FanPost

PFT (Mike Florio) is Weirdly Obsessed With Ben's Contract Situation

I don't understand the obsession PFT has with Ben's contract.

Over the past month, and the last few days in particular, Profootballtalk.com has had numerous posts about how "underpaid" Ben Roethlisberger is and how his contract situation will be a looming problem for the Steelers this year.

Here's some of the recent headlines at PFT:

Steelers, Roethlisberger running out of time to do new deal

Posted by Mike Florio on July 14, 2014, 2:44 PM EDT


Steelers intend to address Roethlisberger’s contract after season

Posted by Josh Alper on July 25, 2014, 10:11 AM EDT


Roethlisberger contract looms over Steelers’ season

Posted by Mike Florio on July 27, 2014, 2:11 PM EDT


Colbert can’t envision scenario where Roethlisberger would leave Pittsburgh

Posted by Mike Florio on July 28, 2014, 5:02 PM EDT


Steelers seize on Ben saying, "I want to be here"

Posted by Mike Florio on July 29, 2014, 4:32 PM EDT



And here is just a sample of what Florio has written about the situation:
_________________________________________________________________________________________ "Probably because franchise quarterbacks without serious injury questions (Peyton Manning, Drew Brees) rarely if ever change teams, few have taken notice of the situation in Pittsburgh, where Ben Roethlisberger is grossly underpaid and the team won’t do anything about it until 2015 at the earliest." _________________________________________________________________________________________


Um, how is Ben "grossly underpaid?"

For 2014 Ben receives a base salary of $12M with a $7 million "restructuring" bonus- a $19M cap hit, which is the 3rd highest in the NFL for all positions.

His average per year contract ranks 23rd in the NFL, 14th among QBs- a little low for his talent perhaps, but not the federal case Florio is making it out to be.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/ben-roethlisberger/

However, the truth is hardly any contracts see their bloated back end years- EXCEPT Roethlisberger's. Ben HAS pocketed the big back end money on his contract that others only get paid on paper but never in reality.

As we know, no QB in the history of the NFL has ever collected more money on a single contract than Ben Roethlisberger's 8 yr, $100,105,882 contract he signed in 2008.

Look, I'm a big Ben fan, but the one thing he's not is underpaid.

Florio also wrote this gem: (bold emphasis is mine- just note the words Florio uses here)

________________________________________________________________________________________

"I want to be here," Roethlisberger said Monday, after G.M. Kevin Colbert declared that he doesn’t envision a set of circumstances in which Roethlisberger plays for another team. And Steelers.com pounced.

"That’s always been what I’ve said, too," Roethlisberger said. "I said it last year when the erroneous NFL Network reports came out."

The "erroneous" reports from NFL Network, partially owned by the Steelers, were attributed to unnamed Steelers sources. And those leaks may have been calculated to provoke Ben to declare that he doesn’t want to leave Pittsburgh, making it easier for the Steelers to low ball Big Ben and persuade him to accept whatever their best offer is — even if it doesn’t come close to reflecting his market value or making up for the hometown discount he believes he’s already giving the team."

__________________________________________________________________

You got that? Florio is insinuating that somehow the Steelers are involved in planting a fake story that Ben wanted to be traded last year so as to "lowball" Ben later. His reasoning: that because the NFL network is owned by the NFL, the Steelers "partially own" the network, the Steelers must have been responsible for the story. Of course right? Clearly they want to sabotage their best player at the most important position. Makes perfect sense. And certainly Ben would admit to the media if the story was true, right? He would NEVER deny asking for a trade. Nope never. /Sarc off

In the least this is baseless innuendo- at worst, Florio is a liar trying to start controversy for pageviews. Either way, Florio is simply off the rails over this story.

On a funny note, the one article not written by Florio (but by Josh Alper on July 25th) had this hilariously ironic nugget in it: (bold emphasis mine again)

___________________________________________________________________________________________

"Rooney said that the fact that the cap is expected to go up again next season played a role in the team’s thinking as they’ll have more room to deal with Roethlisberger’s contract after being in a tough cap situation this offseason. It will be a while before there’s more discussion of Roethlisberger’s contract, but it should be one of the bigger stories of the next Pittsburgh offseason."

___________________________________________________________________________________________

I guess "it will be a while before there's more discussion of Roethlisberger's contract" meant TWO DAYS LATER when Florio starting in on it again.

I just thought Steelers fans should be aware of Mike Florio trying to insert a controversy into the Steelers' young season when there is none. The guy is pathetic.

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