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Roethlisberger suspended 6 games(officially), Stealers contacting teams about trading him

oldschooler

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AmishBengalFan Hall Of Fame

AmishBengalFan

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Ben's Reno Victim has just taken her previous settlement offer off the table. She had only asked for an admission of guilt, a letter of apology, and a donation to an abused women's group that would amount to 7-1/2 minutes of his gametime salary. (He makes $12.75M, or just a hair under $800K per game. $100K is 1/8th of a game, half of a quarter, 7-1/2 minutes)

Linky: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/04/first-roethlisberger-accuser-says-settlement-offer-is-off/1

[quote][b]First Roethlisberger accuser says settlement offer is off[/b]
USA Today Online - Apr 22, 2010 - 8:34AM

There's a new twist to the accusations of sexual assault against Ben Roethlisberger. The first woman to accuse the Steelers quarterback has said through her attorney that she's no longer willing to settle her civil suit under previously offered conditions.

Reno attorney Calvin R.X. Dunlap told Dan Majors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "The deadline for that has passed." Dunlap represents a 32-year-old woman who claims Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her at the Harrah's Lake Tahoe resort in 2008.

The settlement offer was made in September, one month after the woman filed her case. It asked that Roethlisberger admit the allegation was true, write a letter of apology and make a $100,000 donation to a Reno group that aids abused women.

The lawsuit is stalled as the Nevada Supreme Court considers a change-of-venue appeal by Roethlisberger that asks to move the case from Reno to Lake Tahoe.

One more factor, if the case goes forward, is the request from Roethlisberger's attorneys for the accuser to undergo a psychiatric examination.

The accuser's attorney in turn asked for "a reciprocal examination" of Roethlisberger. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's suspension of Roethlisberger Wednesday said the quarterback "must undergo a comprehensive behavioral evaluation by medical professionals.[/quote]
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[b][url="http://twitter.com/espn"][color="#0a0501"]espn[/color][/url][/b] [url=""] [/url] Sources: Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger deal extremely unlikely - [url="http://tinyurl.com/39mdx4d"][color="#0a0501"]http://tinyurl.com/39mdx4d[/color][/url]
[url="http://twitter.com/espn/status/12657846525"]19 minutes ago[/url] via [url="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/"]API[/url]
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Oldcat Hall Of Fame

Oldcat

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[quote name='oldschooler' date='22 April 2010 - 01:15 PM' timestamp='1271967328' post='880397']
[b][url="http://twitter.com/espn"][color="#0a0501"]espn[/color][/url][/b] [url=""] [/url] Sources: Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger deal extremely unlikely - [url="http://tinyurl.com/39mdx4d"][color="#0a0501"]http://tinyurl.com/39mdx4d[/color][/url]
[url="http://twitter.com/espn/status/12657846525"]19 minutes ago[/url] via [url="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/"]API[/url]
[/quote]

Ben will be celebrating at the Pitt U Campus Bar Restroom.
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AmishBengalFan Hall Of Fame

AmishBengalFan

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Apparently just the name "Roethlisberger" is causing problems at the Pittsburgh Zoo...

Linky: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042302059.html
[quote][b]Pittsburgh zoo scrubs Roethlisberger reference[/b]
The Associated Press
Friday, April 23, 2010; 10:04 AM

PITTSBURGH -- Disgraced Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been traded for NHL Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux - at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.

Roethlisberger's name has been replaced with Lemieux's on a display that compares the height of elephants with other creatures. Zoo spokeswoman Tracy Gray says some zoo [b]visitors had expressed concerns about Roethlisberger's name on the display[/b]. She says Lemieux, the retired Pittsburgh Penguins star and team owner, is well-known and approximately the same height as Roethlisberger, about 6-foot-5.

The NFL has suspended Roethlisberger up to six games for his actions at a Georgia nightclub where a 20-year-old college student accused him of sexual assault last month.[/quote]
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AmishBengalFan Hall Of Fame

AmishBengalFan

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Crowd at NFL Draft let their feelings be heard

Even though Roger trotted out a Make-a-Wish kid to try to deflect any ire from the crowd related to Ben Roethlisberger's rapine of America's youth, the crowd at Radio City Music Hall made loud and clear their feelings toward Roethlisberger and the Steelers organization.

