Why are so many football fans blocked on Twitter by Ben Roethlisberger?

Are you blocked by Ben Roethlisberger?

Go ahead, check out his verified Twitter account and see if you are. A shockingly high number of NFL fans and media members are blocked.

Many discovered this only after Roethlisberger announced he will return for the 2017 season via his Twitter account Friday.

The weirdest part is that no one seems to know why. Some people who say they've never tweeted anything to do with Roethlisberger are blocked.

There are many theories about why this is the case, but none seems to stand up to scrutiny.

The most popular theory is that whoever runs Roethlisberger's account blocked everyone who also follows the accounts for Pro Football Talk and/or PFT Commenter, perhaps in response to a negative article about Roethlisberger.

While many who follow those accounts are indeed blocked by Big Ben, not all are. For instance, the writer of the article you are reading right now follows both and remains unblocked.

It's hard to believe Roethlisberger himself took the time to block literally hundreds (maybe even thousands) of Twitter users, but it makes just as little sense that he would ask a social media intern do it. Could it be a case of an auto-block program run amok?

Until a reporter asks Roethlisberger to explain the bizarre phenomenon (or until whoever runs his social media speaks out), we may never know why so many football fans are barred from seeing Roethlisberger tweet his support of various charities and law enforcement employees, or share photos of dogs wearing Steelers jerseys.

For now, all the blocked can do is accept their fate - or follow NFL.com writer Dan Hanzus' lead.