SI's eagerly awaited Roethlisberger cover story hits newsstands tomorrow, and while it's sure to go down as the definitive portrait of Big Ben, we can't help but wonder about the timing.
SI did their legwork on this one. It carries a five-person byline, and coalesces everything we know about the Milledgeville case, along with insights from those close to Roethlisberger, to paint a portrait of a pampered manchild of an athlete, removed from reality and protected from the spotlight by those around him, and the willingness of many to look the other way.
Over the course of several days in Pittsburgh, SI heard countless variations on the same themes: Roethlisberger throwing his weight around, asking those who got in his way, 'Do you know who I am?' Even peripheral interview subjects would, with no solicitation, disparage the man once considered the flesh-and-blood symbol of a town built on raging rivers and hot metal."
There are disclosures about the ineptitude, or perhaps complicity, of the Milledgeville police that kept the investigation from ever going to trial. There are indications that the management at Harrah's Lake Tahoe did what they could to make the first rape allegations go away.
Little of this is new, as the damning affidavits and investigation reports have been trickling out for weeks now.
What is new is the pervading sense that revelations about Roethlisberger's transgressions, or at least his character, are not revelations at all to many - especially to those that we as fans count on to report it.
