We knew this day was coming with Ben Roethlisberger. Heck, he had hinted at it himself after the 2017 season when he openly spoke about the potential of retirement after a 13-3 season that saw the Steelers unceremoniously bounced from the AFC playoffs with a loss to the Jaguars.
That led to the Steelers' selection of Mason Rudolph in the third round of the the 2018 NFL Draft and Roethlisberger openly wondering why the team would use a premium draft pick on a quarterback.
Turns out, it was just for times like this.
Roethlisberger confirmed Thursday what anyone who has been paying attention already felt was going to be the case -- Monday night's game against the Browns will be the final home regular season game of his storied 18-year career.
What a ride it's been.
From the moment Roethlisberger set foot on the campus at Saint Vincent College for training camp in 2004, it was obvious the Steelers had something special.
I can recall watching him work with then-quarterbacks coach Mark Whipple on throwing drills on their own, with Roethlisberger making accurate throws on the run and thinking how absurd it was to see a man that big move like that and still be able to throw with that kind of accuracy.
Eighteen years, nearly 10,000 passes -- including the playoffs -- countless big hits and one major elbow surgery later, Roethlisberger is no longer that 22-year-old marvel of an athlete. Nobody would be.
But he's still been pretty good -- when protected.
The problem has been that because the offensive line he had played behind for most of the 2010s had aged out and the Steelers didn't have the cap space with which to adequately replace it.
Still, Roethlisberger's overall numbers this season -- just over 3,300 passing yards, 20 touchdown passes and eight interceptions with a 90.2 passer rating -- aren't all that far off from his career numbers.
But it's time.
Roethlisberger has a young family. He wants to spend time with his three children, who now all will have memories of their father playing football.
And he gets to walk away from the game on his own terms. Not many do.
Roethlisberger also has provided the Steelers with a bridge year in 2021. They didn't have the capital -- either in the draft or via the salary cap -- to acquire a starting quarterback this season.
They will in 2022 if they choose to go that route. Or, they could use Rudolph or Dwayne Haskins next season while they continue to build the nest for their next franchise quarterback.
But make no mistake, franchise quarterbacks don't grow on trees. The Steelers went more than two decades between the time Terry Bradshaw's elbow gave out and the selection of Roethlisberger in 2004.
For every Ben Roethlisberger, there are five Ryan Leafs. For every Aaron Rodgers, five Jamarcus Russells.
Drafting quarterbacks remains an inexact science in the NFL.
So, turn out for Monday night's game against the Cleveland Browns and show Roethlisberger appreciation for all of the wins, the three Super Bowls and two championships he's provided. But also show appreciation for the nearly two decades of quarterback stability he's given the franchise.
• The whole argument by some fans that the Steelers somehow wasted Roethlisberger's career or should have had more Super Bowl victories shows just how good they've had it.
There are seven quarterbacks in NFL history who have more Super Bowl appearances than Roethlisberger's three. There are just four quarterbacks who have more than his two wins in the Super Bowl. There are five quarterbacks all-time who have more than his 13 playoff wins.
Super Bowls and playoff wins are tough to come by.
Before Tom Brady came along, Joe Montana was the standard by which playoff quarterbacks were judged. He was 16-7 in his career in the postseason with four Super Bowl wins.
Roethlisberger is 13-9 in the postseason with three trips to the Super Bowl. For reference sake, John Elway was 14-7 with two Super Bowl wins.
Roethlisberger just happened to play in one of the best quarterback eras in NFL history with Brady, Peyton Manning, Favre, Brees and Rodgers all also in the league, and younger stars such as Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson coming along later.
These weren't wasted years. The Steelers were competitive and in the postseason chase -- as they are this season, regardless of overall perception -- every season of his career.
The same cannot be said for many of those aforementioned quarterbacks.
• Will Roethlisberger be a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame member? Chances are pretty good that he will.
It doesn't appear that Brady is going to retire at the end of this season. And though he's hinted around at such things, Rodgers probably returns for 2022 either in Green Bay or elsewhere.
Though there's no set rule about electing two players from the same position, the hall of fame's board of selectors usually don't do that.
So, in five years when he's on the ballot for the first time, Roethlisberger should be a slam dunk.
• So, is Monday night's game really Roethlisberger's final home game? Maybe, maybe not.
If the Steelers win their final two games against the Browns and Ravens -- two teams they've already beaten once -- they can still win the division if the Bengals lose their final two games. Cincinnati hosts the Chiefs this week and is a 5-point underdog at home, then finishes with a game at Cleveland, which beat the Bengals 41-16 at Paul Brown Stadium earlier this season.
So, even though the oddsmakers only give the Steelers a 5 percent or so chance to make the playoffs, in reality, it might be at least a little higher than that.
• The Steelers have won 19-consecutive home games on Monday nights. It's a streak that dates back to 1992.
Can the Browns come to Heinz Field and win Monday night? Sure. Their strength -- running the ball -- lines up well against the Steelers' weakness on defense.
But I wouldn't bet against the Steelers in this one. The stadium should be rocking. And Roethlisberger just might tap into his fountain of youth one last time for this one.
Somehow, the Browns are favored by 3 1/2. I'd take the Steelers getting points at home in this one all day long.
• We all know the Steelers have struggled scoring points. In their past 10 games, they have averaged 20.7 points per game.
Did you know, however, that the Browns have actually been worse over that same span. In their past 10 games, they've averaged 16.1 points per game. And that includes that 41-point effort in Cincinnati earlier this season.
Take that 41-point game out of the equation, and the Browns are averaging 13.3 points per game over the past two and a half months.
• So, what are the chances that the Steelers can't find a way to score enough points to beat the Browns at home, on a Monday night in a game in which the crowd is in a frenzy to see their future Hall of Fame quarterback play at Heinz Field?
Crazy things have happened in the NFL -- especially this year. But I'll side with the emotional wave and history on this one.
• I've covered the Steelers since 1993 and seen my share of Hall of Fame players and performances over the years.
Roethlisberger ranks right there with any of the others I've covered.
And the performances have been spectacular.
As much as some want to dismiss his performance in Super Bowl XL, he was outstanding three years later against the Cardinals and should have been the MVP of that game instead of Santonio Holmes.
No offense to Holmes, who had a great game, but if that had been Brady or Manning who had led that game-winning drive in the closing minutes and threw that pass to Holmes in the back of the end zone, there's no question who the MVP would have been. And it wouldn't have been Julian Edelman or Marvin Harrison.
But Roethlisberger was something of an enigma early in his career. He got tabbed as a game manager early in his career and that label stuck with him until the past decade.
Did he have a great game in the 2005 Super Bowl against the Seahawks? No. But he had eight touchdown passes and one interception in the Steelers' three road playoff wins to reach that game. They don't get to the Super Bowl without him playing at an extremely high level.
And they don't win again in 2008 without his game-winning drive.
• Though he's got a lot of them, Roethlisberger, quite frankly, never got caught up in the stats.
"I’m sure you can go back to my very first press conference because some of you guys were here, all I ever said I wanted to do was win," Roethlisberger said Thursday. "That’s what’s most important to me. So, that’s what is going to be most important, going out, I don’t care if it’s 3-0, just to win a football game because it’s so important for our season right now."
Some guys just say that. Roethlisberger has actually always meant it.
That's why the best thing the Steelers could do for him Monday night would not be to give him any gifts other than another victory.
