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Report: Steelers source says Ben trade rumors have 'zero truth'

The energy of this story appears to be limitless, as we head into Week 2 of Ben Roethlisberger trade innuendo.

By Neal Coolong
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sport

The "Ben Roethlisberger Trade Rumor" carousel continues to spin one week after a report alleged Roethlisberger would seek a trade this offseason.

Jason La Canfora adds a new adjective to his source, thumbs his nose at NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and throws a bucket of water on the entire ordeal.

La Canfora writes Sunday reports hinting at his request for a trade have "zero truth, are fabricated and are totally, totally false." That quote is attributed to "Steelers high-ranking sources," so in the battle of power, "high-ranking" trumps your standard plain source, which is roughly what Rapoport equated his to.

It's getting more entertaining the bitterness and personal feel of this whole situation. Other Steelers sites went after Rapoport so aggressively, they were blocked on Twitter. Local media in Pittsburgh battled among each other.

What's getting lost in all of this seems to be the fact the initial report had Roethlisberger planning to request a trade; how the Steelers organization can refute that with anything more than their own opinion (as worthy of consideration as it may be) is unknown. Whether the team received a call from another team asking about Roethlisberger's availiability, simply put, it doesn't really matter.

In reality, it makes perfect sense for another team to seek Roethlisberger via a trade. He's scheduled to make $12.1 million next year (which is about 60 percent of one Joe Flacco) and he's a proven franchise quarterback. The Steelers saying they aren't interested in trading him isn't something about which outrage should be generated. It's $12.1 million in cash, but it's a $13.6 million cap hit.

Just as vehemently against this deal for the sake of trading a franchise quarterback, the Steelers should be for taking on an enormous cap burden.

Top to bottom, the NFL's salary structure and cap were implemented in such a fashion it protects owners and general managers from themselves. Whereas the NBA had to go as far as to implement a system in which the difference between salaries in a trade could only be a certain percentage, the NFL has cap penalties that restrict teams from signing players to huge deals, then trading them away later.

In other words, NFL owners have to sleep in the bed they made.

Roethlisberger can (or cannot) request all the trades he wants (or doesn't want). This is not about who is reporting this or who is wrong. It's about the fact it's financially irresponsible for the Steelers to make this move in the first place.

Outside of that, it really is getting confusing why this matters so much to national media, other Steelers sites or even to Steelers fans.

We promise, though, our message will change, should Roethlisberger end up getting traded. We just don't see that happening.

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