Steelers' Roethlisberger Reported To Be Out For Sunday Night

According to the earlier FanPost plus seemingly confirmed by ESPN, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger will sit out Sunday night's key AFC North matchup at the Baltimore Ravens. Due to continuing headaches from his recent concussion that has not gone away, the Steelers and Ben will play it safe by not subjecting him to further damage and what could already be a post-career lingering condition.

Lots of Ravens fans would prefer to play and beat the Steelers at full strength but I say a win is a win and whomever lines up under center will be our target all night long. Looks like Dennis Dixon, out of Oregon, will be the starter and be backed up by Tyler Palko, who was signed off of the Practice Squad. Roethlisberger will be dressed as the third string QB, but only play in the event both of the first two guys are taken out of the game, which is unlikely.

The issue of repeated concussions among NFL players has recently been upgraded to a critical discussion item, as evidenced by the interesting article in October's issue of GQ Magazine (I highly recommend finding and reading the fascinating article!), as well as the pressure by physicians on the league to take a stronger stance about how to deal with this responsibility. So many former players have had issues related to the concussions suffered during their playing days, only to find the NFL leadership balked at responsibility and try to downplay the effects as not only flawed evidence but going as far to deny many former players the disability payments they so richly deserve.

Hopefully, Roethlisberger's attention to his own health will be a wake up call for the rest of the players in the league, as well as those who run it, to take a closer look at the effects on the players in the past who have had so many side effects including dementia, psychotic behaviors and even early death.

(See ESPN story here.)