thrown fora loss

THROWN FOR A LOSS
Motorcycle
crash seriously
injures Steelers'
Roethlisberger
From wire reports
Steelers
PITTSBURGH
• Pittsburgh
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger
has made no secret of his love for
riding motorcycles without a helmet. The habit once prompted a
lecture from coach Bill Cowher.
"He talked about being a risktaker and I'm not really a risk-taker," Roethlisberger said in May
2005 after his meeting of the
minds with Cowher.
Yesterday, it became worse
than a risk.
.
Roethlisberger, 24, the youngest quarterback to lead a team to
football's Super Bowl championship, was listed in "serious but
stable" condition last night after
seven hours of surgery for injuries suffered when he was thrown
from his motorcycle, hit a car's
windshield and then hit his head
on-the~pavement.
He-was-riot
wearing a helmet, police said.
Four doctors operated
on
Roethlisberger to treat multiple
facial fractures and "all of the
fractures were successfully rePlease see BEN on Back Page
l.llt: J:'d.VCUH:;UL. r~c Wd.::J .uVL
wearing a helmet, police said.
Four doctors operated
on
Roethlisberger to treat multiple
facial fractures and "all of the
fractures were successfully reun
Please see BEN on Back Page
Steeler Nation
gets a scare,
then gets mad
COMMENTARY
PHILIP
When the news broke yesterday about Pittsburgh quarterback
Ben Roethlisberger's motorcycle
accident, rest assured that one
family - the Steeler Nationstopped whatever they were
doing at that moment.
Whether they were working or
watching the u.s.
team falter in
World Cup soccer, that family
wanted to know
nothing more
than what condition Roethlisberger was in.
JIM CARLSON
Aside from the
obvious - and
far more important - concern of
the second-year quarterback's immediate family, his extended family was suffering in stunned silence.
But they weren't silent for long.
People were online and on telephone and computer lines to get a
line on their favorite quarterback.
Screams of thrill-seekers pierced
the warm, summery air as Dale
Archuleta straddled his black Harley-Davidson yesterday across the
street from Hersheypark.
Archuleta gunned his machine to
life and nosed it away from the
Parkside Bar and Grille. As he rumbled off, he felt the sun on his forehead and the wind on his salt-andpepper hair, because he doesn't like
to wear a helmet.
The fact that Pittsburgh Steelers
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger,
who also shuns helmets, was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash
would not change Archuleta's
mind.
"It's more comfortable not wear-
Please see CARLSON on Back Page
Please see REACTION on Back Page
G. PAVELY, The Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review
Bikers say crash won't change style
BY FORD TURNER
OfThe Patriot-News
GARY
DWIGHT
MILLER,
The Patriot-News
"It's more comfortable not wearing [a helmet] .... Today, it is a
beautiful day.... If you wear a helmet, your head heats up."
Dale Archuleta,
59, of Lancaster County
BEN: QB not wearing helmet in bike 'crash
Continued from Page Al
paired," Dr. Harry W. Sell,
chairman of the surgery department at Mercy Hospital,
told reporters last night.
Dr. Daniel Pituch, who led
the team, said shortly after 10
p.m. that doctors were aware
of no other serious injuries.
"His brain, spine, chest and
abdomen appear to be without serious injury and there
are no other confirmed injuries at this time," he said.
The doctors said that no
further condition updates
were
expected until
today. They
refused to release further
information
at his family's
request.
;, ~
RoethlisROETHLISBERGER
b erg err e portedly suffered a broken jaw and nose
and a 9-inch gash on his head.
He lost some teeth and had
contusions on his cheek.
The Tribune-Review
of
Pittsburgh quoted an unidentified source as saying Roethlisberger, who missed a game
last season after arthroscopic
knee surgery, suffered skin
damage on both knees when
he struck the pavement, but
suffered no internal knee
damage.
Earlier, Dr. Larry Jones,
chief of trauma at Mercy, said
Roethlisberger "was talking to
me before he left for the operating room. He's coherent.
He's making sense. He knows
what happened. He knows
where he is. From that standpoint, he's very stable."
STEVE MELLON, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The point of impact by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben
Roethlisberger shows on the Chrysler New Yorker he struck
after being thrown from his motorcycle yesterday.
In only his second year in
the National Football League,
"Big Ben" helped guide the
Steelers to their fifth Super
Bowl title in February.
Training camp for the 2006
season begins next month.
The Washington Post quoted
an unidentified source as saying last night that Roethlisberger's broken jaw is expected to take seven weeks to
heal. His status for camp and
the start of the season Sept. 7
was unclear.
At the hospital yesterday,
Steelers President Art Rooney
II said the team was "encouraged by the early reports from
the medical team."