Linky: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/2010/04/23/2010-04-23_crowd_at_2010_nfl_draft_lets_ben_roethlisberger_know_what_they_think_of_pittsbur.html
[quote][b]Crowd at 2010 NFL draft lets Ben Roethlisberger know what they think of Pittsburgh quarterback[/b]
BY Gary Myers AND Kevin Armstrong
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS - Friday, April 23rd 2010, 1:57 AM

So this is how things will go for the Steelers this season in the wake of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger being suspended after being accused of sexual assualt in Georgia. When it was announced that Pittsburgh would be making the next selection in the first round, fans in the Radio City crowd started chanting, "She said no!"

Commissioner Roger Goodell then stepped onstage with Zachary Hatfield, 16, from the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. They then booed the pick, but the chanting was quelled by then.[/quote]
The article then goes on to ask what would've happened had the Giants selected Roethlisberger - as was their intent until the Chargers offered them a trade for Eli Manning - and speculates that if Roethlisberger couldn't stay out of trouble in Podunk, Ga, "can you imagine what would've happened in Manhattan?"
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AmishBengalFan Hall Of Fame

AmishBengalFan

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Even the terrorists think Roethlisberger should "stop being a frat boy and grow up"

Caution: This article is from Al Jazeera. Linking to here could get you some unwanted attention by your IT bubbas.

Linky: http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/2010/04/20104239413373685.html
[quote][b]'Big bad Ben' is banned[/b]

He needed a wake-up call and a kick in the pants. And he got both from the head man in American football. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and two–time Super Bowl winner, Ben Roethlisberger, was slapped with a six–game suspension by the NFL this week for not complying with the league's "personal conduct policy".

It stems from a second incident in two years involving allegations of sexual misconduct by the 28-year-old Roethlisberger.

Given the reports of his antics, everyone knew this suspension was coming, but nobody knew how severe it would be. Six games is a lot. It's one-third of the NFL season, and the Steelers, who won the Super Bowl in 2009, are pretty much lost without "Big Ben" at the helm. That was clear last season, when he was injured and they missed the playoffs entirely.

But this move was necessary.

Roethlisberger is a great player, and a great leader on the field, but the guy is a mess away from the game. [b]He repeatedly shows bad judgement, puts himself in places and predicaments he shouldn't, and frankly needs to stop being a "frat boy" and grow up.[/b]

[b]Assault claims[/b]

Accordingly, the NFL's commissioner, Roger Goodell, handed down the six-game punishment even though prosecutors in the state of Georgia last week decided not to charge Roethlisberger in a case involving a 20-year-old college student who accused him of sexually assaulting her in the bathroom of a local bar.

As part of the suspension, Roethlisberger also must undergo a comprehensive behavioural evaluation, and there's a chance he could have his six-game ban reduced to four games if he shows proper contrition and behaves well in the view of evaluators and of Goodell.

This is a bit of an odd case because Roethlisberger is the first player ever to be suspended under the NFL's "conduct policy" who was not arrested nor charged with a crime. However, there are suggestions of an ongoing behavioural issue. He was also accused of sexual impropriety by a woman in Lake Tahoe, Nevada two years ago, but she later dropped her complaint.

Roethlisberger's actions have angered the team ownership and the fans in Pittsburgh, and he has lost sponsors because of the scandal. There is also now some suggestion that the Steelers are willing to listen to offers to trade Roethlisberger away from Pittsburgh if another team is interested and if the offer is right. He will also lose money. A lot of it. His salary $471,000 a game, so if he does have to miss six games, then "Big Ben" will be out some $2.8 million.

[b]Brand and image[/b]

The consensus on radio call-in shows and among columnists seems to be: "Just throw touchdowns Ben, stop trying to throw away your career. If we want trashy stories, we'll look in the tabloids or watch the TV reality shows."

