Ben Roethlisberger Signs Eight-Year Extension to Stay With Pittsburgh Steelers

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Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger signed an eight-year extension worth $102 million to stay with the team today. That total makes him one of the richest players in the National Football League. But where it really gets good is in the $25 million signing bonus. That’s a nice birthday check (Ben turned 26 yesterday). A total of $36 million is guaranteed money. Now, I don’t know if any one player is worth this much cash. It’s a dizzying amount, but I’m not surprised the Steelers gave it to him. And I guess it needed to happen. At an announcement presser today, Ben said:

“I told them I didn’t want to go anywhere the day I walked in (as a rookie in 2004). I love Pittsburgh, I love the fans. They’ve got probably the best organization and fans in all of sports. I don’t want to go anywhere.”

The Steelers made sure he wasn’t going anywhere. Two years removed from a motorcycle crash that threatened his life and career, Big Ben re-established himself as one of the league’s elite quarterbacks and the Black and Gold needed to lock him up or risk upsetting (QBs are funny that way) and possibly losing the face of their franchise. Ben had over 3,000 yards passing, 32 TDs and an impressive QB-rating of 104.1 in his first Pro Bowl season last year. Those numbers are good enough to get what he got and it looks like Big Ben will be a Pittsburgh Steeler for the rest of his career.