I’m not going to lie, when Ben Roethlisberger retired after 18 years of playing quarterback for your Pittsburgh Steelers, I assumed he would simply disappear from the public spotlight, a la Troy Polamalu (mostly) and Jack Lambert (totally).
I certainly didn’t picture Roethlisberger having a traditional career in the media. I mean, just close your eyes and imagine Big Ben dressed in a three-piece suit and sitting in a broadcast booth alongside Ian Eagle, Mike Tirico or Joe Buck. Try to wrap your head around the idea of Roethlisberger, again, dressed in a three-piece suit, sitting in a studio and talking X’s and O’s with Tony Dungy, Boomer Esiason or Terry Bradshaw.