BIG BEN GETS AN X-RAY

From the gloom of a Super Bowl week chock full of the same-old canned sound bites comes the first juicy tidbit regarding, you know, the game itself. We’re told by a source with knowledge of the situation that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger underwent an X-ray on Wednesday on his ribs. The specific reason for the X-ray isn’t known, and Roethlisberger didn’t appear on the Wednesday injury report. But Roethlisberger was on the injury report last week, due to an apparent back injury he suffered during the AFC title game against the Ravens. A source close to Roethlisberger tells us that the Wednesday X-ray likely represented an effort to monitor the situation. So if the injury still presents enough of a concern to justify an X-ray, shouldn’t Roethlisberger at least be mentioned as fully participating in practice despite his lingering injury? We’ve sent an e-mail to the Steelers requesting confirmation of the X-ray, but we have yet to receive a response.