Black cloud over Ben?
PITTSBURGH — Ben Roethlisberger is beginning to wonder about what he calls "that black cloud over my head."
The knee injury that kept him out of three games last season. The motorcycle crash in June that shattered his face and caused so much bleeding that paramedics feared he might die. The appendectomy that sidelined him during the Pittsburgh Steelers' first game, just when it seemed he had made a remarkably fast recovery from the crash.
"I've been through a little bit the last couple of months, but it's just another thing," Roethlisberger said Wednesday, when he practiced for the first time since having appendicitis. "Things happen for a reason and I'm taking that approach. That's why I'm going to get back as soon as I can."
In his mind, that means the Steelers' game in Jacksonville on Monday, two weeks and a day after he needed his third operation in 10 months. The quarterback is listed as questionable, but sounds like someone who is convinced he is ready to return.
"It feels normal," Roethlisberger said. "It feels like nothing's wrong."
His midsection remains a little sore, he said, but the discomfort is not expected to be a problem by Monday.
Wide receiver Hines Ward played two weeks after having an appendectomy during training camp in 2002 and made eight catches in a season-opening game against New England. He expects Roethlisberger to play but said there is bound to be some physical discomfort.
"There's no question you feel it — I mean, you just went under the knife," Ward said. "You're going to feel the pain a little bit. One play I got hit right in the stomach, right in the abdomen. It hurt a little bit, but it was more mental than anything else because I saw I was going to get hit there. Once I got over the mental thing, I felt fine."
Roethlisberger, talking to reporters for the first time since his appendix attack, said he had no warning that he had a problem. He and backup quarterback Charlie Batch attended the Virginia-Pitt game the night before Roethlisberger woke up Sept. 3 with a bad stomachache.
"I didn't know what it was, so I just came in here," Roethlisberger said, referring to the Steelers' practice complex. "I passed coach (Bill Cowher) along the way and he told me to suck it up, it's just one of those things. You think it's a stomach ache and it turns out to be a lot worse than you think."
To try to keep the quarterback healthy, defensive end Brett Keisel put a partly empty bottle of water in Roethlisberger's locker for good luck — apparently, playing off the adage that it should be viewed as being half full rather than half empty.
Batch filled in by throwing three touchdown passes in a 28-17 victory over Miami on Sept. 7, but Roethlisberger still wants to get back as quickly as he can. The Steelers did not practice Monday and Tuesday, but Roethlisberger did some light throwing with his receivers both days.
Roethlisberger had to sit out a 23-17 overtime loss to Jacksonville last year in Pittsburgh because of a knee injury unrelated to the one that required surgery several weeks later. Tommy Maddox replaced him against the Jaguars and turned the ball over four times, twice in overtime.
