Breaking Ben News

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Roethlisberger isn’t living with fiancee because of religious beliefsWe knew Ben Roethlisberger(notes) was getting married. Now we know the particulars.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback spoke for the first time this week about his upcoming nuptials. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Roethlisberger confirmed that he's engaged to 26-year-old Ashley Harlan, whom he met during training camp in 2005.

"We were kind of on and off for five years -- almost six years now -- so I've known her for a while," Roethlisberger told the newspaper. "It's not like a random new person. We dated awhile ago; we have been friends ever since."

Roethlisberger and Harlan became engaged around Christmas, but the quarterback refused to talk about the subject during the Steelers' run to the Super Bowl. The 26-year-old works as a physician's assistant in the cardiac surgery department of a Pittsburgh hospital. She attended St. Francis College, where she played softball.



The two are scheduled to be married on July 23, one week before the scheduled start of training camp.

"I think a small part of her is hoping we hold out for a week so we can honeymoon," he said. "I told her I was laughing with coach [Mike] Tomlin; he said 'You guys might have to have the honeymoon suite at Saint Vincent.'" (Isn't he not supposed to be talking to coaches?)

Another revelation in the lengthy interview was that Roethlisberger won't live with Harlan until the wedding because of their religious beliefs. She still lives at home with her parents in nearby Newcastle.

The quarterback insists his engagement isn't part of an effort to rehabilitate his image and there's no reason not to take him at his word. But when he says stuff about cohabitation and religious beliefs, it's fair to say that he's not shying away from using his upcoming marriage to try and restore his good name. Why bother mentioning that if it's not to make yourself look pious and to try and draw attention away from past brushes with immoral behavior?

"People will always have opinions of everybody and me, and that's fine, they're entitled," Roethlisberger told the newspaper. "People can say that it is whatever, but people who know and can see and are around us and know me, know that it's something special when you find that person, and I'm extremely lucky," he said.

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Bringing Sexee Back

LOL or shall we say F-ball! I am soooo missing my fball Sundays....Mondays...sometimes Thurs or Sat's So now i have taken upon a new hobby-watching Nascar or atleast having a few beers and watching the last final laps lol

Countdown to NFL LOckOut

Personally I would just like to hear that this is all over and the next season will begin as planned. We are getting DISH Network and if I don't get to spend my Sunday afternoons watching NFL RedZone, I will not be thrilled. I am also sure that all the Directv customers that paid for the NFL Sunday Ticket will be very p/o.


TODAYS UPDATE:


"If we can make the kind of progress that you needed to make to have a further extension, that's where we'd be looking." -- Jeff Pash, lead negotiator on behalf of the NFL owners

...and that's exactly what happened.

On the heels of a 24-hour extension of the current collective bargaining agreement, the NFL owners and players agreed to further extend the window during which they will negotiate under an active CBA by seven more days.

This was the latest cordial step in what has been some rapid fire fence-mending between two sides that seemed poised to kill the other in a war of public relations, each side answering one e-mail scud with a proportional press release response.

If labor peace is ultimately reached without a work stoppage, ample credit will be given to Commissioner Roger Goodell and the head of the NFL Players Association DeMaurice Smith, but the fact of the matter is that there are two unsung heroes that have brought these two sides to the precipice of labor peace:

1. Judge David Doty, who issued the ruling earlier this week that the owners would not have access to the roughly $4 billion worth of television money for the 2011 season during the lockout, a dollar pool that would have given owners who are using machine guns to fight a bunch of knife-wielding players (figuratively, of course) a cash-flow nuclear bomb. Now there is a faction of owners who have stadium construction bills who will actually feel some semblance of a pinch. In other words, there is an increased sense of urgency on the owners' side.

2. Federal mediator George Cohen, who has been the neutral party in the room that both sides agreed to employ to facilitate discussion and prevent scenes like Jerry Richardson calling Peyton Manning an uneducated hayseed (not Richardson's exact words, but he may as well have said that). Cohen apparently is very good at his job, to the point where if he were a marriage counselor, I think I might still be married. In short, Cohen has been instrumental in making both sides realize that the solutions to the issues are pretty clear (and have been); just stop being such a group of bitches and fix the problems. (Probably not his exact words either, but that's how I'd phrase it.)

So both sides are still talking, there's movement on both sides (albeit slight movement) on things like dollars, 18-game schedules, rookie wage scales, and player benefits. The union is still intact and their decertification (and subsequent lawsuits from Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees....ellipses dots used for every NFL player in order of how good they are.....and finally Kareem Jackson) has been avoided for one more week.

Now, they better get something done soon, because the leader of the free world is not -- repeat, NOT -- getting involved.

President Barack Obama on the NFL labor situation, actual quote:

"We've got owners, most of whom are worth close to $1 billion, you've got players who are making millions of dollars," he told reporters. "My working assumption at a time when people are having to cut back, compromise, and worry about making the mortgage and, you know, paying for their kids' college education, is that the two parties should be able to work it out without the President of the United States intervening."
President Barack Obama on the NFL labor situation, fictional quote about the actual dilemma:

"It's March, and I've hardly watched any college basketball this season. I really need this time to get ready to fill out my bracket. Andy Katz will be here in less than two weeks, I don't have time for football's labor situation. And hold all calls from Muammar Gaddafi, unless he has some insight on 5 versus 12 seeds that I'm unaware of. Can we win the White House pool this year? YES WE CAN!"