Police said Roethlisberger
was driving his black 2005 Suzuki Hayabusa east on Second
Avenue toward an intersection downtown at about 11:10
a.m. A Chrysler New Yorker
traveling in the opposite direction made a left turn and
collided with the motorcycle,
and Roethlisberger
was
thrown, police said.
The other car was driven by
a 62-year-old, police said.
They did not immediately release her name, and no
charges were filed.
According to the Suzuki
Web site, the Hayabusa is the
fastest production bike made.
Sandra Ford of Pittsburgh
was waiting at a bus stop
nearby when she said she saw
the motorcycle approach the
intersection.
Seconds later,
she said, she heard a crash,
saw the motorcyclist in the air
and she ran to the scene.
"He wasn't moving and I
was afraid that he had died ...
He wasn't really speaking. He
seemed dazed, but he was resisting the effort to make him
stay down," said Ford, who
didn't realize who it was.
Authorities said an investigation was under way.
Cowher and several teammates, including backup quar-
terback Charlie Batch and
linebacker Joey Porter, arrived at the hospital. Roethlisberger's mother, Brenda, wept
as she arrived.
Roethlisberger was to have
filmed a national television ad
for Campbell's Chunky Soup
with his mother and some
teammates yesterday.
"I send my prayers up for
him and his family," Steelers
receiver Hines Ward told
Pittsburgh television station
WT AE from Los Angeles. "It's
like a serious accident that
happens to your brother."
Some fans dressed in the
Steelers' black and gold also
gathered at the hospital, including Juanita Clark, who
sells team paraphernalia, accompanied by her daughter. "I
just feel like he's a family
member," Loretta Clark said.
As Roethlisberger has said
he prefers not to wear a he1met when riding his motorcycle, he has noted that Pennsylvania's state law requiring
helmets was repealed in 2003.
In May 2005, Cowher
I warned him about safe riding
after Cleveland tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. was injured in
a motorcycle accident. Winslow tore knee ligaments and
was lost for the season.
"I'm pretty conservative
and laid-back, but the big
thing is to just be careful,"
Roethlisberger said then.
Roethlisberger continued to
ride, and that angered Terry
Bradshaw, who quarterbacked
the Steelers to four Super
Bowl titles during the 1970s.
Visiting the Steelers' training camp last summer, Bradshaw said, "Ride it when you
retire."
.
CARLSON: Steeler Nation gets a Big Ben scare
Continued
from Page Ai
Callers jammed the phones
( into the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and WT AE-TV, according to employees there, to
pretty much say "What about
Ben?"
Attempts to read news on
( the Web sites of the Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review were met
with delays because of the
volume of black-and-goldblooded visitors. In fact, the
: Tribune-Review's site
, crashed because of it.
Motorcycle helmet or not
- and he was not wearing
one - one of Pittsburgh's favorite sons still had fallen.
Pittsburgh is not only a relatively small city, it's a small
town. It's a blue-collar town
whose residents are mad
about football. Baseball, hockey and college sports have
their followers, but winning
records are necessary fuel.
Steelers' victories, meanwhile, incite a passion. Losses
hurt to the core and the reaction is just as passionate.
While concern comes first
and football second, it's only
human nature to want to talk
football. Especially after
learning that Roethlisberger
broke his jaw and nose and
damaged a tooth or two, but
that his major playing joints
such as elbows and knees
1
probably just will be sore until all the cinders and gravel
from the Pittsburgh intersection of Second Avenue and
10th Street are plucked out of
what he had better hope is
thick skin.
Parents can relate to this.
They're told that their son or
daughter was just in accident.
They find out that the physical condition of their offspring will be fine in time.
Then they learn that the accident was caused by carelessness and lack of thinking, and
they're more than ready to injure some of their child's uninjured body parts.
Roethlisberger has every
right to choose to not wear a
helmet, but he won't be able
to outrun his status as a role
model.
That he failed in that role
yesterday was not lost on
some emerging football stars
in Hershey for Saturday's Big
33 game.
Patriot-News football reporter Bob Flounders was the
bearer of bad news when
players left the Hershey High
School practice field.
The Pittsburgh-area players
took it hard.
"He's a legend already, after
his rookie season," Connor
Dixon, a Michigan Statebound quarterback from
South Park, said of Roethlisberger. "It doesn't matter
what he does on the field after Big 33.
that first year, he's a legend in
"Here's the thing," Flaus
the biggest football town in
said. "You play football with a
the state. If he's hurt really
helmet on, and you're running
bad, that would be like, I don't maybe 15miles an hour. You
know, losing your mother to
ride a motorcycle in the city
most people.
and you're traveling 35-40
"And I'm mad about it. It's
miles an hour."
"When he was drafted, this
not going to be as fun to
watch if he's not playing. He's was an issue. [Roethlisberger]
a crazy dude. You can tell he's made this big thing about he
just one of those out-there,
was a motorcycle rider and he
didn't need a helmet. That had
guys. I would imagine there's
to do with that Kellen Wina lot of mad people in Pittsburgh right now," Dixon said. slow [Jr.] deal.
