Cook: Steelers' Roethlisberger takes step in reformation
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Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shares a laugh with Byron Leftwich during practice at the team's facility on the South Side Wednesday.
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One day, a disheveled young woman, in a cold police interrogation room with her face blurred to protect her identity, is on tape accusing Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of unspeakable acts and taking what didn't belong to him. The next day, a boyish-looking Roethlisberger, in a bucolic setting at his family's farmhouse, is telling KDKA-TV sports anchor Bob Pompeani that he never intended "to gain the whole world and lose my soul." Has there ever been more jarring, contradictory video? I don't know about you, I'm on sensory overload.
It's easy to imagine Roethlisberger as a monster after watching the tape of a 20-year-old college student telling investigators that he raped her in the bathroom of a Milledgeville, Ga., nightclub March 5. Yes, her statement, which was released Wednesday along with dozens of recordings by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, had inconsistencies. Yes, she admitted to being intoxicated at the time of the alleged incident. And yes, Roethlisberger was not charged with a crime.
But there's no doubt Roethlisberger's actions that night were deplorable. Can you say creep?
But it was a much different Roethlisberger who showed up on our living room televisions Thursday, not just on KDKA at 6 p.m. but with WTAE-TV news anchor Sally Wiggin at 5. These were his first, much-anticipated, sit-down interviews since the unpleasantness in Milledgeville. He was contrite and apologetic. He appeared sincere, although the depth of that sincerity won't be fully determined for days, months, even years and then only by his actions. He was especially compelling when he described himself to Wiggin as "immature, young and dumb," and said, "I've made a lot of mistakes and I'm sorry for them. I've done dumb things. I know that. But those chapters in my life, I've closed that book ... It only matters what I do from here on out, That's what I'm excited about, showing people, proving to people, the fans, my teammates, my family, the [NFL] commissioner, everybody, who Ben Roethlisberger is and that Ben is here to stay."
First Published June 11, 2010 12:00 am
