Randle El Predicts Concussion to End NFL

Former NFL wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, whose trick-play touchdown pass famously helped the Pittsburgh Steelers to a victory in Super Bowl XL, said he regrets having ever played football.

Randle El, 36, told the Pittburgh Post-Gazette in story published Tuesday that he struggles to walk down the stairs and has contended with memory loss since announcing his retirement in 2012.

“If I could go back, I wouldn’t,” the former Indiana University quarterback said of the sport that brought him roughly $40m in career earnings. “I would play baseball. I got drafted by the Cubs in the 14th round, but I didn’t play baseball because of my parents. They made me go to school. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game of football. But right now, I could still be playing baseball.”

An outspoken critic of the NFL and plaintiff in a 2013 lawsuit claiming the league “has done everything in its power to hide the issue and mislead players concerning the risks associated with concussions”, Randle El believes the sport is inherently dangerous and beyond fixing.

“The kids are getting bigger and faster, so the concussions, the severe spinal cord injuries, are only going to get worse,” Randle El said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow because I love the game of football. But I tell parents, you can have the right helmet, the perfect pads on, and still end up with a paraplegic kid.

“There’s no correcting it. There’s no helmet that’s going to correct it. There’s no teaching that’s going to correct it. It just comes down to it’s a physically violent game. Football players are in a car wreck every week.”

He added: “I wouldn’t be surprised if football isn’t around in 20, 25 years.”

A star quarterback at Indiana University, Randle El was converted to wide receiver after being drafted by the Steelers in the second round of the 2002 NFL draft and finished his nine-year career with 370 receptions for 4,467 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also made an impact on special teams, averaging 22.3 yards on 79 kickoff returns with one touchdown, and 8.2 yards on 311 punt returns with five touchdowns.

Randle El’s most famous moment came in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XL against the Seattle Seahawks. With the Steelers nursing a 14-10 lead with nine minutes remaining, his 43-yard touchdown strike to Hines Ward on a reverse option would prove the game’s decisive play.

Antwaan Randle El’s game-breaking touchdown pass lifted the Steelers to a Super Bowl XL victory

Still, he insists the glory was not worth the personal cost.

“I ask my wife things over and over again, and she’s like, ‘I just told you that,’” Randle El told the Post-Gazette. “I’ll ask her three times the night before and get up in the morning and forget. Stuff like that. I try to chalk it up as I’m busy, I’m doing a lot, but I have to be on my knees praying about it, asking God to allow me to not have these issues and live a long life.

“I want to see my kids raised up. I want to see my grandkids.”

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Peyton Places Broncos Beyond Steelers

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Peyton Manning earned one more and possibly final game against his rival by leading the Denver Broncos to a come-from-behind 23-16 win over Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers on a blustery Sunday.

That set up an AFC championship game next weekend in Denver against Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

Manning and Brady have squared off 16 times before, a full season’s worth of matchups between the two quarterbacks whose careers are so intertwined that a conversation about one almost has to include the other — like Bird v Magic or Ali v Frazier.

“It’ll be the Broncos v the Patriots,” Manning said of the AFC’s top two seeds, both 13-4. “We’ll enjoy this one tonight. I think you knew that answer was coming. To kind of quote Bill Belichick, we’ll be on to New England. But I’ll be talking about them on Wednesday.”

Football fans won’t wait that long. Brady has won 11 of the 16 meetings against Manning’s teams, but they’re 2-2 in the playoffs, including Denver’s 26-16 win in the conference championship game two years ago. This game marks just the seventh time Manning will face Brady at home.

The 17th chapter was slated for November before Manning went out with a foot injury that pushed longtime backup Brock Osweiler into the starting — and starring — role.

Osweiler led the Broncos back from a two-touchdown, fourth-quarter deficit against New England on 29 November in a game Denver won 30-24 in overtime. Manning had just gotten out of his cast and watched that game from the locker room after shaking Brady’s hand in pregame warmups.

