Ben Roethlisberger's Ex-Teammates are Saying He Once Fumbled on Purpose and is a Terrible Leader

So last week, former Steelers backup running back Josh Harris responded to a Tweet calling Ben Roethlisberger “the Steelers real locker room problem” with this one, flat out accusing Roethlisberger of once fumbling a handoff on purpose, just to stick it to Todd Haley for a playcall he didn’t agree with.

Predictably, Steelers fans responded by treating Harris like he was the Free Space in the middle of a Failed Douchebag Bingo card, reminding him he was undrafted, only had nine career carries, plays for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and therefore has no right to cast aspersions upon Pope Ben I.

So Harris went right to the videotape:

And watching that clip, it’s hard to see where he’s not telling the truth. That’s not a simple fuck up. The tight ends sure don’t react like it’s just your garden variety mistake on the exchange. Of course you can fall back on killing the messenger. And God knows everyone with a Twitter account and a Terrible Towel collection has been doing exactly that. Maybe a guy with five career games, all of which were back in 2014, isn’t the most unimpeachable source.

But somebody else is. And this is where this got interesting. Ryan Clark played with Roethlisberger for eight seasons and a 111 games. And when he was given the opportunity to jump on Harris – whom he never played with, by the way – and defend his old quarterback by saying he’d never pull such a scumbag move, he took a giant, socially awkward pass:

Let’s break that reaction by Clark into a quick snapshot, shall we? Here’s hoping the next time you’re accused of doing something sketchy and unethical, that the guy you’re relying on to defend your honor doesn’t put on this face:

Or answer by setting a new record for multiple negatives in a sentence that will never be broken for as long as English is spoken:

“I think the problem is you don’t really know, the Ben I know, the competitor I think he is, I wouldn’t think he’d do something like that intentionally [but] he hasn’t done anything for me to think that he couldn’t be that petty.”

I testified in a buddy’s trial one time and I’m 100 percent positive that if I told the court “I wouldn’t think he’d do something like that intentionally, but that night he didn’t do anything for me to think that he couldn’t be petty enough to drive drunk,” the guy would be doing a stretch in SuperMax right now. And unlike Clark and Roethlisberger, my friend has never won me a Super Bowl.

So Steelers fans can attack Harris all they want. But nobody in the know is coming to Roethlisberger’s defense on this. Or denying Harris’s larger premise that Ben is a malcontent and a high maintenance loner. The opposite of a leader. Ryan Clark won a ring with him and he confirms it. As have Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. Just not as directly. And to circle back to the Tweet that started all this, he’s the problem in that locker room. Their fans with the No. 7 jerseys in their closets can deny it all they want, because the franchise is stuck with the guy until the time he stops just talking about retiring and actually goes through with it. But their pretending doesn’t make it not true.

Hate to see it.