Commentary
Roethlisberger will spend his first year on the bench PITTSBURGH-Welcome to the Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger.
Prepare for plenty of classroom work during the week and a lot of sideline standing on Sundays.
The Steelers drafted Roethlisberger on the first round with the idea he’ll be the quarterback of the future.
The future, however, isn’t the 2004 season.
This is the year to let Tommy Maddox start and let Roethlisberger learn.
ESPN recently did a behind-the-scenes feature on Carson Palmer, the first overall pick in last year’s draft.
Palmer sat behind veteran Jon Kitna with the Cincinnati Bengals last season.
There is such a steep learning curve for quarterbacks at the NFL level that nearly all of them can use a year’s apprenticeship.
Attend the meetings. Watch the tape. Take advantage of the one-on-one tutoring that position coaches can offer. Absorb the game from the sidelines. Get used to the pace.
Even for players who come from big-time college programs – which Roethlisberger did not have to adjust to a much higher level of competition in the NFL. There’s much more precision involved because the players are so much better. The margin for error is thin.
Maddox’s bruised feelings aside, the Steelers are in an enviable position. They have two experienced quarterbacks and don’t need to rush Roethlisberger.
At the first interception or the first sack, there will be people calling for a switch to Roethlisberger. The Steelers are going to have to give him a large signing bonus and that might seem like wasted money when he spends game days on the sidelines.
But that’s where he belongs for this year. There’s much to learn. Give him a chance to get accustomed to the new environment before expecting him to jump onto the fast lane.
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It’s understandable that Maddox would be upset with last weekend’s developments but what choice did the Steelers have?
They had the opportunity to take a player they believe can be a franchise-type quarterback.
Maddox’s opportunity with the Steelers only came about because of the staff’s dissatisfaction with Kordell Stewart.
Circumstances change and decisions are made.
Maddox can’t be expected to like it but he should understand it.
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If you want to know how sad the Pirates’ situation has become, you should have been around on Monday night when about 6,000 people were in the stands for the game against Cincinnati.
That means that whatever stimulus the new ballpark was for business, it isn’t now. People aren’t going to buy tickets to watch bad baseball in bad weather, no matter how nice the park is.
Selling hot dogs for a dollar didn’t seem to make much of a difference, either.
The Pirates will draw their bigger crowds on weekends in the summer months.
But when it’s all said and done, they’re doing about the same amount of business they did at Three Rivers Stadium.
So much for a publicly funded ballpark being the salvation of the franchise.
By the way, the coffee and ice cream place that’s located within the ballpark complex along Federal Street will be moving out shortly.
The space will be taken over by the newsstand currently doing no business on General Robinson Street.
To date, the only significant success in the immediate neighborhood has been the extra-loud bar on the corner across from the left field entrance.
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The Steelers did themselves no favors with the print media by selecting players with names like Roethlisberger and (Ricardo) Colclough on the first two rounds.
Spell check doesn’t help much on those.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycoscom