Tired of Ben Roethlisberger yet?

Me, too.

I'm tired of him to the point that I don't want to root for him anymore.

And having grown up in Pittsburgh as a fan of the city's sports teams, that presents a problem.

How do you root for the Steelers if you despise the starting quarterback?

A lot of people rooted for the Pirates when Barry Bonds was here, despite disliking him because they believed he was a jerk.

Plenty of fans rooted for the Penguins' Stanley Cup teams despite widespread belief that goaltender Tom Barrasso was a jerk as well.

Some may consider those two cases as precedents to what's going on now with the Steelers.

Not me.

Bonds and Barrasso weren't caught in a compromising situation like Roethlisberger was in Georgia.

The Pirates and Penguins never got rid of certain players for questionable behavior off the field while keeping others of similar ilk.

So-so receiver Cedric Wilson was jettisoned. James Harrison stuck around as an All-Pro linebacker.

Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes was shipped off to the New York Jets for a fifth-round draft choice. A pittance of a return, to be sure, but Holmes is suspended for four games and can become a free agent at the end of this season.

The Steelers simply got rid of a headache a little early by making that move.

Rest assured, Roethlisberger isn't going anywhere.

If the Steelers were planning to ship him out, they wouldn't have bothered with his staged statement of apology in the locker room that was borderline ridiculous.

Roethlisberger is a tremendously talented NFL quarterback. He's big, strong, improvises as well as any in the game and already has two Super Bowl rings.

While 2009 wasn't the Steelers' greatest season, it was Roethlisberger's best yet. The man set team records in passing yardage and touchdown passes.

That's all on the field.

Off the field, this is a boy stuck in a 28-year-old man's body.

Roethlisberger leads a reckless lifestyle that mirrors the reckless abandon he plays with on the field.

He vows he can and will change that lifestyle.

Maybe he will, maybe he won't.

Problem is, we already know too much. He does not respect women. His actions at the bar in Milledgeville, Ga., were disgusting, whether he committed a crime or not.

The alleged 20-year-old victim and her family backed off from pressing charges. The district attorney clearly was eager to file charges against Roethlisberger, but he couldn't.

"We don't prosecute morals. We prosecute crimes."

Morality means a lot to me.

No. 7 is still the Steelers' starting quarterback.

Being a Steelers fan now is more difficult than I ever thought possible.