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On Wednesday the Pittsburgh Steelers players took a vote on who they would like to be the team’s 2017 Most Valuable Player (MVP). When all the tallies were totaled, it was Antonio Brown who received the honor for the fourth time in his NFL career.
Quite an amazing feat, considering no one has ever won the MVP award four times in Steelers history. However, when I saw the news come through regarding Brown’s achievement, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What about Ben Roethlisberger? You know, the guy throwing Brown the ball?!”
After doing a quick search, I was stunned when I saw Roethlisberger has only been named team MVP once in his career, 2009. That’s it.
When I did some more digging, I was shocked to find only four times a quarterback has been named Steelers MVP, since 1969 when they started keeping tabs of the honor.
1977 - Terry Bradshaw
1978 - Terry Bradshaw
2001 - Kordell Stewart
2009 - Ben Roethlisberger
Now, Steelers fans should know outside of Bradshaw and Roethlisberger the Steel City hasn’t been known as a quarterback factory, churning out talented throwers left and right, but Roethlisberger has re-written almost every Steelers passing record, and is arguably the one player this team can least afford to lose, and still succeed.
When Roethlisberger was asked about the MVP award, he said he voted for center Maurkice Pouncey. No surprise. Roethlisberger is always willing to gloat over his linemen, but, in my opinion, Roethlisberger only being named MVP one time in his lengthy career just seems wrong to me. He hasn’t always been a model citizen/teammate throughout his career, but his play on the field certainly has been worthy of more than one MVP.
Time to check in on the other outstanding content outside the walls of BTSC...
The New England Patriots bought themselves a late Christmas gift when they signed free agent linebacker James Harrison to a one-year contract yesterday. The 39-year old was available after the Pittsburgh Steelers, with whom he spent the vast majority of his NFL career, released him on Saturday after he had played only 40 defensive snaps in the five games he appeared in this season.
Despite his limited playing time through the first 16 weeks of the season, Harrison is an intriguing addition to the Patriots. Let's take a look at what signing him therefore means for the team.
It’s the final week of the 2017 NFL season, which means it’s the final chance for the Cleveland Browns to get a win this year. Turning the “0” in “0-15” to a “1” won’t fix everything that ails the team but will at least allow them to end the season on a relatively higher note. The only problem is that the 12-3 Pittsburgh Steelers stand in their way, and though the AFC North champions have a playoff spot and a first-round postseason bye locked down, there’s still enough for the Steelers to fight for to make things difficult for the Browns on Sunday.
James Harrison made no secret of his displeasure over the fact he wasn’t playing much for the Steelers this season in an interview with DKPittsburghSports.com two weeks ago, saying if he had known what his role was going to be, he would have signed somewhere else.
Apparently, he didn’t keep those feelings to himself among some of his teammates.
A day after the 39-year-old linebacker was signed by the Patriots, several Steelers essentially said it was good riddance for the team’s all-time sack leader to no longer be a member of the team — even if that meant he signed with their biggest rival in terms of making a trip to the Super Bowl.