PITTSBURGH — Two years from free agency in a robust quarterback market, Ben Roethlisberger isn’t concerned with landing a record-breaking contract.
“I care about record-breaking Super Bowl wins and things like that — that’s more important to me,” the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback told ESPN from his football pro camp Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger taught youth players teamwork for about four hours on Father’s Day, and he didn’t sway from that message when discussing his future.
Entering a 15th season together, Roethlisberger, 36, and the Steelers are poised for one last extension with the franchise he has helped win two Super Bowls. But Roethlisberger is content discussing those matters after the 2018 season.
Roethlisberger’s five-year contract, signed in 2015, averages about $20 million per year, which was the market for top quarterbacks at the time. But several quarterbacks have dwarfed that number, with Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan hitting the $30 million mark and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to follow.
“It’s important, too, to understand as quarterback of this team, sometimes you almost have to leave a little bit of money behind for other guys,” Ben Roethlisberger said, pointing to members of his offensive line he hopes “get taken care of” in two years. Larry W. Smith/EPA
“I have two years on my contract. I’m not going to be one to sit here and worry about my contract,” said Roethlisberger, who ranks eighth in NFL history with 51,065 passing yards. “That’s not my job. My job is to play football. I’ll let my representation, the Steelers worry about all that stuff. To me, it’s all about going out and playing now. I think there are a lot more, maybe a lot more important people who need to get their deals done now. For me to do it two years out, if it doesn’t make sense for the team, I’m not going to sit here and worry about it.”
And Roethlisberger wants to leave room for teammates to get paid, too.
Asked about the challenges for NFL teams to pay several stars while facing salary-cap hurdles, Roethlisberger said he understands teams are limited and seems willing to help.
“It’s important, too, to understand as quarterback of this team, sometimes you almost have to leave a little bit of money behind for other guys,” Roethlisberger said. “That’s not my job, that’s not my thing to worry about. That’s why I have agents.”
Roethlisberger does have a few ideas for how the Steelers can spend after 2018, though: on his coveted line, which has helped cut Roethlisberger’s sacks in half from his late-2000s pace. Roethlisberger once took 50 sacks in a season but has 58 over the past three seasons.
Kiev – Georginio Wijnaldum admits Mohamed Salah’s devastating shoulder injury was the decisive moment in Liverpool’s painful Champions League final loss to Real Madrid.
Jurgen Klopp’s side had made a strong start to Saturday’s showdown in Kiev before Salah was forced off midway through the first half.
Liverpool’s Egypt forward — who scored 44 goals in all competitions this season — was injured after crashing to the turf following a challenge with Real’s Sergio Ramos.
Salah walked off in tears and Liverpool’s performance suffered an immediate dip as his team-mates struggled to adjust without their talisman.
Real took full advantage, eventually running out 3-1 winners thanks to two errors by Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius and a stunning overhead kick by Gareth Bale.
Reds midfielder Wijnaldum conceded the loss of Salah was setback from which they couldn’t recover.
“I think it was a big blow for us, it seemed like a big blow for us the way the way we reacted after his injury,” Wijnaldum said.
“I think when he was on the pitch we did it well for 25 minutes but (after the injury) there was less than before.
“Those things happen and we had to deal with it but it was difficult.”
Asked what Klopp said at half-time the Dutch international added: “He said that it looked like we were devastated about Mo but we had to let it go and change because it could not change.
“Sometimes those things happen in football. It is hugely frustrating but we can’t change it.”
Egypt’s team doctor Mohamed Abou El-Ela said in a statement that, according to information from Liverpool’s medical staff, Salah has sustained only ligament damage and he remained optimistic he would still feature in the World Cup.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — When it comes to Father’s Day, Orlando Brown Jr. doesn’t do anything special since his dad died seven years ago.
Brown will call his mother as well as his brothers and sisters.
“I just take time and remember,” Brown said.
For Brown, he honors his father’s memory beyond one day. Every time Brown steps onto the Baltimore Ravens practice field, he is following his father’s footsteps.
Brown is playing for the same team, lining up at the same right tackle spot and wearing the same No. 78 as the 11-year veteran affectionately known as “Zeus.”
An important piece of that legacy is still hidden on the football field. The biggest symbol of Brown’s emotional bond with his father is a bandanna that’s tucked under his helmet and can be traced back to one of his saddest days.
