Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger turned some heads in 2018 with his public criticism of teammates. According to general manager Kevin Colbert, that’s fine.
In fact, not only is Colbert okay with it, but he wants Roethlisberger’s teammates to listen to him.
Kevin Colbert emphatically endorsed Ben Roethlisberger's leadership, citing impassioned speech at halftime in Jax as one example. Colbert won't curb Big Ben sharing opinions on radio b/c "Ben’s the elder statesman. If the players were smart, they’d listen to him. he’s been there"
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) February 20, 2019
If 2018 was any indicator of what we can expect going forward, Roethlisberger’s teammates will have plenty of chances to listen to him.
When the season was over, he talked publicly about how much the Le’Veon Bell distraction hurt the team.
But his criticisms weren’t limited to absent teammates like Bell, either. Following an upset loss to the Denver Broncos, Roethlisberger ripped rookie receiver James Washington and superstar Antonio Brown.
Whether any individual player likes these comments is really irrelevant. We’d suggest that Big Ben’s teammates find a way to accept them. Roethlisberger has the backing of the front office. As such, we’ll assume that we’ll hear even more of these comments in the coming season and beyond.