Ben Roethlisberger is arguably the greatest quarterback in Pittsburgh Steelers history. However, it wasn’t too long ago when Roethlisberger made his displeasure with the franchise drafting a quarterback while he was still on the roster public.
Now, that quarterback, Mason Rudolph, is back with the Steelers, and Roethlisberger is clarifying exactly how he felt toward Rudolph at the time.
“When they drafted Mason, I made comments about, and I don’t even remember my comments. But it was like, why did we draft Mason? It wasn’t a shot at Mason. I didn’t have a problem with Mason,” Roethlisberger said, according to Steelers Depot.
“They could have drafted Patrick Mahomes, whoever. It wasn’t a shot at the person. It was how are we making our team better by drafting a guy in the [third round] … I would’ve said the same thing if they would’ve went, we had Maurkice Pouncey, if they would’ve went and drafted a center,. ‘What are we doing? Go find a need in the third round.’ I don’t have a problem with Mason. Are we boys?
“Are we friends? No. We don’t need to be though. But I’m rooting for him. I want him to be successful. I want him to lead this team. Both fans, and I’m sure some media people pick up on this that will totally disagree. Think everything I say is is full of crap. And most of them probably have never played or been in the situation anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”
Fans reacted to the news on social media.
“Summary: this isn’t a shot at Mason, I’m just saying I’m better, I’ll always be better, and he isn’t going to help this team because he is going to spend his career on the bench. No offense, rooting for you,” one fan commented on Twitter.
“Love Ben, but he didn’t embrace him as teammate at all. Had he tried to take him under his wing, Mason may have been our starter past 5 years with solid growth and success,” one Steelers fan added.
“They had just come off the loss to Jacksonville in the playoffs. They were in the middle of a run. Ben wanted to win right now. Players like Orlando Brown and Mark Andrews were taken after that pick. That’s the point and the only point,” someone else added.
It’ll be interesting to see if Rudolph responded to the comments.
