Colin Cowherd: “I have said before, Ben Roethlisberger is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Two Super Bowls, eight division titles, all sorts of records, and he will be very fondly remembered 20 years from now. But the truth is that if you lived through the past 10 years there was a lot of bumpy and there was a lot of turbulence. He couldn’t beat Brady in the big games, he couldn’t beat Manning, and at the end he couldn’t beat Mahomes. The minute Joe Burrow walked into the division, SEE YA BEN, that’s mine too. The wins the last decade were overwhelmingly against an awful Bengals franchise and Browns franchise, and it felt like Ben was just holding on the last several years as he quickly eroded. It’s very ‘Marlon Brando.’ In the rearview mirror Brando is an all-timer, but the last 15-20 years of Marlon Brando were WEIRD. He put on a lot of weight, made poor choices, had some bad movies, was impossible to work with, but the movie poster is top 5 of all time. The movie poster of Ben is going to be great but we have to distance ourselves from it. As Brees, Brady, Rodgers, and Manning leave elegantly, name the last time Big Ben won a big playoff game outdueling another top quarterback and we led the show with it Monday? We looked it up, it was 12 years ago against Joe Flacco in the Divisional Round. I’m not going to give you any love for a Wildcard win. These last ten years have been a turbulent flight, and there just wasn’t a lot of Mondays where we came on and went ‘WOW, HE OUTDUELED BRADY!’ or ‘HE OUTDUELED MANNING!’ By the way, he had GREAT defenses that Aaron Rodgers never had and that Peyton Manning almost never had. He has a great coach, and a great owner, and a great GM, and a cruddy division. I’m not anti-Ben but certain actors, certain stars, and certain quarterbacks we remember fondly but we have to be honest, it was bumpy, REALLY bumpy, and kind of underachieving. If you gave Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, or Patrick Mahomes Mike Tomlin, that drafting, those receivers, that defense, and that division, you would have had a lot more wins and more Super Bowls. He’s great but he left A LOT out there.” (Full Video Above)
Listen to Colin Cowherd discuss Ben Roethlisberger’s official declaration that he is retiring from the NFL after 18 years with the Steelers, and explain why he believes Big Ben ultimately underachieved over the course of his career.
Colin says Roethlisberger will obviously be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with two Super Bowl rings, but says his career was securely in the shadows of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and then Patrick Mahomes in the AFC despite Big Ben being gifted elite coaching, elite defenses, and elite ownership for the bulk of his career.
Check out the video above as Colin details why he thinks Ben ‘left a lot on the table’ when you take a closer look at his legacy, especially the final decade.
'Shame on You, Jeff Passan': Doug Gottlieb Rips HOF Voters Supporting Bonds
Colin Cowherd: Aaron Rodgers is Using Victim Card to Cover Up His Poor Play
Colin Cowherd Says Bucs 'Culture' Has Never Been a Good Fit For Tom Brady
Urban Meyer Refutes Story that he Kicked Former Jaguars Player Josh Lambo
Colin Cowherd Says 'Cynical' Aaron Rodgers Made Career 'Bailing' on Packers
Colin Cowherd: Lakers Should Consider Trading Russell Westbrook at Deadline
Doug Gottlieb Says 'Limited' Jalen Hurts Will Have a Career as a Backup QB
Rob Parker Says 'Overmatched' Kyler Murray is Simply Another Doug Flutie