Steelers Now
Former NFL running back LeSean McCoy made an eye-opening statement about Ben Roethlisberger when revealing the truth behind Antonio Brown’s Pittsburgh Steelers exit.
“And then your Hall of Fame-caliber quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who they basically babied for years — even when he declined,” McCoy said on Speakeasy. ‘And AB, say what you want about him, he always was productive, he always was a hard worker. So all these things are going downhill for him, and now they ask him to leave? He was mad about that.”
McCoy isn’t the first person to make this claim. Many blame Roethlisberger for preventing the Steelers from drafting a quarterback when he was in the late stage of his career. Roethlisberger was famously unhappy with the selection of Mason Rudolph in the third round in 2018.
It’s 2026, and the Steelers are still in search of Roethlisberger’s replacement. The Steelers tried to replace Roethlisberger with Kenny Pickett, but that effort failed massively.
Off-the-field issues and not being a good teammate were other issues with Roethlisberger.
Former Steelers outside linebacker Joey Porter Sr. reiterated on Cam Heyward‘s podcast in February that he did not like how former Steelers such as Roethlisberger and James Harrison ripped Mike Tomlin during last season. He said Roethlisberger has no place to criticize the Steelers when it comes to leadership and how to handle business. He went as far as calling Roethlisberger a bad teammate and not a good person.
“The shit that [Roethlisberger] do that we don’t talk about, is crazy. Out of anybody that talk, he should never grab a microphone and talk Steelers business. Because if we talking Steelers business, his ass is foul of all foul,” Porter said. “That shit that he did is foul of all foul. He’s not a good teammate. Won a Super Bowl with him. But the person? He’s just not a good teammate. He knows that. Anybody in the Steelers building knows that. I’ve only won one Super Bowl and that was my quarterback. So do I love my quarterback? Yeah. But is he a good person? No.”
Roethlisberger has admitted on several occasions that he wasn’t a good teammate in the early part of his career. Roethlisberger and Porter were teammates for only three years.
“I’d be the first to admit I wasn’t a good teammate early in my career,” Roethlisberger said in 2015. “There are some guys who had animosity towards me, and probably rightfully so. “I probably could have helped that by being a humble guy who was the best teammate I could be.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Super Bowl Champion RB Says Steelers Babied Big Ben for Years
