Steelers Great Ben Roethlisberger Reportedly No Longer Holds Grudge Against Former Teammate

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a lot of ups and downs with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger during his entire career with the team. The main issues he had were with his teammates, especially the younger quarterbacks. There have been numerous reports of him not being the best teammate in that regard, and that may have had some impact on Pittsburgh's struggles after he retired. Either way, the past is in the past, and the Steelers have to move on to life without their star quarterback, which they have failed to do for years now. 

It seems like Roethlisberger has moved on at least. While making an appearance on 93.7 The Fan, Aditi Kinkhabwala talked about the relationship between him and current quarterback Mason Rudolph, and where it is now. 

"I don't think this is leftover resentment from in any way," said Kinkhabwala. "If anything, you remember a few years ago, [Roethlisberger] openly admitted to Kenny Pickett that he wasn't initially rooting for him to succeed as someone who follows in his footsteps. If we're going to pretend that Ben is still caught up in some sort of petty nonsense, you would think that he wouldn't want Aaron Rodgers to succeed, but I don't think that that's reality. I don't think Ben is still living in this world where the only person that who's allowed to win in Pittsburgh is him. Similarly, I don't think that he's living in this world where, 'Ok, I'm going to hold this against Mason Rudolph that x number of years ago, he was drafted to be my successor."

This all stemmed from Roethlisberger's previous comments about how he thought the Steelers would win more games with Aaron Rodgers than Rudolph. However, Kinkhabwala thinks that has nothing to do with how the future Hall of Famer felt about his potential successor back in the late 2010s. That's just him trusting another future Hall of Famer over a guy that has mostly been a career backup. 

As Kinkhabwala mentions, any resentment that Roethlisberger had likely went away whenever he started rooting for Kenny Pickett to do well in Pittsburgh. If he went from disliking Pickett to rooting for him, he would most likely get over the fact that Rudolph was drafted to hopefully replace him later on, even though the former third-round pick didn't have a choice in where he was going to get drafted. 

Roethlisberger has in fact already been helping out rookie quarterback Will Howard in the short time he has been a Steeler. He has gone from wanting no one to succeed in his position, to wanting any signal-caller in Pittsburgh to be great. If Rudolph ends up being the full-time starter in 2025, it would be safe to say that his former teammate will now have his back according to Kinkhabwala.

Future Steelers Rookies Have Something To Look Forward To

With all the draft capital the Steelers have in 2026 now, they will most likely use that to try and trade up to select a franchise quarterback. They can't just keep going with quick, cheap options every single year. They do need to put time and effort into getting a young gun and giving him all the help he needs to thrive. Now, it seems like a lot of that will come from the legend himself. 

Roethlisberger giving advice to a future first-round quarterback would be a huge boost to whoever potentially gets selected. It always helps to learn from someone who has been there and done that. Maybe the rookie could even figure out how to do Roethlisberger's signature pump fake that made opposing defensive backs buckle. No matter who gets drafted however, getting help from a former elite gunslinger like him should help.

What do you think about Roethlisberger presumably no longer resenting Rudolph. Could he maybe give some advice to his former teammate now? Let us know in the comments or on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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