The Spectrum

Issue date: 2/9/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: AP Photo/ David J. Phillip With a Super Bowl victory in only his second year, Roethlisberger's future seems as bright as the Lombardi Trophy.

As you all know, last week I predicted that the Seattle Seahawks would treat the world to an amazing offensive performance which would ultimately leave the Pittsburgh Steelers in the dust in Super Bowl XL. Well, Ben Roethlisberger proved me wrong and also opened the doors for the Tom Brady comparisons to begin. Though those discussions may have started right after Hines Ward was presented with the big game's Most Valuable Player award, I need to say something to all the Big Ben bandwagon jumpers. Stop yourselves, and just celebrate that he is the first Roethlisberger, and not the second coming of Brady.

Brady came into the league out of the prestigious institution of Michigan and was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round, with hopes he would pan out to be a solid replacement of Drew Bledsoe. Needless to say, that worked out well for them. Of course, the Jets passed on him five times. Anyways, he was the Super Bowl MVP the first time the Pats won with him as the general and his success continued as they became a dynasty.

Roethlisberger was drafted eleventh overall two years ago, and because of his winning demeanor, the Steelers are currently 27-2 in games not started by Tommy Maddox, Charlie Batch or Tom Brady. He didn't perform at a particularly high level this past Sunday in his first appearance on football's biggest stage, but still came out on top. Big Ben was 9-21 passing, which was good for only 123 yards. He didn't throw one touchdown, and was picked off twice. To make matter worse, he tallied one yard of passing at the end of the first quarter. Knowing those statistics, one can't argue that the Steelers' triumph wasn't a team effort.

Their differences are evident, but a closer look will illustrate how similar these two special athletes actually are. Big Ben attended the University of Miami of Ohio which isn't considered a huge football program, and playing a weak conference could have possibly been a key reason why ten teams passed on him in the draft two years ago. As mentioned earlier, Brady competed at the University of Michigan, which is more competitive than Roethlisberger's alma mater, but is still not at the level of such schools such as Miami, USC, Texas or Notre Dame. Now, I'm not implying that smaller schools don't produce future pro-bowlers; just look at Randy Moss who went to Marshall.

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