Legendary Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger finally retired after the 2021 season following 18 years of serving under center in Pittsburgh. Big Ben managed to lead the Steelers back to the playoffs one last time, though they were bounced in the first round by the Kansas City Chiefs in what was Roethlisberger's final NFL game. One Pittsburgh reporter seems to think Big Ben wasn't quite so keen on calling it a career, however.

Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette dropped an interesting and rather wild tidbit during a recent interview, in which he suggested Roethlisberger and the Steelers had some bad blood between them:

“Is there bad blood between the Steelers and Big Ben with how his career ended. Was he ready to retire or was it a Troy type situation where he was forced into it?” Gulac was asked.

“I would say it's very very safe to assume that,” he replied.

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Dulac seems to think that the Steelers rushed Roethlisberger into retirement earlier than he'd hoped. There have been rumors that the team intentionally lowballed Roethlisberger on a contract extension in hopes he'd turn it down and head off for retirement.

Whether or not this holds any truth remains to be seen. It looked clear to most fans that Roethlisberger was approaching the end of his time in the NFL. Would he really have even considered coming back to the Steelers for a 19th season? That seems unlikely, but perhaps Big Ben felt he had one more year left in the tank.

Last season, Roethlisberger started 16 games for the Steelers, recording 22 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions while compiling 3,740 passing yards.