Day 157

Fresh Start_157: Urgency is national part of the game
Athletes in professional sports, have a certain shelf life. It is widely known, that running backs in the NFL have most likely the shortest shelf life out of any professional sports player. That is due to the demanding responsibilities of the position. Two players that have come up in the news that are worried about the rest of their career in their respective sport is Ben Roethlisberger of Pittsburgh Steelers and Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavilers. Roethlisberger was in the news on Monday about comments he said on the local radio station 97.3 The Fan in Pittsburgh about his retirement. Roethlisberger said “I’m going to take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options, to consider health and family and things like that and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season – if there’s going to be a next season.”

These comments are most defiantly an overreaction and raw emotion following a brutal blowout loss at the hand of the Patriots the day before. The comments made by the Steelers franchise QB are a desperation plea for another shot at a Super Bowl. Roethlisberger is aware of how much time he has left and this was a shot at the guys on the current roster and upper management to give him another shot. Roethlisberger has given everything to the Steeler organization and kept his mouth shut when the team didn’t do all that well and missed opportunities that they shouldn’t have. Big Ben has been a true professional for the Steelers and for upper management to ignore his comments or do nothing this offseason would send a strong message to their quarterback. The Steelers have the talent to get back to another AFC Championship game, and with Big Ben laser focused on another Super Bowl ring—it will be tough to deny the Steelers. After the comments by Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh needs to fork over the cash to their weaknesses.

What these comments were not about is his coaches. Yes, there was some bad play calling in the AFC Championship game—it comes down to the players to execute the game plan. With the Bell injury happening extremely early in the game, it was a bad call by Pittsburgh to have a “Plan B” in their back pocket. This whole issue is not the end of the world for the Steelers or their fans, it’s just a good quarterback noticing that the end is coming, especially with the injury history that Ben has, it is just an urgent call for help for the star player.

In the case of Lebron James, this was a shot at the players strictly in the Cleveland locker room. After the bad loss to New Orleans on Tuesday night, Lebron said that the Cavs need another play maker. He is just simply speaking to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving and the other players in the locker room to step up their game. J.R. Smith will still be out for a while, and with Lebron as the major ball handler, he needs someone to play off of. He has seen the test that will be staring him down in the NBA Finals (Golden State) and he wants to bring back to back Championships to his city. This wasn’t a shot at upper management because of the manner in which he said it. James mentioned that he will be 33 in December and his time is running out, which it is, but the talent is on the roster. James might not have liked that the team let Matthew Dellavedova walk in the offseason, but the Cavilers do not need another Superstar to beat the Warriors. If the Cavs got a player like J.J. Barea—they would be fine. Cleveland lacks a back-up point guard, and that isn’t a hard role to fill with the options that the Cavs have. Trading a 1st rounder for a back-up and “overpaying” just a little for the need now isn’t going to hurt them in the long run because of the talent on the roster. Looking down the bench and telling your guys to step up isn’t a bad thing, it is a necessary need for the team to win another title. Stars like Lebron and Big Ben are aware of what they have done in their career, their current ability, and the talent on the team. These are just 2 players that are chasing greatness that would elevate them to new heights.
Sources:(espn.com, yahoosports.com)

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