half months of keeping us on pins and needles, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has finally decided to put an end to all the retirement speculation that’s been surrounding him.
Big Ben took to Twitter on Friday to announce that he’ll be returning to the Steelers for the 2017 season.
Of course, not everyone actually saw that announcement because, apparently, Roethlisberger has blocked roughly 90 percent of all NFL writers from viewing his account on Twitter.
Let’s take a quick look.
Blocked. Blocked. Blocked. Katie Nolan EVEN HAS AN EMMY, WHY WOULD YOU BLOCK HER?
If the Steelers offensive line blocked as well as Roethlisberger did on Twitter, maybe he wouldn’t be injured all the time.
ZING.
Seriously, though, he was blocking everyone.
One person who escaped the blocking wrath of Roethlisberger was MMQB.com’s Albert Breer.
By the way, it’s worth noting that although the account is verified, Roethlisberger doesn’t tweet from it. The same team that runs his personal website (BigBen7.com) also runs his Twitter account.
As for the actual announcement, no one was actually on pins and needles over Big Ben’s possible retirement because there wasn’t really anyone out there who actually thought it would happen.
Big Ben’s possible retirement became news in January when he said in an interview that he wasn’t sure if was going to return for the 2017 season.
“I don’t know. It’s one of those things, I was talking to my wife about it last night. I talked to my agent about it, coach about it,” Roethlisberger said. “I’m gonna take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options, to consider health and family and things like that and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season -- if there’s gonna be a next season. All those things. At that point in my career and my age I feel like that’s the prudent and smart thing to do every year.”
Despite the threat, no one in Pittsburgh actually seemed to think Roethlisberger was going to retire, like Antonio Brown for instance.
“Big Ben’s coming back so … just know,” Brown said just before the Super Bowl, via Steelers Depot.
Steelers president Art Rooney II also went on record saying he thought Roethlisberger would return. Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert also said he was under the assumption that Roethlisberger would return. In March, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he was “proceeding” with his offseason plans under the assumption that Roethlisberger would be playing.
The return of Roethlisberger is good news for the Steelers because if he had retired, Pittsburgh likely would’ve been stuck starting Zach Mettenberger or Landry Jones in 2017.
Although Roethlisberger is returning, the Steelers might want to start thinking about who’s going to replace him down the road. The 35-year-old quarterback has only made it through an entire 16-game season one time since 2009, meaning he regularly gets beat up on the field. With Big Ben heading into his 14th season, it wouldn’t be that surprising if he threatens to retire, and then actually follows through with it sometime in the next two-to-four years.