During this week’s visit to London, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said that he wants to finish his career with more Super Bowl rings than the four won by former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
It won’t be easy for Roethlisberger to win three more Super Bowls and it will be impossible if he isn’t healthy enough to remain on the field. It’s a good thing for him, then, that his offseason knee surgery has left him feeling like he traveled back in time.
“It feels great, it feels better than ever, like it’s a brand new knee and I feel younger than ever, I feel good,” Roethlisberger said during an interview with 7msport.com that was filmed in front of the Big Ben familiar to those who think football is a sport played largely by kicking the ball.
Roethlisberger doesn’t do any kicking, so he won’t have to stress his knee that way, and he’s never been much of a runner. His knee needs to be sound enough for him to maintain his escapability in the pocket and it sounds like he’s confident he’ll be able to do that come the start of the season.
Roethlisberger has only played all 16 games once in his career, so the fountain of youth he feels he’s discovered hardly guarantees that he’ll be in the lineup every week this season. That helps explain why the Steelers actually did go younger at backup quarterback this offseason, acquiring Bruce Gradkowski and Landry Jones to replace the well-seasoned Charlie Batch/Byron Leftwich tandem.