Stephen A. Smith Has 2-Word Reaction To Big Ben News

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is a longtime Pittsburgh Steelers fan. That makes his reaction to Ben Roethlisberger retiring today a little bit funnier.

On Thursday’s edition of First Take, Stephen A. needed just two words to describe his thoughts on Big Ben’s retirement. “Thank god.”

Stephen A. explained that Roethlisberger’s retirement was well overdue and should have come several years ago. He believes that the Steelers deserve some blame for not trying to set up a replacement either.

“I can’t say enough about how I feel about the man,” Stephen A. said after saying “Thank god” three times. “(But) he should have retired two years ago. He couldn’t move. And then he hurt his elbow and I get all of that. The combination of all those things, unfortunately, made you a liability. The only reason we didn’t say that then was because they didn’t get a successor.”

There’s certainly a debate to be held over whether the Steelers hurt themselves by trying to win one more title with Ben Roethlisberger in the final two years of his career.

In fairness, Roethlisberger got the Steelers closer than most teams by leading them to the playoffs in both of those years. But their one-and-done playoff runs may suggest that he just wasn’t at a high enough level to get them another ring.

The Steelers are the kind of franchise that expects to be in contention for the Super Bowl every year. We’ll never know if they really wasted valuable years sticking with Roethlisberger instead of developing a quarterback instead.

Do you agree with Stephen A. Smith’s take on Ben Roethlisberger retiring?

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