Although the Pittsburgh Steelers are running away with the AFC North at 8-2, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger continues to face questions about whether he is still invested in playing football and fired back at his critics Tuesday.
"In a way it's like, 'Wait a second, you're going to take a shot at me and you don't know me?'" Roethlisberger said on 93.7 The Fan Pittsburgh. "I'm going to go out here and bust my butt every day and be limping with bruises and put my body and my family through this and not care? You're absolutely nuts."
Ever since Roethlisberger candidly said that he may not be the quarterback he once was following a 30-9 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 8, he has had to refute the notion that he had given up on his football career.
Roethlisberger has completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 16 touchdowns against 10 interceptions this season, with his five-interception performance versus the Jaguars reading as a statistical aberration.
With the Steelers angling for the AFC's top seed, Roethlisberger is no longer entertaining the idea that he's given up.
"I've done this long enough, too, that I can let [criticism] roll off my back."
