Ben Roethlisberger is many things. Here, we'll focus on two elements — his toughness and his predictability.
There's a chance the quarterback returns to Pittsburgh's lineup Sunday against Baltimore, about three weeks after meniscus surgery. The Steelers were calling him a true game-time decision as of Sunday morning, but both he and his coach said something similar on Tuesday.
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"I think all cards are on the table and we’re going to get let this process of practice be our guide, whether or not they play or, if they play, how much they will play," Mike Tomlin said at his weekly news conference.
Anyone paying attention should've had an inkling as to how this would play out. This is how Roethlisberger operates; he did the exact same thing during the 2015 playoffs, and he's done it several other times in his career.
Roethlisberger's injuries tend to follow one of two tracks. Track 1: He takes a hit that would permanently break most other QBs, leaves the game for a bit, then returns. Track 2, which we seem to be in the process of witnessing, is a little more complicated.
The upshot: Both involve, in some way or another, him defying some set of expectations, set by ... whoever. This does not make him overly dramatic or dishonest. Just predictable. He heals quickly, and when he has something that needs healing, we'll all know it. If anything, he talks too much.
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1) He'd get the initial diagnosis. In this case, he and the team were optimistic that he'd miss one game post-surgery, giving him nearly three full weeks between games, thanks to Pittsburgh's bye week.
2) Stuff would start to surface, some of it directly from him, implying that he'd miss a little more time than initially believed. Lo and behold, he said this to Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Oct. 19:
"Doc says my knee looked good, but there still was some stuff in there from when I had my bone bruise last season in St. Louis," Roethlisberger said from his North Hills home. “He said that might keep me out a little longer than just a simple meniscus tear. Maybe an extra week or so. But there’s no way to put an exact timetable on it. It all depends on my pain and how I feel.”
ESPN's Adam Schefter advanced that last weekend, quoting a source who believed Roethlisberger wouldn't just miss the Ravens game, but the following week against Dallas.
"Ben always puts a premium on the Ravens game, but it's awfully early," one source close to the situation said Thursday. "I'd be nervous about it. It could be Dallas (in Week 10) or even the week after.
"I would guess we're still a few weeks out."
3) Now, the pump was primed for Roethlisberger's condition to improve. Again, voila — he practiced with limitations on Monday, and by Tuesday was calling himself day-to-day on his radio show.
"(I'm) taking it one day at a time," Roethlisberger told Cook and Andrew Fillipponi (via 247 Sports). "A key is how it reacts to one day of work. (Playing on Sunday is) always the goal. It’s AFC North football, it’s Baltimore. You just have to be cautious of looking too far ahead. You just have to take it one day at a time."
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That doesn't much sound like a dude who's going to miss two more games, let alone one. It's also, nearly verbatim, what he said back in January.
He played then, and you should expect him to play Sunday, too.