He returned to action in the season finale, his cameo propelling the Broncos past San Diego and into the AFC’s No1 seed that ensures Brady & Co will have to play at altitude in their fifth consecutive trip to the conference championship game.

Just before kickoff Sunday, a strong wind blew over the Rocky Mountains, wreaking havoc on passes and kicks alike, although Brandon McManus tied an NFL playoff record by converting all five of his field goal attempts and Chris Boswell made all three of his.

Manning’s team-mates dropped seven passes, but came through in crunch time. Denver is 10-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer, and Manning said being battle-tested helped them on this blustery night.

With Denver down 13-12 with less than 10 minutes left, cornerback Bradley Roby, burned time and again, punched the ball from Fitzgerald Toussaint’s arms and teammate DeMarcus Ware recovered at the Denver 35-yard line.

“I could have protected the ball a little bit more,” said Toussaint, who scored his first career TD in the first half. “Obviously, they made a great play. You’ve got to give them credit, but in that situation, I put it on myself.”

Manning went to work, driving Denver to its only touchdown, a one-yard run by CJ Anderson, followed by Demaryius Thomas’ catch on the two-pointer that put Denver ahead 20-13 with three minutes left.

That was Manning’s 55th game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime, extending one of the dozen NFL records he owns.

Ware’s sack ended Pittsburgh’s next drive and McManus kicked his fifth field goal, joking it was such a tricky crosswind that he just kept aiming “at the guy holding the beer in the top left corner.”

Chris Boswell made a 47-yarder with 19 seconds left, but Anderson, who gained 72 yards on 15 carries, recovered the onside kick.

Manning credited Denver’s NFL-best defense for thwarting a team that piled up 34 points on them last month.

“Obviously, down in the fourth quarter and down the home stretch, great play by our defense,” Manning said. “They gave us some good opportunities all day. Pittsburgh did a great job down there in the red zone, keeping us from touchdowns. We had to settle for field goals.

“The best thing we did, we stayed patient all game. We didn’t force anything and we didn’t give them any short fields. Obviously, when we needed it, we had that big drive and we got that touchdown that really put us up.”

Roethlisberger completed 24 of 37 passes for 339 yards despite playing with a sore right shoulder and missing his top receiver — Antonio Brown (concussion) and rusher — DeAngelo Williams (foot). Martavis Bryant had nine catches for 154 yards.

Manning completed 21 of 37 passes for 222 yards, including five to Emmanuel Sanders for 85 yards.

Manning, two months shy of 40, has said this could very well be his final hurrah, and he’s 60 minutes from another chance to win his second Super Bowl ring.

Brady — who else? — stands in his way.

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Roethlisberger Doubt for Denver

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The Pittsburgh Steelers only just squeezed past the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday night, and now they’ll face the Denver Broncos this weekend with a compromised quarterback – if he plays at all.

Ben Roethlisberger confirmed on Tuesday that he has torn ligaments in his throwing shoulder. “I’ll go in tomorrow with the intent to see what I can do,” Roethlisberger told KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh. “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried to throw a football since the game, and maybe that’s not even the right thing to do right away.

“I’ll see the doctors and trainers tomorrow, and we’ll evaluate kind of how I feel. If anything, maybe I can practice and hand off and still get some mental reps that way. So we’ll really just kind of see how it goes tomorrow.”

Roethlisberger left Saturday’s game after being sacked by Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict. His replacement, Landry Jones, threw an interception before Roethlisberger returned to the fray, leading his team to a game-winning field goal helped by two penalties from the Bengals.

Roethlisberger admitted he had been limited during his final drive of the game. “It didn’t hurt when I reached back to throw,” he said. “But it was pushing forward to throw and then the end of the throw. So I definitely felt like I was shortening up my motion up a little bit, which is why we threw some screens, and couldn’t really get the ball down the field. I think it just more affected how I could throw it.”

