DOG: Final Word on Big Ben

I have officially had it up to my neck in Ben Roethlisberger stories and speculation. That's both about what happened in that Georgia bar, and what's going to happen to him now that my own speculation has come pretty darn close to the facts as we know them from police reports.

So this is one last post on this subject and then we're moving on, OK? We got a hugely important draft coming up this week. And it's a very deep draft with lots of good players to be found even in later rounds. So let's wrap up the Big Ben keep him/trade him/suspend him/banish him talk and get down to football business. I have been attempting to assemble data for a coherent pre-draft post like last year but this incessant Big Ben bullshit keeps clogging my pipes.

First of all, we need Big Ben quarterbacking our team. We can win games with Dixon but we can only win championships with Ben. It's not for me to say whether he should be suspended or not. Frankly, I don't care one way or the other. And I can see both sides of that argument. If he's suspsended for 2 games or 8 games or whatever, then Dixon needs to step in and win those games. If he's not suspended, that's OK too.

But what Ben needs more than anything is alcohol counseling. I have a saying "When the cops enter your life, something bad has happened. Keep the cops out of your life." Either you did something wrong and they're coming for you. Or someone has done something bad to you. But any way you slice it, when you encounter the cops it's always bad news. When it is necessary to hire cops to escort you, you damn well are looking for trouble or you're being stalked by trouble. Ben needs to eradicate the need for cops to be with him. And the first thing to do is stop drinking!!

Most of the bad stories both on and off the record we hear about Ben occur when he's in a bar or otherwise had a few drinks. That's the cornerstone of his trouble. He undoubtedly has personality flaws too. We all do. But adding alcohol to a flawed personality trait is like pouring gasoline on smouldering embers. What this boils down to in the vernacular of the layman is: It's OK if you're 28 and single to be trolling for pussy. It's not OK to let the alcohol in your motorycyle-accident-crushed brain take over and force yourself on someone to get some. I submit to you that we'd be better off if Ben was the one smoking weed and Santonio was the one with an acohol problem! What the hell, Santonio's gone now anyway.

So what we need to do is help Big Ben with his alcohol and personality issues before he self-destructs to the detriment of the Steelers, NFL, and most importantly himself. In the meantime we need him to play QB for our team. If you thought trading Santonio was a stupid move football-wise, trading Ben is completely off the charts of stupidity. Let's send him a message and punish him in a way he understands and get him some help. The Rooney's did the same for "Tunpike Ernie" Holmes when he shot at cops on the Ohio Turnpike with a shotgun and I believe Ben deserves the same opportunity at rehabilitation.

That's my two cents and my final word on this subject. Now I got to go get my head and arms around this draft analysis, or you 5 or 6 loyal readers won't know what to look for when the NFL Draft goes primetime this week! Actually, this is a hard year, I don't know what to look for either.