If you haven’t figured out how ESPN handles these high profile cases, let me break it down for you.
First, when the story breaks and it is a “Golden Boy” athlete they wait. And wait. And wait some more. Consider it plausible deniability, because if it comes out that it’s a false accusation or not as bad as it seems they want to be able to keep that “good relationship” with the “Golden Boy” athlete.
If it is a perceived “Bad Boy” it doesn’t matter about truth and justice; they just report it and report it immediately.
Once the “Golden Boy” athlete is found out to not be so “Golden,” they pounce like a pack of wolves on a wounded deer since now they have no need for the “Golden Boy” anymore.
You saw it with Tiger and now you are seeing it with Ben Roethlisberger. These type of Outside the Lines specials on Roethlisberger should have been done months ago, but are just coming out now, when everyone already knows that Roethlisberger has some personality flaws, but they do share a few nuggets of information that are interesting.
First being that Roethlisberger decided to hire bodyguards after a man pulled a gun out on him for talking to his girlfriend. Makes you wonder what Roethlisberger said or did to the man’s girlfriend for him to actually pull a weapon out on him.
The piece also speaks to how former Steeler Joey Porter called Roethlisberger out for being “the last to arrive and first to leave the facility.” There have always been rumblings that Roethlisberger was not that well liked by his teammates.
The overall theme is that Roethlisberger is not a “good guy.”
Two years ago if you just asked a random NFL fan if Roethlisberger was a nice guy, I would imagine most would have said yes, but as I have pointed out many times you never truly know who wears the “black hat.”