As the most popular and successful of American sports, the NFL is very protective of its brand and image, and since Goodell began running things, he has been quick to banish or dispatch transgressors who run afoul of the law, or generally misbehave. To date, none of the players who have had to be punished has been as famous or high-profile as Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers, but his sentence is a cautionary tale for others in American football who contemplate bad behavior.

Maybe they should just play, and perform their magic on the field and then try to carry themselves with dignity off the field, because it's clear with Roethlisberger's suspension that no player is bigger than the game, and all will feel the wrath of the commissioner if they stray and if they embarrass the mighty NFL.

[i]Brendan Connor is a former Al Jazeera sports correspondent with an encyclopaedic knowledge of sport on the American continent.[/i][/quote]
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AmishBengalFan Hall Of Fame

AmishBengalFan

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Mods - A request. Can we merge all of the Roethlisberger threads into one? We can update the thread title any time there's breaking news (like when his next victim comes forward or when he's traded to the CFL). The temptation to start a new thread when a new version of the same deconstructive story is revealed - like I did when his THIRD allegation came out - but in retrospect I'm thinking that "one thread to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" is probably the way to go.

That and it'll give our posters a one-stop shop for all their Roethlisberger-is-a-shithead needs. :)

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Jamie_B Hall Of Fame

Jamie_B

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Sounds like Cowher thinks he did it.

[quote]Bill Cowher supports suspension for Ben Roethlisberger, says Steelers right to give him second chance
08:30 AMYahoo! BuzzShare
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2 Recommend Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher said he supports the six-game suspension given to Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger and doubts the Steelers would consider trading him because of their heavy investment in the two-time Super Bowl winner.

Cowher won a Super Bowl with Roethlisberger as his QB in 2005. He said the suspension handed down by commissioner Roger Goodell was appropriate:

"I think it sends a very strong message that your conduct is something that you're going to be held accountable for. [b]It was well documented what took place, obviously no charges have been filed to this point, but that still does not dismiss any NFL player from the responsibilities that come from their actions when they're in the public eye.[/b]"

Roethlisberger apologized on Monday and said he would not appeal the suspension for violating the league's personal-conduct policy.

The Steelers said this weekend they're committed to allowing Roethlisberger a chance to reclaim his reputation.

Asked if Roethlisberger was liked inside the Steelers' organization, Cowher said:

"I think we like anybody that can help us win football games. I think there's no question that this guy, on the football field is tremendously respected by his teammates and he's respected by opponents. He's a talent. The guy is an unbelievable competitor. He's got a great feel for the game, but certainly with some of the things that have been brought on in the last couple of years, it kinda puts a damper on it. I think again, as you know, the bottom line is trying to win football games."

-- Sean Leahy
Hat tip: Sports Radio Interviews

[url]http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2010/04/bill-cowher-supports-suspension-for-ben-roethlisberger-says-steelers-right-to-give-him-second-chance/1[/url][/quote]
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Elflocko Hall Of Fame

|Elflocko|

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[quote name='BengalBacker' date='29 April 2010 - 10:31 AM' timestamp='1272562301' post='884882']
Eminem's song lyrics include, "I'd rather turn this club into a bar room brawl. [b]Get as rowdy as Roethlisberger in a bathroom stall.[/b]"


[url="http://www.wpxi.com/news/23295769/detail.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss"]http://www.wpxi.com/...d=cmg_cntnt_rss[/url]
[/quote]


:24:

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MAGICTOUCH Super Bowl Champ

MAGICTOUCH

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Stopped in Findlay to get something to eat last night on our way to a soccer tournament. WOW. Girls wearing beaters and a general "backwoods" feel from everyone there. Almost can't blame little jen from wanting to escape that, however knowing where he came from and who he tries to be is comical. You can take the boy out of the backwoods but you can't take backwoods out of the boy.
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Squirrlnutz Hall Of Fame

Squirrlnutz

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/04/rapelisberger-t-shirt-off_n_562525.html

[b]'Rapelisberger' T-Shirt Offers New Way To Taunt Ben Roethlisberger [/b]

[quote]Just when it seems Ben Roethlisberger may have turned a corner and that his alleged sexual assault scandal may finally be dropping out of the day's news, something new pops up. When it looked like the NFL Draft would bury Roethlisberger for several days, jeering fans made sure nobody forgot about the Steelers quarterback.

