Who Cares How a Quarterback Treats Women?

The title of this post is intentionally provocative. It, of course, refers to the rumors that the Pittsburgh Steelers are shopping troubled quarterback Ben Roethlisberger due to his recent behavioral issues that led the NFL to suspend the player for the first six games of the 2010 season. Reading comments on various websites most Browns fans are opposed to acquiring Roethlisberger either because of the excessive demands of the Steelers, dislike of the player who has been the face of a hated division rival, or most frequently disgust with his treatment of women. I could understand and agree with all those reasons for not wanting the Browns to trade for Roethlisberger. However, there was also a lot of folks who strongly disagreed. I can't understand all their reasons. Some asserted how awful the Browns have been over the last decade. Can't argue with that one. Some lamented the crappy quarterbacks currently on the roster. I wouldn't argue that point either. However, quite a few expressed the sentiment of the title of this post "If he can play football who cares how he treats women?" Well, there are several reasons to care. First and foremost, the quarterback is the public face of the organization and automatically a team leader. Picking up a player with his recent history sends the message that the Browns endorse and accept his behavior. A lot of the team's fans are women and the rest have mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters. Right or wrong, many of us would feel the team was excusing Roethlisberger's actions by picking him up.

Separately, from a football standpoint it would also be a suspect move. Everyone mentions his two Superbowl rings as evidence of his greatness. Nope, not buying it. The rings can be evidence of team greatness, but on their own are not necessarily indicative of individual greatness. Also, they tell us about the past not the future. His main positive is his strength and ability to take a hit without going down. However, he has also had a few injuries and has shown poor judgment both on and off the field.

Bottom line: There are many reasons to oppose the notion of overpaying for an overrated player that is suspended for a quarter of the upcoming season and could be suspended for good if he screws up again. He may go on to have more success in the league, but you don't bet your team's future on the slight chance that Roethlisberger will suddenly start exercising good judgment.

Browns Beat the Steelers!!!!!!!!!!!

The Cleveland Browns are in the middle of another miserable season. However, tonight we saw a flicker of the light at the end of the tunnel. They played great defense, no seriously, great defense and beat the defending Super Bowl champions 13 to 6. The defense sacked Roethlisberger 8 times (EIGHT SACKS!) and for the first time beat a Steelers team quarterbacked by the Miami of Ohio graduate.

Josh Cribbs, like usual, was the biggest offensive weapon. He averaged over 20 yards on kickoff returns and over 30 yards on punt returns. He isn't a running back (played quarterback in college), but he rushed for 87 yards on 8 carries. That's 10.9 yards per carry for those scoring at home. For good measure he also caught one pass for nine yards. Give him a couple games balls and sign him to an extension!

Oh yeah, and another thing, Cribbs also leads the team in tackles on special teams.

I Wonder if Newspapers Have Considered Using Proofreaders???

When making comments dismissive of blogs, newspapers usually point to their layers of fact checkers. The problem with that line of attack is the frequency of errors they make in their reporting. Most of their errors stem either from their inherent biases causing slanting of a story or from their ignorance leading to their accepting as fact statements that are far from proven. However, this post is about the volume of mistakes that could be avoided simply by hiring (and using) proofreaders. I could probably cite hundreds of examples. A couple weeks ago the Cincinnati Enquirer had a story about the finding of the body of a murdered census worker in Kentucky. In the article they said his body was found around 50 years from his truck. I assume, they intended to say 50 yards from his truck unless his truck was found during the Eisenhower administration. Here is an example from today's Cleveland Plain Dealer:

What if Ben Roethlisberger played for the Browns:Cleveland Browns morning news roundup

October 14, 2009, 8:15AM

The CantonRep.com plays the what if game when it comes to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. What if Roethlisberger played for the Steelers?

What do they mean "What if he played for the Steelers?" He does play for the Steelers. Obviously, the writer intended to ask "What if Roethlisberger played for the Browns? This one is almost excusable since the writer had to check several times to make sure he spelled the player's difficult name correctly.

Separately, to answer the Roethlisberger question, if drafted by the Browns he would have been poorly coached and left to wallow behind a substandard offensive line and likely injured and out of football by now.