"I'm mad."
"What are you going to do?
Future Penn State running
I don't mean to disrespect
back Travis McBride of
him, but it's almost like you
McKeesport said Roethlisdon't respect your own body
berger "means everything to
and you don't respect your
teammates."
Pittsburgh."
"He turned that team
Flaus said yesterday's acciaround in two years - well,
dent will be a topic of discusone year, his rookie year. He
sion in the city for a long, long
time. "He's become a real 10took them to the division
championship as a rookie and cal hero in a short amount of
time," he said.
this year he got us the Super
Bowl," McBride said.
And that's just it. The
24-year-old kid is a hero. The
"He is a special player. I
think people are probably real kid is a leader. The kid is a
winner. The kid is a kid, albeit
upset and mad at him .... He
should have learned from that a big one.
But he's Pittsburgh's kid
other guy, [Cleveland tight
end] Kellen Winslow Jr. [who and Pittsburgh loves him.
They'll now believe they
was injured severely in a mo. have the right to scold him
torcycle accident in 2005].
while wishing him well.
People are probably calling
him dumb."
Simply because they're a
That includes Bob Flaus,
family.
head football coach at PittsJIM CARLSON: 255-8460 or
burgh Peabody High School
and an assistant coach for the jcarlson@patriot-news.com
REACTION: Riders say helmef'use up to tneID
Continued
from Page Al
ing one .... Today, it is a beautiful day. It is really nice. If
you wear a helmet, your head
heats up," said Archuleta, 59,
of Mount Joy, Lancaster
County .
A buddy and fellow Harley
owner, Rick Thomas, had
nothing more than a bandanna wrapped about his head.
"I have known people who
wore helmets who got killed,"
said Thomas, 56, of Middletown.
Roethlisberger has said he
prefers not to wear a helmet
when riding his motorcycle
and has noted that Pennsylvania's law requiring that helmets be worn was repealed in
2003.
Police said Roethlisberger
was not wearing a helmet yesterday.
Thomas said that while he
sympathized with Roethlisberger, the fact that a football
superstar has been injured
will not influence his thinking
about helmets.
"I think it's up to the individual," Thomas said.
Gov. Ed Rendell signed the
legislation that ended the helmet requirement for adults.
Riders younger than 21 must
still wear helmets.
The 2003 repeal followed
Motorcycle registrations in
Pennsylvania:
• 2005: 313,180
• 2004: 286,531
• 2003: 263,696
• 2002: 244,728
• 2001: 233,237
GARY DWIGHT MillER, The Patriot-News
III picked out my helmet
before I picked out
Motorcycle fatalities in
Pennsylvania:
.2005: 205 (106 with
helmets)
.2004: 158 (74 with helmets)
• 2003: 156 (118with
helmets)
• 2002: 134 (95 with helmets)
• 2001: 127 (100 with
helmets)
Source: Steve Chizmar, spokesman,
my bike."
Pennsylvania Department
of Transportation
Chuck Tomes, 29, of Harrisburg
debate in which opponents
cited grim statistics on headinjury fatalities and proponents claimed adults should
be allowed to make their own
decisions about safety.
Rendell's predecessor, Gov.
Tom Ridge, vetoed proposed
legislation that would have repealed the helmet law in 1998.
The Parkside, with signs ad1II'Ji,!,
vertising clams and beer, is a
popular stop for motorcyclists
on their way home from work.
Yesterday, kitchen manager
Chuck Tomes pulled up behind the restaurant on his Kawasaki 750, helmet on.
"I'd like to have a little
something between me and
the blacktop," said Tomes, 29,
of Harrisburg.
When he bought his motorcycle about a year ago, he en-
tertained no notions of letting
his hair blow free.
"The thought never even
crossed my mind," Tomes
said. "I picked out my helmet
before I picked out my bike."
Bill Toth, a manager at the
West' Shore Suzuki motorcycle shop in Hampden Twp.,
said he believes nine out of 10
Pennsylvania motorcyclists
wear helmets. Many of those
who do not, he said, prefer
"cruiser" style machines such as Harley-Davidsons that are comfortable for longdistance traveling.
"The guys that you will find
not wearing helmets often are
riding Harleys," he said.
Archuleta
and Thomas,
both of whom retired from
jobs at the Three Mile Island
nuclear plant,.· have ridden
their
Harleys
together
through many states. They
tote their helmets in their saddlebags and don them when
they enter a state with a helmet requirement.
Thomas said a helmet probably would not prevent some
fatalities in high-speed, open
highway crashes.
"It just makes it easier for
the EMTs to gather your
brains up," he said.
FORD TURNER: 255-8486 or
ftu rner@patriot-news.com