On Monday, it was reported that Roethlisberger spent the weekend being evaluated at a clinic.

Now, a new product is available for fans who want people to remember Roethlisberger's most controversial moments, and this one may be available even if the NFL stops selling customized THERAPIST Steelers jerseys. An enterprising shirtmaker is selling "Rapelisberger" T-shirts for $14.99, complete with a "no means no" badge on the front.

The shirt's web site claims that the items are "a must have for Cleveland, Cincinnatti, and Baltimore fans." Demand is purportedly "overwhelming."
[/quote]
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[b][size="5"]Head injuries may offer insight into Roethlisberger's recent behavior[/size][/b]
[b]

Dr. Jordan Grafman[/b] has never examined nor met [b]Ben Roethlisberger[/b], and yet listening to him talk about the people he studies, it's as if he's describing the troubled Steelers quarterback.

Grafman is a neuropsychologist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and for decades he has studied the effects of brain trauma on Vietnam veterans as well as civilians. "My specialty is frontal lobes," he says, referring to the part of the brain involved in regulating a person's judgment, inhibition and social behavior. "A person with damage might not read the intentions of a woman at a bar very well, for example," Grafman says. "They might succumb to more primitive urges instead of saying, 'I shouldn't do this because it affects my career.'"

It is exactly Roethlisberger's apparent lack of inhibition, foresight about career repercussions and poor social judgment -- and perhaps his inability to judge the intentions of women -- that currently have him suspended from the NFL following two separate accusations of sexual assault, one in Georgia and one in Nevada. Roethlisberger spent the weekend undergoing an evaluation, mandated by NFL commissioner [b]Roger Goodell[/b], to see whether past brain trauma -- a 2006 motorcycle accident and a batch of concussions suffered on the football field -- has anything to do with his behavior.

I spent last week in Pittsburgh reporting [url="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1169185/index.htm?eref=sisf"][b][color="#ec2c21"]this week's SI cover story on Roethlisberger[/color][/b][/url], and found that his social indiscretions appear to be wide-ranging and chronic. Interestingly, the anecdotes I heard about Roethlisberger's conduct in Pittsburgh sound a lot like Grafman's description of an individual with frontal lobe damage.

According to Grafman, two particular behaviors are endemic to people with moderate or severe frontal lobe injury, or to people with more mild but repetitive injury: 1) violating social rules by saying inappropriate things, and 2) saying appropriate or typical things in an inappropriate context.

"If you're married and you're flirting with another woman in an elevator with your wife next to you," Grafman says, "that's the kind of clearly inappropriate behavior." Roethlisberger is not married, but one man told me that Roethlisberger had asked out his wife while the man was present.

"Say somebody comes into the room dressed like an idiot," Grafman says. "You might say something about it, but you'd whisper to your friend, not to the person. If you say it to the person themselves, that's a violation of social rules."

Another person told me that Roethlisberger said aloud to a friend, "I didn't know you like fat chicks," referring to a woman standing near the friend. According to the account relayed to me, Roethlisberger proclaimed this loudly enough that it was clear that he had no regard for whether the woman heard or not.

Granted, as Grafman notes, "we all say inappropriate things sometimes," but "it's the frequency with which it happens, and the unawareness. When you have a frontal lobe injury in particular, you often become unaware of your inappropriate behaviors. The observations usually come from wives or children." A typical situation in my reporting last week was something like this: I would hear that Roethlisberger had, for example, said inappropriate things to waitresses at a restaurant or walked out on a bill, so I would call the establishment. "I don't know if he walked out on a tab here," would be a typical response from whoever picked up the phone, "but he was really rude to my friend after he invited her over to his table." Tales of indecorous acts abounded.

