In today’s world of sports, one frisky hand seems to wash the other.
Just when you thought you had heard enough about Eldrick teeing off on anything without a Y chromosome that breathes, the American public cannot help but feast on a steady diet of Roethlisberger.
While the Milledgeville, Ga., police investigation may not have found it necessary to charge the gunslinging Jeff Daniels doppelgänger with any crime, we cannot help but scratch our heads as to how Big Ben was able to get himself into such a big mess.
For Roethlisberger, a handoff to Willie used to be the patented third-and-one play-call. Now, it means something completely different when you have a roided-up bouncer plopping a barely coherent woman on a barstool for Ben to “expose the coverage.” That is if you believe the witness testimony from the police reports.
We want to give Ben the benefit of the doubt. We really do. However, when you have as many Super Bowl rings as rape accusations and the police officer who took the initial report of the incident resigns under the weight of some questionable photos, you may as well be sprinting the green mile of public opinion.
In an era when the NFL is constantly apologizing for highlights — such as Plaxico Burress pulling a Cheddar Bob, Michael Vick hosting doggy Thunderdomes, Pacman Jones just being Pacman and the whole Cincinnati Bengals organization — this is not what it needs from one of its “good guys.”
So we’re pleading with you Ben: take whatever punishment NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hands you and actually learn from it.
