Thursday

Roethlisberger sorry he got caught up in Big Ben alter ego

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is profoundly sorry for his behaviour and says that he won’t go back to being to the ego-driven, rude and boorish caricature called Big Ben.

“I got caught up being Big Ben the whole time. I lost track of who Ben Roethlisberger was. It’s not something I’m proud of,” he told WTAE, one of two TV Pittsburgh stations granted the first detailed interviews since a 20-year-old college student accused him of sexual assault in March.

“Big Ben just kept building up. It ended up coming off the field. It kept taking over. Superman kept taking over Clark Kent and you just never saw who Ben Roethlisberger was any more. At the time, I didn’t see it. I was gaining everything but I was losing a lot of who I was raised to be,” Roethlisberger told KDKA.

The interviews were aired one day after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation aired 60 audio and video clips from the investigation. In many of them, the 20-year-old says she felt powerless to stop Roethlisberger from having sex with her in the bathroom of a Milledgeville, Ga., bar.

Ben Roethlisberger was prone to anger: Accuser

“I’ve wanted to apologize to them (fans) for so many things. For being immature, for being dumb, for being young, for not knowing any better,” Roethlisberger told WTAE. “For getting caught up in everything that was thrown my way. … In my heart, I know I haven’t been the best person, the best quarterback for the Steelers, I’m not talking just on the field, I’m talking off the field.”

Though he was not charged, Roethlisberger was suspended 6 games by commissioner Roger Goodell, a suspension that can be trimmed to 4 for good behaviour. Part of his suspension included behavioral evaluations. He told both TV stations that  he did not have a drinking problem.

“Moving forward, you have to make sure you make the right decision, and that right decision is something I’m going to have to make, when that (alcohol) situation presents itself,” Roethlisberger told KDKA. “You can’t stop living, but you’ve got to live smart.”