WATCH: Stephen A. Smith gives surprising take on Ben Roethlisberger retirement
It wasn’t unexpected news, but Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger announced his retirement Thursday. The news led to plenty of takes about his career — including an interesting one from Stephen A. Smith.
During Thursday’s episode of ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith weighed in on Roethlisberger’s decision to retire. His response garnered quite a reaction from host Molly Qerim and analyst Dan Orlovsky.
“Thank God,” Smith said. “Thank God he’s retiring. Let me say this. I’m a Steelers fan. … Ben Roethlisberger deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Three Super Bowl appearances. Two-time Super Bowl champion. My gratitude for the tremendous job he did for the Steelers over the years, I can’t say enough about how I feel about the man. I love Ben Roethlisberger.
“He should’ve retired two years ago. … He couldn’t move. Then he hurt his elbow, and I get all of that. So because you’re immobile and your arm was compromised because of the hurt elbow and what have you. The combination of all of those things unfortunately made you a liability, and the only reason we really didn’t say, Dan, that he was a liability is because they didn’t get a successor.”
Stephen A. Smith: ‘I’m looking at [general manager] Kevin Colbert’
As far as finding someone to replace Roethlisberger, Smith didn’t blame head coach Mike Tomlin for sticking with “Big Ben.” He instead turned to the general manager, who he argued should’ve had a plan in place when Roethlisberger wasn’t playing at full strength.
“I’m looking at [general manager] Kevin Colbert,” Smith said. “I’m not saying the man deserves to be unemployed because for the most part, he’s done a good job with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But I kind of think there needs to be a new voice in Pittsburgh making decisions. That’s how I feel about it. … But what I’m saying to you is that when I look at the Pittsburgh Steelers, they were stuck with Ben Roethlisberger because the alternative was a Mason Rudolph or Dwayne Haskins. You never had a successor lined up to really step in and make some noise.
“So you desperately needed a Ben Roethlisberger who you knew through age and attrition wasn’t what he used to be. … We know that Ben Roethlisberger still had his moments even this season. As putrid as that offense was, as anemic as that offense was, I remember one game earlier this year, Ben Roethlisberger was the only one who showed up to play football. He was a warrior out there and the rest of his team sat down and just wet the bed, I get all of that. But in the end, Ben Roethlisberger has pretty much not been Ben Roethlisberger the last couple of years.”