Brief and to the Point ...
I have no conceivable way of concluding what happened Sunday to Ben Roethlisberger and his right foot, but ... man, this all went down really weirdly.
How weirdly?
Well, let me start by reiterating this: It was dumb for Mike Tomlin to have him out there. Regardless of the result, that decision made no sense and offered no benefit to the Steelers. I can't make that stance any clearer.
OK, to the incident and aftermath ...
Above, of course, is the clean tackle by the Dolphins' Cameron Wake, followed by Ben going down hard on his right side after releasing the pass. You'll see the right ankle bend in an unfriendly way.
That's all the TV cameras showed of Ben on the play, as the pass was intercepted. But I watched him from the press box — and only him, as his health was all that could have mattered at that point — and saw no body language that would indicate injury.
Indeed, within a couple of seconds, he rose to one knee and looked in the direction of the interception, as can be seen in the Matt Sunday photograph atop this column. He then stood and walked to the sideline with still no sign of injury and, once there, wasn't checked by any athletic trainers.
A few minutes later, when the Steelers needed to execute a final kneel-down, it was Ben who went right back out, still with nothing visibly amiss.
After which he left the field like this ...
Minutes later, Tomlin was in that same room running off the standard list of injuries from the game. A list, by the way, that's supplied by the team's athletic trainers. The only name mentioned was that of Sean Davis, who assured me emphatically he was "absolutely fine." The rest were called "bumps and bruises" by Tomlin, so presumably Davis set the bar for the worst.
Next in the same room came Roethlisberger, this after a lengthy and conspicuous absence from the locker room, wearing this boot and publicly wondering if he'd need an MRI:
https://t.co/1ASEIsapjf The latest on Ben #Steelers #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/tYKUSMbmNZ
— The Final Word (@WPXIFinalWord) January 8, 2017