Former NFL linebacker and current CBS analyst Bart Scott insinuated on Sunday that Roethlisberger plays up his injuries, and the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback did not appreciate Scott’s take.
Roethlisberger injured his knee midway through the second quarter of his team’s loss to the Miami Dolphins, but he ended up finishing the game. It was later revealed that he suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee, but Scott felt at the time that Roethlisberger was embellishing and called him a “drama king.” Big Ben shared his thoughts on that label this week.
“What did I do to deserve that? All I’ve ever done is keep playing and keep my mouth shut,” he said, via Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You just have to shrug that stuff off. But I would tell him to go see John [Norwig] our trainer and check out my medical file. It’s pretty thick. You can’t make that stuff up.”
As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted, Roethlisberger once claimed he played with broken toes in the 2004 AFC Championship Game and former Steelers coach Bill Cowher disputed it. Something similar happened in 2010 when reports swirled that Roethlisberger was playing on a broken foot.
Regardless of what happened in those two instances, Roethlisberger has played through many legitimate injuries. Given the latest report about how long his knee injury could keep him out, it’s safe to conclude this one is as real as it gets. You can’t blame Big Ben for being irritated with Scott’s remark.
