polamalubeast
11-07-2014, 05:11 PM
The five best QBs of the 21st century, by any calculation, are Brady, Brees, Rodgers, Roethlisberger and Peyton Manning in some order. Well, every Super Bowl from the one with Janet Jackson’s nipple until the one with the still-mysterious, momentum-turning Superdome blackout involved one of those five guys. They’ve captured eight combined Lombardis and made 13 Super Bowl appearances in all.
Why bring up that Y2K list? For one thing, if you forced me into a 21st Century QB Mount Rushmore decision, I would bump Brees before Roethlisberger. Brees has six career playoff wins, one Super Bowl win and one conference title game appearance. He spent his entire career playing home games in 75-degree weather (San Diego) or indoors (New Orleans). And the team that drafted him eventually gave up on him. Meanwhile, Roethlisberger joined the NFL three years after Brees — right now, he has 10 playoff wins, two Super Bowl wins, three Super Bowl appearances, four conference title game appearances and one of the great throw-and-catches in football history (the Super Bowl winner to Santonio Holmes that beat Arizona). He has also spent his entire career outdoors for the same cold-weather team. It’s no contest. For regular season — Brees. For everything — Roethlisberger.
He’s the most underrated quarterback of the 21st century. It’s true.
Could you argue that the general public doesn’t want to place him on that Brady-Rodgers-Manning pedestal because of whatever happened in that Lake Tahoe bathroom in 2009? That night earned him a six-game suspension from Roger Goodell (eventually dropped to four games) and damaged Roethlisberger’s reputation before eventually being settled out of court. In retrospect, every Goodell suspension seems suspect after how egregiously the commissioner botched Bountygate, then acted irresponsibly, incompetently and maybe even illegally and mendaciously after Ray Rice knocked his wife out (hopefully, we’ll have a result from the hearing about Rice’s re-suspension next week). But Roethlisberger DID act inappropriately, and he DID get suspended, and he DID settle out of court.
I believe that incident affected how many fans regard Roethlisberger’s football résumé as a whole. There’s a mythology that comes with Brady, Manning, Rodgers and Brees — great quarterbacks, great leaders, solid interviews, great “public” people. They say the right things and do the right things. They take extraordinary pains to be thought of as role models. And that’s why they land so many endorsements — because major companies desperately want to associate themselves with those four guys.
Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure that Roethlisberger hasn’t filmed a major commercial since 2009. (I couldn’t find one on the Internet, that’s for sure.) His national profile effectively consists of 16 to 20 football games per year, dozens of press conferences and the occasional “insightful” sitdown with Bob Costas (or whomever) that never reveals anything interesting. And we’re fine with it. That 2009 incident inspired us to collectively reject the mythology of Roethlisberger’s greatness, even though so many went the other way with Kobe Bryant earlier in the decade (in an undeniably similar situation). And that was the case for years and years. Quarterbacks are sacred to us, for whatever reason.
But Roethlisberger’s recent 12-touchdown barrage, and his phenomenal season in general, propelled him back into that Great QB conversation once and for all. You know when I officially realized this? After I read this email from Kurt Hetrick in San Diego:
“Your final Week 9 pick (Colts over Giants) came with the explanation, ‘I’m not betting against great QBs in night games anymore unless they’re going against another great QB. (Sorry, Eli.)” Meanwhile ONE PICK EARLIER you took the Ravens over the Steelers who PLAYED IN A NIGHT GAME, and just one week after Roethlisberger threw for six touchdown passes … which was also what he did this week. He’s been to three Super Bowls, won two and is one of four quarterbacks to win 100 games in his first 150 starts (joining Bradshaw, Montana, and Brady). He’s the only QB with two 500 yard games, one of only two quarterbacks (YA Tittle is the other) with two 6-TD games in a season, and now has 22 TD’s and 3 picks. Even Sammy Jankis wouldn’t have forgotten something in the time period it took to type those two picks. I’ll be waiting for your Zack Mettenberger Titans pick in that Monday Nighter in two weeks.”
