Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger is in trouble again.  He has been accused of raping a 20 year old girl after a night of “bar hopping” with her on March 4 - 5, 2010.This isn’t the first time this kind of accusation has been directed at Big Ben.  In 2008, a Nevada hotel employee claimed she was sexually assaulted by Roethlisberger.  (No criminal charges were laid in the hotel incident).  There are two ways to view this scenario.  The first being, we have a football star who makes millions of dollars and attracts women like bees to honey.  There are thousands of women out there who would give anything to have the opportunity to sleep with this guy.  There are thousands more that would sleep with him, and then have dollar signs flash in their eyes as they claim sexual assault. 

The second scenario is that Ben Roethlisberger is a selfish, sexually deviant bully who forces himself on women and should be spending his time in a prison cell rather than on an NFL playing field. 
 
Although there is a chance that this story has an element of both scenarios, for the sake of this missive, I am going to take the viewpoint of option 1.  There are just too many holes in this victim’s story to make it plausible.

According to news reports, Ben had his security staff keep the victims friends at Bay while he raped the girl in a washroom of a bar?  What? 

Here we have a guy who goes into a bar, is surrounded by beautiful women and suddenly decides to take a girl to a back room and have sex with her completely against her will while 50 other women in the bar are more than happy to give themselves to him willingly.  It just doesn’t add up.  Then to top it off, no criminal charges were laid.  Why are there no criminal charges in either case against Roethlisberger?  One can only assume that no charges were laid because there wasn’t enough evidence to back either claim.    

Too many times, high profile athletes put themselves into vulnerable positions whereby they are easy targets for those looking to make quick financial gains.  Whether it be gold digger women, sleazy celebrity news outlets or paparazzi in general, athletes should be aware that their every move is being recorded somewhere, somehow.  Roethlisberger has been around the NFL long enough to know better.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has suspended Big Ben for the first 6 games of the season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.  Although it appears to be a bit of a knee jerk reaction, good for Goodell for really making an attempt to set standards for athletes in his league to live by.

Although this armchair sports fan doesn’t think Roethlisberger is a criminal, perhaps Big Ben should have been suspended for the full year by the NFL, just for acting like a “big idiot!”

Agree or disagree, I’m off the goalpost.

www.offthegoalpost.com