Roethlisberger makes first Pro Bowl
PITTSBURGH -- In his first season, Ben Roethlisberger's 13-0 record was easily the best of any rookie quarterback in NFL history. In his second season, Roethlisberger won the Super Bowl.
Finally, in his fourth season, Roethlisberger has made the Pro Bowl.
Roethlisberger, enjoying a turnaround season after the many mishaps and major injuries of the previous one, was among five Steelers chosen Tuesday for the Pro Bowl.
James Harrison and Alan Faneca were chosen as AFC starters. Roethlisberger, a reserve, was thrilled enough merely to be picked.
"A lot of people wrote me off as a one-, two-year kind of hit wonder, so it's good to kind of bounce back," Roethlisberger said. "It's always, from the time you are a kid, it's always your goal to win a Super Bowl and get to a Pro Bowl and all that stuff. I'm not going to lie - it's a great honor."
A year ago, Roethlisberger's career -- and life -- were badly disrupted by a serious motorcycle accident, an appendectomy and multiple concussions. Teammates and former coach were unhappy that a player so valuable carelessly put himself in a position to be badly hurt by not wearing a helmet in his June 2006 crash.
Not surprisingly, Roethlisberger went on to have the worst season of his career with 18 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions as the Steelers were 8-8 a year after winning the Super Bowl.
Roethlisberger, 25, rebounded in a big way this season, throwing a team-record 29 touchdown passes and trimming his interceptions to 11. His 100.5 passer rating is the league's fourth-best.
Roethlisberger put together the comeback year despite uneven protection -- his 43 sacks are the second-most in the league -- and multiple-game injuries to wide receivers Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward.
Despite all those sacks, Roethlisberger still plans to take all the offensive linemen and their wives or girlfriends to Hawaii. He joins Tom Brady of New England and Peyton Manning of Indianapolis as the AFC quarterbacks.
"It's an honor to be able to be in the same sentence, same breath, same team with those guys," he said. "It's an honor. It's an all-star game. You can say, 'He's an all-star,' I guess."
The Pro Bowl is in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday, February 10th.