In the words of Dave Dameshek quoting Jerry Orbach from Dirty Dancing, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Roethlisberger IS great. Of any quarterback that I’ve ever gambled against or rooted against, Big Ben remains the most terrifying in one specific situation: Three of your guys are about to sack me, only I fought them off like a wildebeest fighting off three hyenas, and now I’m scampering free and I’m about to drop a back-breaking 25-yard pass on third-and-14 on you. Even if he doesn’t routinely throw up video-game numbers, you’d feel 100 percent comfortable riding him for any big game or any season-saving drive. That’s a short list … and he’s definitely on it. Ben Roethlisberger plays quarterback better than just about anybody.
read more
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/revisiting-the-y2k-compliant-quarterbacks/
Why bring up that Y2K list? For one thing, if you forced me into a 21st Century QB Mount Rushmore decision, I would bump Brees before Roethlisberger. Brees has six career playoff wins, one Super Bowl win and one conference title game appearance. He spent his entire career playing home games in 75-degree weather (San Diego) or indoors (New Orleans). And the team that drafted him eventually gave up on him. Meanwhile, Roethlisberger joined the NFL three years after Brees — right now, he has 10 playoff wins, two Super Bowl wins, three Super Bowl appearances, four conference title game appearances and one of the great throw-and-catches in football history (the Super Bowl winner to Santonio Holmes that beat Arizona). He has also spent his entire career outdoors for the same cold-weather team. It’s no contest. For regular season — Brees. For everything — Roethlisberger.
He’s the most underrated quarterback of the 21st century. It’s true.
Could you argue that the general public doesn’t want to place him on that Brady-Rodgers-Manning pedestal because of whatever happened in that Lake Tahoe bathroom in 2009? That night earned him a six-game suspension from Roger Goodell (eventually dropped to four games) and damaged Roethlisberger’s reputation before eventually being settled out of court. In retrospect, every Goodell suspension seems suspect after how egregiously the commissioner botched Bountygate, then acted irresponsibly, incompetently and maybe even illegally and mendaciously after Ray Rice knocked his wife out (hopefully, we’ll have a result from the hearing about Rice’s re-suspension next week). But Roethlisberger DID act inappropriately, and he DID get suspended, and he DID settle out of court.
I believe that incident affected how many fans regard Roethlisberger’s football résumé as a whole. There’s a mythology that comes with Brady, Manning, Rodgers and Brees — great quarterbacks, great leaders, solid interviews, great “public” people. They say the right things and do the right things. They take extraordinary pains to be thought of as role models. And that’s why they land so many endorsements — because major companies desperately want to associate themselves with those four guys.
Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure that Roethlisberger hasn’t filmed a major commercial since 2009. (I couldn’t find one on the Internet, that’s for sure.) His national profile effectively consists of 16 to 20 football games per year, dozens of press conferences and the occasional “insightful” sitdown with Bob Costas (or whomever) that never reveals anything interesting. And we’re fine with it. That 2009 incident inspired us to collectively reject the mythology of Roethlisberger’s greatness, even though so many went the other way with Kobe Bryant earlier in the decade (in an undeniably similar situation). And that was the case for years and years. Quarterbacks are sacred to us, for whatever reason.
But Roethlisberger’s recent 12-touchdown barrage, and his phenomenal season in general, propelled him back into that Great QB conversation once and for all. You know when I officially realized this? After I read this email from Kurt Hetrick in San Diego:
“Your final Week 9 pick (Colts over Giants) came with the explanation, ‘I’m not betting against great QBs in night games anymore unless they’re going against another great QB. (Sorry, Eli.)” Meanwhile ONE PICK EARLIER you took the Ravens over the Steelers who PLAYED IN A NIGHT GAME, and just one week after Roethlisberger threw for six touchdown passes … which was also what he did this week. He’s been to three Super Bowls, won two and is one of four quarterbacks to win 100 games in his first 150 starts (joining Bradshaw, Montana, and Brady). He’s the only QB with two 500 yard games, one of only two quarterbacks (YA Tittle is the other) with two 6-TD games in a season, and now has 22 TD’s and 3 picks. Even Sammy Jankis wouldn’t have forgotten something in the time period it took to type those two picks. I’ll be waiting for your Zack Mettenberger Titans pick in that Monday Nighter in two weeks.”
In the words of Dave Dameshek quoting Jerry Orbach from Dirty Dancing, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Roethlisberger IS great. Of any quarterback that I’ve ever gambled against or rooted against, Big Ben remains the most terrifying in one specific situation: Three of your guys are about to sack me, only I fought them off like a wildebeest fighting off three hyenas, and now I’m scampering free and I’m about to drop a back-breaking 25-yard pass on third-and-14 on you. Even if he doesn’t routinely throw up video-game numbers, you’d feel 100 percent comfortable riding him for any big game or any season-saving drive. That’s a short list … and he’s definitely on it. Ben Roethlisberger plays quarterback better than just about anybody.
read more
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/revisiting-the-y2k-compliant-quarterbacks/