Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger already announced his plans to return for 2018, but it sounds like he may be playing for a good bit longer than that.
According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Roethlisberger has told Steelers teammates that he’d like to play at least three more NFL seasons.
Roethlisberger’s words are particularly noteworthy because he has left the door open to retirement many times before, most notably after last year’s AFC Championship defeat to New England. That comment, however, was possibly provoked by a confrontation with offensive coordinator Todd Haley after that defeat.
Roethlisberger’s new, more optimistic outlook coincides with the expiration of Haley’s contract, and it looks increasingly unlikely that he will return in 2018.
Reports have indicated that Roethlisberger’s relationship with Haley is at an all-time low. It must be pretty bad if Roethlisberger was willing to publicly contemplate retirement because he was so frustrated with him. If there’s any truth to this, Haley is almost certainly on his way out the door, and Roethlisberger subsequently sounds ready to put the annual retirement talk aside for a while.
