Farewell with a shadow over the glossy cover

In the summer of 2006, Ben Roethlisberger visited Switzerland, Lauperswil im Emmental, this idyll from which his great-great-grandfather left for America in 1873. With his video camera he filmed the peculiarities of Switzerland, the “Swiss Farmers Golf”, as the interpreter called the Hornussen. His trip was a media spectacle, it was acclaimed, and in the end he said: “The longer I am there, the more I become Swiss”. He said the sentence – and never came back.

The question is how joyfully he would be received today. Roethlisberger, 39, is one of the best quarterbacks of his time. He has won the Superbowl twice with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the question is not if, but when he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. There are no two opinions about his sporting merits, even if his age was last seen, he was very susceptible to injuries and sank into mediocrity.

Last week he played his last home game for the Steelers, the audience paid homage to him in the fortress Heinz Field one last time; he was so touched that tears flowed. The “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette” had the headline in huge letters: “Thank you, Ben”, but sold advertising on the front page, a sticker, so that only “… k you, Ben” could be read – and the rest had to think. A four-letter word. Fuck you, Ben, for example.

And actually this confusion is very apt for the debate about what will remain of Roethlisberger’s career, what his legacy is. Because while Roethlisberger enjoys hero status in Pittsburgh and large parts of the National Football League, this is by no means the case in society as a whole.

Earned $ 267 million

Two women testified that Roethlisberger raped them. Once the quarterback reached an out-of-court settlement, and once the investigation was closed due to a lack of evidence. The NFL banned him for a few games, otherwise there were no consequences. He made $ 267 million in 18 years in the NFL.

Both cases were more than a decade ago, dating from 2008 and 2009, well before #Metoo. The NFL has notoriously pardoned offenders, for example Ray Rice could once have returned to the league even after knocking his partner unconscious in a hotel lift.

The climate is changing, albeit slowly, and the question arises whether things would have turned out as pain-free for Roethlisberger in today’s public climate. At least for one of the victims that cannot be said: According to her own statements, one of the women subsequently suffered from depression and had to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic.

Now that Roethlisberger rides into the sunset as an athlete, this is simply faded out in many places. At the Heimdernière last Monday against Cleveland, TV commentator Brian Griese said Roethlisberger was “immature”. A trivialization, but one that cannot surprise anyone, in a country where the president can say “grab them by the pussy” and then declare that this is how men talk in cloakrooms.

The allegations are just as much a part of Roethlisberger’s story as the sporting successes and his other missteps off the field. In the summer of 2006, two months after the visit to Lauperswil, he sustained serious injuries in a motorcycle accident in Pittsburgh – he had been on the road without ID and without a helmet. In those years he seemed to be accompanied by a kind of hubris, it is said that he regularly left bars without paying. As if “Big Ben” didn’t have to pay for his drinks.

It’s different now. As a father of three, Roethlisberger has calmed down. He has gone through a process that he calls purification. In the summer of 2020, he said at a media conference that he used to be addicted to porn and alcohol. But you have to understand that: “We athletes are people like everyone else. We sin too. ”

In the case of Roethlisberger, of course, no longer, of course, he has found God. And if America loves something, it’s repentant members of Christianity. He alleviated the pain of injuries by saying that it was all “God’s plan”. Interestingly, he said nothing about whether sexual offenses are also part of divine will.

Steelers before difficult times

Roethlisberger delayed his resignation for a long time, as the very greats of his guild do in the modern age. But unlike Tom Brady, who won the Superbowl again a year ago at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 44, he couldn’t stop the aging process. Roethlisberger looked fragile in the end, not trained, his Steelers offensive lacked any punch.

The last title was 13 years ago, a 27:23 over the Arizona Cardinals. Since then, the Steelers have often been among the title contenders, but since the last Superbowl participation in 2010 they have only won three play-off games. Difficult years are likely to await the proud, traditional franchise. The team missed building a successor for Roethlisberger; the squad is old, expensive and not particularly talented. An era ends with Roethlisberger’s departure. And it will be a while before the Steelers find their way back to sporting relevance.

Nobody knows what life will have in store for Roethlisberger after his career. He likes golf, hunting and fishing. If he doesn’t want to, he never has to work for a minute again. Perhaps he will remember the days in Switzerland, this strange search for traces in the forgotten homeland. As he strolled through the city in Lucerne, he dictated to a Blick journalist: “Until now, all I knew was that Switzerland had mountains, watches and chocolate. But the fact that there are women here with silicone breasts is new to me … ».

Obviously one can not only look at Roethlisberger’s career from different perspectives. But also Switzerland.