While both Mike Singletary and Ben Roethlisberger are expected to be out of the NFL in 2022, there was a time when the two nearly worked for the same organization. According to the Hall-of-Fame linebacker himself, Singletary once vetoed a trade that would have sent Big Ben to the San Francisco 49ers.
Talking with Dan Pompei of The Athletic, Singletary revealed that personnel executive Trent Baalke and 49ers team owners John and Jed York notified the head coach they had an agreement to acquire Roethlisberger back in 2009.
Singletary states that he declined the deal due to Roethlisberger’s then-recent sexual assault claims and that the coach wanted to avoid such controversy, preferring to build his team around players with high character. The former coach also mentions that, if given another chance, he likely would have taken a different approach.
“I had been telling the team I wanted a team of character,” Singletary told Pompei. “I felt I had to be true to that. But if I could do it again, I’d do it differently.”
Mike Singletary speaking about vetoed Ben Roethlisberger trade
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Are Mike Singletary’s claims believable?
Look, people make statements all the time that simply aren’t true. We’re not saying that’s the case here, but it’s never a bad thing to think for ourselves a bit. We’re all human, sometimes things are remembered incorrectly. And we’ve all played the telephone game when we were kids, things get lost in translation all the time, but let’s examine this line of thought a bit further.
In 2009, the 49ers had Alex Smith as their quarterback. He had been selected No. 1 overall just four seasons before. While Smith missed the 2008 season rehabbing from a shoulder surgery, he made 10 starts in 2009. Smith would go on to be the starting quarterback in San Francisco for another three seasons after 2009.
Were the 49ers really ready to move on from their QB before he had even finished his first contract for Roethlisberger? Especially with his allegations, were the 49ers actually interested in Roethlisberger at that point? Not to mention, the Steelers had just won the Super Bowl in 2008, were they really ready to trade their two-time Super Bowl-winning QB the very next year?
There’s no reason to believe Singletary isn’t telling the truth. If he says he vetoed a Big Ben trade, he probably did. Imagine how differently things could have gone for the 49ers had they landed Roethlisberger back when?
Perhaps we’ll never know, but Singletary’s comments have a lot of people wondering, what if? But the bigger question is, would Singletary have been able to win with Roethlisberger? Would he have been able to coach him?