On Sept. 23, 2011, his father died in his Baltimore home at the age of 40 from diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that can lead to kidney failure or cause fluid to build up in the brain. When Brown arrived there, he noticed a Ravens equipment bag on the bed that was filled with football gloves and cleats. It also included a white bandanna, which struck a chord with his son.
“He always told me and preached that, ‘You play offensive line; you have to have your own swag. You have to make yourself noticeable, because nobody notices offensive linemen,'” Brown said. “So it was just something [that] I adapted, and from there, it just holds a lot of value.”
Orlando Brown Jr. started wearing a bandanna to honor his father, in whose steps he’ll follow with the Ravens. Jamison Hensley/ESPN.com
Brown remembers his father always wearing that white bandanna, sometimes tying it around his ankle or wrist. To Brown, that piece of cloth represented a piece of his father.
At every practice and game, Brown would wrap a bandanna around his head before strapping on his helmet. This past season, he went with a black one that sported red roses, his father’s favorite flower.
“That became his signature because that was his dad’s, and his dad was a warrior,” Brown’s mother, Mira, told ESPN last year. “He wears that bandanna because this is what my dad would’ve wanted me to do.”
The Browns are the 40th known pair of father and son to play for the same NFL team and the fourth current one, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Brown and his father have similar gargantuan size — 6-foot-8 and 340-plus pounds — and a similar playing style, with a nasty edge. But they’re different players with different pedigrees.
“They thought I was crazy,” Brown told Sports Illustrated in 2003. “Every day [during his rookie season] they asked me to see a psychiatrist.”
Orlando Brown Jr. was a three-year starter for national power Oklahoma and was a unanimous first-team All-America selection. He was selected in the third round this year, and he prides himself on his football IQ.
His father preached to him to play more like his former teammate, Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden, instead of himself. As Brown Jr. put it, his father wasn’t the most technically sound blocker. So, Brown Jr. broke down film of Ogden, Tony Boselli, Anthony Muñoz and Jackie Slater.
“My dad forced me to learn it more so from a Jonathan Ogden standpoint than [from] him,” Brown Jr. said. “Mentally, I don’t think there’s anyone out there that understands the game or is more instinctual than me. That was my credit to being able to play at such a high level in college, and I look forward to transitioning out to this [level].”
Like his father, Orlando Brown Jr. has a chance to start in the NFL immediately. The Ravens declined to pick up the option on Austin Howard, who started all 16 games at right tackle last season.
The battle to fill that void is between Brown and James Hurst, who started at left guard last season. This offseason, Brown worked his way into lining up at right tackle with the first team and he finished there as the mandatory minicamp wrapped up. It’s the same spot on the Ravens at which his father started 80 games during his two stints in Baltimore (1996-98 and 2003-05).
“I think he’s going to be tremendous,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said of Brown on Adam Schefter’s podcast. “I don’t ever remember going into a game, no matter who we were playing — Auburn, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, you name it — and worried about his matchup on that side. He has a love for the game, a hunger and just a true grit about him that you want from all your great offensive linemen. I have a lot of belief in that kid.”
Nightmare path to achieving dream
Brown went from being touted as the best offensive tackle in the draft to the biggest disaster story at the NFL combine.
The numbers that drew the most scrutiny were his 14 repetitions at 225 pounds on the bench press (the fewest of any offensive lineman this year) and his 5.85-second 40-yard dash (the third slowest since 2006).
The social media blitz was merciless, from a derogatory tweet in German to Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger taking a shot at him. Brown said he had to take a break from Twitter because of “so many 12-year-olds telling me they’re stronger than me.”
“It was surprising for me,” Brown said. “My performance at the combine wasn’t even what I expected to do at all — not even close.”
The Ravens weren’t especially bothered by Orlando Brown Jr.’s poor combine showing. Darron Cummings/Associated Press
All of a sudden, it seemed like everyone forgot he was the two-time Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year and didn’t allow a sack last season.
After Brown was the seventh offensive tackle drafted, the Ravens made the point that they focus more on the tape than the numbers at the combine. As assistant general manager Eric DeCosta said, offensive linemen don’t have to run 40 yards very often.
“[He’s] just a very, very good player — physical, tough, mean, nasty, didn’t get beat — just a type of guy that we had success with in the past,” DeCosta said.
Special homecoming
Brown wasn’t selected in the first round, but he couldn’t be happier with where he ended up in the draft.
