At the age of two, his parents divorced, his father remarried and when he was eight years old, his birth mother died in a car accident. A very tough stretch of events for anybody, especially for someone at such a young age. Through his youth and into high school, Roethlisberger was a star athlete at numerous sports, which showed when he went on to captain the baseball, basketball and football teams.
Nicknamed "Big Ben," Roethlisberger stands at 6'5" and 240 pounds. Even though he may not have been that big back in high school, his size definitely helped him get where he is today. Despite his obvious skills as a quarterback, Roethlisberger's high school football coach started his own son at quarterback and made him play wide receiver. Roethlisberger started as quarterback in his senior season and garnered enough attention to go to Miami (OH) on a football scholarship.
Big shot.
Roethlisberger redshirted his first year in Oxford, OH and started quarterback for the next three seasons, dominating the college football ranks and proving himself as a legitimate talent at the NFL level. He was chosen by the Pittsburgh Steelers as the #11 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. Pittsburgh had Tommy Maddox struggling as its starting quarterback and wanted to groom Roethlisberger into the quarterback of the future.
Ugh, good riddance.
Roethlisberger was thrown into the fire when Maddox suffered an injury during the second game of the season against the Ravens. Pittsburgh lost that game and were 1-1 after week two and headed towards a season of the unexpected with a rookie quarterback starting the rest of the way. With the help of a outstanding defense and great running game, the Steelers finished the regular season 15-1 and were the #1 seed in the AFC going into the playoffs.
Pittsburgh won its first playoff game against the Jets and then lost to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC Championship game. In the 2004 season, Roethlisberger set the record for most consecutive wins by a quarterback to start his career. At this point, the Steelers ditched Maddox and looked forward to the Roethlisberger era in Pittsburgh. After a 15-1 premiere, expectations could not be higher for Roethlisberger.
He embraced the new role and led the Steelers to a Super Bowl XL Championship a year later over the Seahawks. After an 11-5 regular season, Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh to win three straight games on the road in the playoffs to reach the Super Bowl. Roethlisberger had a bad game, but his teammates bailed him out and the Steelers won their fifth Championship.
One for the thumb, baby!
So at this point you may be asking, "This seems like a whole lot of success, when does the down part of Roethlisberger's see-saw life happen?" Well avid reader, it all went downhill after Super Bowl XL...
So tune in next week for Part II!
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