Before his elbow had other ideas, this guy led Pittsburgh with a broken nose, a busted thumb, and no plans to ever watch from the sidelines. For the Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger has been scrappy, stubborn, and strangely invincible. Right up till 2019. It was more than just another bruise to treat when his elbow failed him in Week 2 mid-pass. It was the kind of injury that makes even a Super Bowl champ ask the scariest question in football: ‘Am I done?’ That year didn’t just test his arm. It tested everything – his beliefs, his identity as QB1, and his mentality. On the Footbahlin podcast with Spencer Te’o, Big Ben finally peeled back the curtain on what that brutal season actually felt like. And let’s just say: it was as brutal as it gets.

A fan asked Ben a seemingly innocent question: “What Ben’s year being injured was like?” Roethlisberger didn’t hold back: “It was horrible because you want to be out there so bad and you’re in a lot of pain…but there was a lot of unknowns, didn’t know if I would be able to throw it again.” Even worse? The injury came early in the season – just enough time to sit and stew in rehab while the team rolled on without him. “It was a very, very tough year,” he admitted. “Especially happening so early in the season, which it’s good and bad, right? When you hurt yourself early in the season and you’re out for the year, you’re going to be able to get back for the next year.” So, he did paint a positive picture about the timing of the injury, but “it wasn’t fun.”

Ben Roethlisberger’s entire career was a highlight reel of medical charts, so he is familiar with pain. There was the fractured thumb that caused the football to feel like a deflated balloon. The damaged meniscus early in his career and the broken nose from Haloti Ngata’s palm in 2010. “I remember it was like second down and he busted my nose, I had blood coming down, it hurts, but it’s not excruciating. But I’m like, gosh, it kind of hurts,” Ben said. But the elbow? That was different. That was career-threatening.

The Steelers’ physician gave him two options after he tore three of his five flexor tendons straight off the bone. “One: ‘We can do absolutely nothing to your elbow and you’ll be just fine, but you’ll never play football again in the NFL,'” Ben admitted. “‘But if you want to play, you’re going to need surgery.'” Big Ben considered it. Ashley, his wife, even gave him permission to leave. “If he felt content where he was…I was basically handing him permission to retire, if that’s where his heart was,” Ashley said. 

Even with his arm hanging by a thread, Ben Roethlisberger refused to acknowledge that his chapter had ended. That’s classic Ben. When he came back in 2020, he struggled through one last run before hanging up his cleats. And now, sitting in front of a mic instead of a defensive line, he finally admits what fans suspected: that year broke him. But when Ben was busy recovering from those injuries, Aaron Rodgers was throwing moon shots, and A-Rod may just defeat Big Ben’s records.

On the same Footbahlin episode, Ben acknowledged what’s coming: “Aaron’s going to pass my all-time passing record this year. Good. Records are meant to be broken.” There wasn’t salt in his tone. No passive-aggressive shade. Just a guy who knows the numbers don’t lie and knows what it took to get his.

Rodgers is on track to surpass Roethlisberger’s 64,088 career passing yards and Brett Favre’s 508 passing touchdowns. And, Roethlisberger’s last page is already marked: 249 games, three Super Bowl appearances, two Lombardi trophies, and one elbow that almost put an end to it all, while Rodgers is still writing his new chapter with the Steelers.

Just to prove it wasn’t all Rodgers fanfare, Ben Roethlisberger threw in a wild compliment: “I would take Aaron in his prime over Patrick now.” That’s high praise from a guy who spent two decades torching secondaries and burying rivals in the AFC. And also a subtle reminder: Rodgers isn’t just breaking records, he’s outlasting legacies.

There’s no Hall of Fame bitterness. No clingy, those were the days’ routine. Just Ben being Ben – honest, unfiltered, and slightly sarcastic. His career might’ve ended on an MRI table, but his legacy was built the hard way. One broken thumb, one mangled nose, and one torn elbow at a time. Rodgers may pass him. But he’ll never smell around a corner mid-game and still throw a touchdown.