Born the same year as the Ravens franchise (1996), Brown can recount his memories of watching Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Jamal Lewis practice. He also remembers the times his father knocked over teammates during practice.
Edwin Mulitalo, a former Ravens guard who played on the same line as “Zeus,” had been previously selected to announce Baltimore’s third-round pick. In the green room, he peeked in the envelope.
“I did a double take looking at his name,” Mulitalo said. “Then it clicked.”
During Brown’s pre-draft visit, he handed general manager Ozzie Newsome a note that included a message about how special it would be if he were to play for the Ravens. One team official said Brown would’ve signed right away if that had been a recruiting trip.
“Knowing Zeus, he would be so proud to have this come full circle,” Mulitalo said.
Training together leading up to the draft, Brown told Andrews how amazing it would be if he was selected by Baltimore.
“It’s almost a dream come true for him,” Andrews said. “It’s really special. It’s one of those cool things that you see in sports. You can’t take that for granted.”
Brown’s father pushed him to be the best in some unusual ways. He told his son that he would leave his games if he didn’t start playing harder. He once made his son promise to be a 10-year NFL veteran and a Hall of Famer.
There was also the time Orlando Brown Sr. used Adam Sandler as motivation. Sitting down his son, he put in the movie “The Waterboy” because he wanted him to play like the angry, underdog linebacker Bobby Boucher.
Brown carries all those memories of his father, along with a bandanna, as he begins his NFL career.
“My biggest wish right now is I wish he could see it,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, that’s my motivation for getting to this point and continuing to make sure I carry on his legacy.”
Madrid – As Cristiano Ronaldo milked every last drop of his moment on the microphone at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night, it was hard to imagine this was a player about to leave Real Madrid.
Real’s players were introduced one-by-one onto the podium and when Ronaldo’s moment came, a gap left after “Cristiano” for the delirious fans to fill, he predictably made the most of it.
A Portugal flag draped over his shoulders, Ronaldo pirouetted before counting out on his fingers to five, the number of Champions League titles he now owns.
He pulled out the badge on his shirt and kissed it, twice, before blowing a few more kisses to the crowd. By now they were chanting “Cristiano” and some of the Real players were joining in.
Even when Marcelo, the next one out, emerged, the grinning Ronaldo strutted back down the walkway to welcome him with the pair’s familiar celebratory dance.
This Ronaldo was almost unrecognisable from the one that had, less than 24 hours before, been prickly and restless, as he insisted he could leave Real, despite them just beating Liverpool to mark a third consecutive European triumph.
Even amid wrangling contract negotiations, a frosty relationship with president Florentino Perez, a perceived lack of support in his row with Spanish tax authorities and perhaps even jealousy over Real´s courting of Neymar, his timing was inexplicably bad.
Zinedine Zidane had summed up the mood. “I’m not thinking about that now,” he said.
Microphone in hand, however, Ronaldo was back at the centre of things on Sunday and this time his message was different.
“What can I say?” he said over the supporters’ cheers. “You have given us so much love in every single match. It’s an honour to play for the biggest club in the world, that’s the truth, it’s an honour.”
As the fans roared, Real’s players bounced around Ronaldo, chanting “Cristiano, quedate”, “Cristiano, stay”, and soon the whole stadium was singing too.
When Ronaldo resumed, the big screen briefly catching a stoney-faced Gareth Bale next to a beaming Casemiro, he said: “Thank you, this is very important to me. I am so happy with your passion, the passion of the players and coaches.
“What I like most is winning. So for one last time, one, two three – Hala Madrid!”
Earlier, in the Plaza de Cibeles, he had signed off a more modest speech with: “Thank you guys and see you next year.”
At euphoric events like these, there must always be a pull to draw the biggest cheer, but Ronaldo’s behaviour at least suggests Real could satisfy the 33-year-old if they want to.
He reportedly seeks a new deal in line with Lionel Messi’s at Barcelona and Neymar’s at PSG.
But Perez was not impressed by Ronaldo’s posturing on Saturday. “We hear the same every summer,” Perez said. “And then nothing happens.”
In 2012, Ronaldo said he was “sad” and last year, Portugese newspaper A Bola claimed the forward wanted to leave, unhappy with the club not backing him in the face of tax investigators.
Perez and Ronaldo need each other, but neither will want to be seen to have lost the argument. At the very least, Real’s celebrations showed nothing has been decided yet.
