Poor Big Ben

Boo-hoo. Let's all shed a tear for Ben Roethlisberger, two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Poor Big Ben has been suspended for six games by the Sheriff--er, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Why, you might ask, since the qb hasn't been charged with any crimes?

Maybe because he's a dirtbag rapist? But, he may not be a dirtbag rapist, he may just be a dirtbag.

See, for anyone who doesn't care about football, a lady who worked in a Tahoe hotel is suing Ben Roethlisberger in a civil case for sexual assault stemming from an incident that occurred almost two years before the suit. Naturally the alleged victim was savaged in the media for being a gold-digger, out to besmirch a good-boy's name and image, and dang, have you seen her? and dang why didn't she go to the cops? and dang, dang, dang.

I wonder if anyone actually read her statement. I did. Before reading it I had a generally positive feelings about Big Ben; I'm not a Steeler fan, but I didn't have a touch of the Hate like with, say, a Steve Young or a Troy Aikmen. After reading her statement, I thought, well that incident might have gone down just like she said. It wasn't sensational, it wasn't cinematic, it was a lady doing her job and delivering some crap to a drunken football superstar and him forcing himself on her, he most likely confident that she wants it, and she saying no.

A quote I read about being a rape victim that I found enlightening is that "it's like diarrhea on your soul." Knowing that, maybe it's understandable why it might take a while to build up the courage to call out an attacker.

The lady is also suing the hotel for trying to cover it up. Doesn't sound so implausible. Maybe Ben was just caught in a bad situation; maybe he called her the c-word and she's getting him back, but that sounds quite sociopathic. In any case, Ben pretty much got a pass from the media and fans who were willing to get behind their MVP.

Unfortunately, this was Big Ben's first run-in with sexual assault allegations. This is not the incident for which he was suspended.

I thought about how shitty it's got to be to be so big and famous that you have to worry all the time about being accused of sexual assault if you like to have a few drinks in a bar or nightclub.

Then I thought about Derek Jeter, New York City sports king, richest and most famous eligible bachelor, and he never gets in the tabloid headlines, never has been accused of anything naughty or illegal, and still curries oodles of public good will. He must have figured something out.

Apparently Ben is still learning. This past March he went to a club in a college town thirty miles from his ranch in Georgia. He gets good and toasted, all the while getting shots for numerous ladies (who all turn out to be underage, but it is an 18+ club with wristbands, however laxly enforced they might be). If you want the not-so-sensational details from the accuser, you can read them here, which is a link to the NFL's own web-site. It sounds, though, if you read it, like it fits the same profile as his earlier incident. Drunken superstar, sure the girl wants it, forces himself on her.

Only this time, her and her friends went immediately to the first cop they could find outside the bar, then to the hospital, and two days later Ben Roethlisberger had hired the most expensive and powerful lawyer in Georgia. That lawyer put together a dream-team of forensic scientists, shrinks, legal scholars, and even spies to snoop around the university's campus trying to dig up dirt on the accuser.

Ben was eventually not charged for lack of evidence. He was suspended for six games by the hard-nosed commissioner of football, and the Steelers, one of the NFL's oldest and classiest organizations, the one that's won the most Super Bowls, is trying to trade him. It looks like the Oakland Raiders might be his only suitor.

Possible exile to Al Davis' Raiders. Poor Ben indeed.