The recent video of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisbeger throwing passes and ultimately getting his Yukon Cornelius beard removed was posted to his Twitter page. Which, for plenty of Twitter users, made it impossible to watch.
It was impossible to watch because the official Ben Roethlisberger Twitter account has blocked, indiscriminately and perhaps randomly, hundred if not thousands if not tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Twitter users. (Click the link to see if you’re among the blocked.)
Roethlisberger has explained that he doesn’t run the accounts, but that’s a lame excuse. They’re his accounts. Whether he’s the one blocking accounts or someone else is doing it, they’re his accounts. And he knows that the person running his accounts has a hair trigger when it comes to pressing the block button.
“I don’t do Twitter, that’s the funny thing,” Roethlisberger told Scott Van Pelt in 2017, after Van Pelt asked about his own blocked status. “I do not do my Twitter. I do not do Insta — whatever all that stuff is now. It’s not me.
“There is an awesome, awesome woman, Erin [Cox] who runs my website, who does all that stuff for me. And she is one of the nicest, sweetest people around. And if you say something bad, you’re gonna get blocked, I guess. I have nothing to do with it. That’s the funniest part.”
Again, Ben owns the accounts. He could tell Erin to lighten up, Francis. Besides, Ben’s account blocks people who have never even mentioned him, good, bad, or otherwise.
Simms is among the unblocked. Earlier today on PFT Live, we were discussing strategies for getting on Ben’s good side. Simms admitted that he’s a suck-up, a teacher’s pet. So he offered Ben an apple.
“He doesn’t eat apples,” I responded. “Here’s an apple pie. And a gallon of ice cream. And a keg of beer. Now unblock me.”
It didn’t work.