A lot of players don’t get to end their career the way they want to, or even when they want to. In fact, that almost surely applies to the vast majority of players. The storybook ending comes few and far between, as fans of just about any team are probably aware.
Sometimes, it’s just a matter of not knowing when it’s your time to call it a day, or an inability to acknowledge when the time has come. And a lot of people from the outside looking in have concluded that the time has come for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, after a 17-year career that includes two championships and a Hall of Fame resume, to hang it up, including one of his most prominent former teammates.