The Pittsburgh Steelers shocked the sports world by trading Super Bowl XLIII MVP wide receiver Santonio Holmes to the New York Jets for a lowly fifth round draft pick, a 155th overall with no additional compensation. Wow! Jeez! WTF??
Holmes had gotten deeply into the doghouse through his off-field behavior of late when he was accused of throwing a cocktail at a woman in an Orlando night club and cutting her. This wasn’t his first off-field incident involving police intervention.
Both Holmes and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger brought shame upon the staid Steelers during the off-season with their high-profile antics. Trading a starting quarterback would have been cataclysmic; the Steelers would have had to rebuild their offense from the ground up. Therefore, they chose the next best thing, a seemingly untouchable team hero with a year left on his contract. Think Ben will get the message?
Meanwhile, the authorities in Georgia decided not to charge Roethlisberger with assault on the young woman with whom he allegedly had a scene in a night club bathroom. Will Big Ben realize how fortunate he is to have dodged this bullet?
I don’t know. Roethlisberger does not seem to have his head on straight. You would have thought that the motorcycle accident while not wearing a helmet might have knocked some sense into him. He swore he would never do that again — for the team’s sake — but since then, he has found another field of nefarious endeavour — babes. He still has the Tahoe case hanging over him. He needs to learn to conduct his off-field affairs with some class.
I feel that the Steelers organization will probably dump Roethlisberger if he commits one more off-field indiscretion. Trading Holmes had better convince Ben that they’re serious about team discipline.
The league is serious about this off-field crap, too. Rumor has it that Holmes will be suspended for four games for violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy. The Steelers probably had a heads-up on that before they pulled the trigger on this astounding trade.
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jd says
tough situation for the steelers. on the one hand, he hasn’t been convicted of anything. thus, the steelers have no legal reason to dissmiss him. pro athletes are surrounded by gold diggers looking for any reason to make a quick buck over a supposed dispute.
on the other, ben’s rep has now been irrevocably tarnished, taking some steelers luster with him. stories are flying around the ‘burgh about some of his antics on the southside, and it paints the picture of another sociopathic athlete. while i don’t particularly like the steelers (eagles fan), i respect the longstanding relationship the steelers have always had with the community.
i would think its in the best interest of the steelers to do a few things immediately:
1) hire a babysitter. screw counseling, it won’t work while this guy is still in the NFL. although it is noted that it is very difficult to tell a 6’ 6″ super bowl champ ‘NO’.
2) make it clearly known he messes up one more time and he is finished, and they are trading him to oakland.
not that i can really talk as an eagles fan. we have a multiple felon as a backup QB who enjoyed mutilating dogs for fun.
The Nittany Turkey says
Although he hasn’t been convicted of anything, Roethlisberger did violate the NFL conduct policy, which he was contractually obligated to observe. I believe that the Steelers can dump him if they so desire.
The Rooneys have always been “players’ owners” — they’ve always been fair and have gone out of their way to treat their players well. In return, they expect their players to represent the team and the city with dignity. Art Rooney II was completely pissed off at Big Ben when this incident came to light.
The Steelers did put out a couple of feelers around Draft Day, but they deliberately set the asking price for Ben very high. If Oakland or Buffalo would have been desperate enough and bit on it, rumor had it that they would have send Roethlisberger packing.
So, now he has screwed the Steelers much more thoroughly than the girl in the bathroom, jeopardizing their 2010 season. If Charlie Batch and Byron Leftwich were still good enough to be starting QBs, they would be starting somewhere else.
I like the babysitter idea. Maybe he should have a surrogate mother who would be his constant chaperon. I’d say fit him for a chastity belt, but he’s exhibited that he can get his immature ass in trouble in a broad diversity of ways. He’s just got to grow the hell up.
Although I don’t know what has transpired in private conversations between Ben and Rooney or Goodell, I think the Steelers have at least sent some very strong signals that they’re not going to take any more crap from Roethlisberger.
By the way, it was reported by ESPN today that ex-Steeler Santonio Holmes created an incident on a commercial airplane when he refused to turn off his iPod for landing. He was heading for the Mayweather-Moseley fight. The Steelers dumped this clown at the right time.
—TNT