The Last Laugh
The Ravens ran an extremely petty “tribute” video of Ben Roethlisberger getting sacked over the years … then lost
Sunday was supposed to be Ben Roethlisberger’s last NFL game. They were on the road against the Ravens, a division rival thought to be a Super Bowl contender just a few short weeks ago. They needed help from the Chargers and the JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS. It was all but done and dusted. Then football happened.
The Steelers squeaked by in overtime on Sunday while the Colts got crushed by the team with a stadium full of clowns and the Chargers called the timeout heard around the world. Suddenly Big Ben’s swan song got an unexpected encore. This was less-than-thrilling news for the purple people eaters of MT&T Bank Stadium, but it was made even worse in context. The Ravens made a point of saying they would not run a tribute to Big Ben during the game. Instead they flew in the NFL’s leading Big Ben Sacker Terell Suggs for the festivities:
Then, late in the game, they ran the “tribute” they promised they wouldn’t, which was just a montage of Big Ben getting sacked over the years.
In a vacuum this is fine. You don’t have to like your rivals. You should respect them, but even that’s not mandatory. If you’re going to pull stunts like this, however, you damn well better win the game. At the very least, you better score more than 13 points, and the Ravens couldn’t even do that.
So there you have it. Roethlisberger will end his career 19-11 against the Ravens, including two playoff wins, but most importantly he gets the last laugh. They don't give out trophies for that, but they should.