Break out the shears.
Ben Roethlisberger is throwing footballs to teammates again, and following through on his promise to get a haircut now that he’s throwing NFL passes to them.
“I’m not going to shave or cut my hair until I can throw a football again,” a then-clean shaven Roethlisberger says to the camera. “Throw it to one of my teammates, a legit NFL pass.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback posted a short video of his vow followed by a quick compilation of throws to running back James Conner and wide receivers Ryan Switzer and JuJu Smith-Schuster on a football field. Then the video cuts to freshly shorn Roethlisberger in a barber’s chair getting his beard trimmed.
The beard is trimmed…
…you know what that means ?@_BigBen7 | @TeamJuJu | @JamesConner_ | @Switz pic.twitter.com/YLTtCynK25
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 18, 2020
The 38-second video ends with a simple declaration from Smith-Schuster: “He’s back.”
Though there’s no official update from the team on Roethlisberger’s status, coach Mike Tomlin told fans on a conference call that the quarterback’s rehab was progressing as scheduled.
“He’s doing great thus far,” Tomlin said last week. “He’s in great physical condition. Rehabilitation in regards to the injury itself is going well. I hear nothing but positive reports from that standpoint. There have been no bumps in the road.”
Roethlisberger had surgery about eight months ago to repair his throwing elbow from a season-ending injury suffered in Week 2.
Both Roethlisberger and the Steelers’ front office have maintained that he’ll be ready for the season and have been encouraged about his ability once he does take the field.
“I think that the possibility is real that he could be a better football player coming out of this surgery, just as much as he might be a more regressed player,” general manager Kevin Colbert said at the NFL Combine. “So, I think we have to give that the nod and, again, I’m encouraged and excited about where he can go.”