It seems that Roethlisberger has attained a sort of legendary boor status in Pittsburgh. But my experience has been that hometown fans are generally reticent to speak ill of their star's off-field behavior unless it gets really bad or really prevalent. The sheer magnitude of incidents in this case is overwhelming, again bringing to mind Grafman's statement that "it's the frequency with which it happens" that might indicate a frontal lobe injury.

The frontal lobe is not finished forming until the middle or even late 20s. Grafman notes that teenage boys generally stumble through relationships with girls, trying to figure out what to say and how to interpret when a girl's physical gestures are inviting contact. "Socially finessing those circumstances takes time and experience and further maturation of the frontal lobe brain tissue," he says. "If you're in the middle or even late period of that development, maybe 14 to 28 [years old]," Grafman says, "and you have a brain injury, it's going to make it that much more difficult to resolve social behaviors so that you're acting appropriately as an adult."

In addition to inappropriate social conduct, Grafman says people with frontal lobe damage may not be able to resist certain behavior even though it is clearly not in their long-term interest. In short, people with frontal lobe damage are more likely to flunk the famous [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWW1vpz1ybo"][b][color="#ec2c21"]"marshmallow test,"[/color][/b][/url] in which kids are given a second marshmallow if they have the discipline and foresight to hold out from eating the first for a specific period of time.

As this week's SI story reports, Roethlisberger seems to have failed some of his personal versions of the marshmallow test, not only by engaging in impulsive behavior, but by returning to helmetless motorcycle riding within months of the accident that nearly killed him.

Granted, Roethlisberger's conduct might also sound a lot like a description of a man in his 20s with a $102 million contract who is a deity in the town where he lives and plays. [b]Michelle Rouda[/b], 24, used to work in the VIP section at the Pittsburgh bar Margarita Mamas and remembers years ago the first time she saw Roethlisberger: "He ordered a bottle of Patron," she recalls, "and I looked up at him and he was chugging it standing on a table and there were all these girls reaching up to him and he was dumping tequila on people." It doesn't take a cubist's imagination to see how something short of brain damage might alter the rules of social engagement just a tad for someone in Roethlisberger's position.

The question now is whether the doctors evaluating Roethlisberger can possibly tease apart the quarterback's original personality (as altered by stardom) from any potential effects of frontal lobe damage. "Is this from a motorcycle accident, or is this his true personality? I don't think anybody's going to know for sure," says [b]Stuart Silverman[/b], a Pittsburgh neurologist who has worked with professional athletes, but not with Roethlisberger. "You'd have to find out what his grade school teachers thought of him," he added half-jokingly.

According to reporting done by SI writer-reporter [b]Andrew Lawrence[/b] in Findlay, Ohio, where Roethlisberger attended high school, the quarterback was generally liked and respected and not associated with tales of misbehavior. So is the change due to money and stardom, or brain damage? "I'm not sure who's going to figure that out," Silverman says. "These are multifactorial things. There are multiple possible components, and in someone like [Roethlisberger], I'm sure it's multifactorial."

NFL teams use the ImPACT test, which gauges things like memory and focus, to see whether a player is still suffering from a concussion -- Roethlisberger has had at least four of them. A healthy player takes a baseline test, and then repeats the test after a concussion until he once again reaches his baseline score. But that kind of cognitive testing isn't going to indicate frontal lobe damage. "That really comes from the observations of others," says Grafman.

If doctors conclude that Roethlisberger's behavior is the result of brain injury, the treatment, Grafman says, is to manage his environment and keep him out of precarious social situations, a difficult task at which his bodyguards/woman-wranglers fared exceedingly poorly. In time, a person with frontal lobe injury can be trained to control his or her social behavior.

If doctors do decide that Roethlisberger's misconduct was spurred by brain trauma, the deeper question for the NFL will be determining whether to fault the motorcycle accident or the battering that he has taken on the field -- 242 sacks and at least four concussions. If doctors suggest that Roethilisberger's social development is stunted, and that hits he has taken on the field are, at least in part, responsible, imagine the instances of football players' inappropriate behavior that might be viewed in a new light.



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