Tobalical: Is Ben Roethlisberger Human?

By: Toby Christie - Follow @Tobalical on Twitter

Ben Roethlisberger suffered what appeared to be a gruesome ankle injury Thursday night as the Pittsburgh Steelers took on their divisional rivals the Cleveland Browns.

With 6:01 remaining in the second quarter Ben Roethlisberger did what he does. He left the pocket to extend a broken play, he was feverishly looking for anything he could downfield to help his team break away from a slim 7-3 margin. However as he was hanging outside of the pocket defenders swarmed, and his ankle was caught in the nastiest of ways beneath the humanity (See Video Here).

The entire city of Pittsburgh collectively gasped. It appeared the Steelers’ season would rest on the shoulders of Charlie Batch or perhaps Dennis Dixon or Byron Leftwich (both of which weren’t even active for Thursday’s game). It was a play eerily similar to the infamous Theismann leg injury.

As Roethlisberger hobbled to the locker room for x-rays, Batch would lead the team toward an equally wobbly finish to the first half.

It was a somber halftime at Hines Field, music was playing loudly, but one look at the crowd told the tale – the air was sucked out of that stadium. It was supposed to be a night of celebration as the Steelers were supposed to easily reach their 10th win of the season against a 4-8 Browns team that had been struggling to find their way.

On NFL Network’s halftime show, Rich Eisen painted the picture perfectly and softened the scene for the news that seemed imminent – Big Ben would be done for a while.

Then something strange happened. The 6’5″ 240 lbs, solid slab of stone that is Ben Roethlisberger came out of the tunnel as halftime ended with his helmet on his head, ready to do work. Really? After an impact that would have, should have snapped anybody’s ankle in two – Roethlisberger was not only back on the sidelines, but he was going to play? Wow.

We already knew Roethlisberger was a tough guy, as his face was at one point attached to a car windshield after a motorcycle accident, but what he showed Thursday night proves that the solid slab of stone, has a large set of stones. He could hardly move enough to perform a simple hand off, but somehow, someway Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown for a 79-yard touchdown late in the game to seal a 14-3 victory for his team.

This gutsy performance begs me to ask the question: Is Ben Roethlisberger even human?