The Steelers are now faced with the prospect of fielding the largely untested Jones against the AFC’s No1 seeded Broncos. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin has said Roethlisberger “has a chance” to play on Sunday and is likely to take part in limited practice on Wednesday. The Steelers are also likely to be without their No1 receiver Antonio Brown, who suffered a concussion on Saturday after a late hit from Burfict.

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Bengals Jones Claims Brown Faked

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The Cincinnati Bengals’ season is over but Adam Jones refuses to go gentle into that good night.

The Bengals lost a thrilling wildcard game against the Steelers after Jones’s team-mate Vontaze Burfict was penalised for a hit on Pittsburgh receiver Antonio Brown. The Bengals were then slapped with another 15-yard penalty after Jones made contact with Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter, bringing Pittsburgh into range for a game-winning field goal.

“Nah, Antonio Brown was not hurt,” Jones said on The Dan Patrick Show. “I know he was faking it. Go back and look at the play. If you go back in slow motion, you tell me Vontaze hit him in the head, or if his shoulder pads barely touched him.”

Brown suffered a concussion after Burfict’s tackle but Jones said the receiver winked at him as he was taken off the field. “I think he needs a Grammy award for that one.”

Jones strongly criticised the officials in an Instagram post after the game – which was subsequently deleted – but reiterated his disatisfaction again on Monday.

“The point is, everybody want to talk about Vontaze and the way he plays,” Jones said. “But if you go back and watch the film, watch the film of the whole game. It’s not just like when we play against them, it’s every time they play against somebody. If you go back and watch the whole game in slow-motion, different part even when 73 [Steelers offensive lineman Ramon Foster] after the play kicks him in his heel – I mean blatantly, he’s just walking back to the huddle, he kicks him – they threw that one. If you go just go back and watch the whole game, you’ll be surprised with the film.”

Burfict faces a suspension for his hit on Brown. 

The Steelers will play the Denver Broncos this weekend for a place in the AFC Championship game.

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Pittsburgh Steel Begal Win

The Pittsburgh Steelers are heading to Denver. The Cincinnati Bengals are heading to another long offseason after a meltdown as ugly and ill-timed as it was complete.

Chris Boswell kicked a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining as the Steelers somehow pulled out an 18-16 victory in the AFC wildcard game on Saturday night.

Pittsburgh moved into field goal position after a pair of 15-yard penalties on the Bengals, one on linebacker Vontaze Burfict and another on Adam Jones after Burfict hit defenseless Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown. Boswell drilled his fourth field goal of the game to give the Steelers their first playoff win since the 2010 AFC championship game. The Bengals appeared to be in position for their first postseason win in 25 years before Jeremy Hill’s fumble gave Pittsburgh one last shot.

Roethlisberger left with a right shoulder injury on the final play of the third quarter but returned for Pittsburgh’s last-gasp drive. Unable to throw with any real authority, he still managed to get the Steelers near midfield with 22 seconds to go when he threw high to Brown in Cincinnati territory. Burfict, whose sack of Roethlisberger sent the quarterback to the locker room, lowered his shoulder as Brown landed. The volatile linebacker earned a personal foul. Jones compounded the problem when he lost his cool, easily putting Boswell within field goal range after Cincinnati’s eighth — and final — flag of an unsightly night.

Roethlisberger finished 18 of 31 for 229 yards and a touchdown in rainy conditions. Jordan Todman and Fitzgerald Toussaint combined for 123 yards rushing filling in for DeAngelo Williams.

Still, it hardly seemed like it would be enough. AJ McCarron put together a late rally after Martavis Bryant’s somersaulting touchdown grab gave the Steelers a 15-0 lead heading into the final quarter.

Cincinnati ripped off 16 straight points, the last six on a 25-yard strike from McCarron to AJ Green that put the Bengals in front. They missed the two-point conversion.

When Burfict intercepted Landry Jones on Pittsburgh’s ensuing possession, Cincinnati and coach Marvin Lewis appeared ready to end the sixth-longest postseason drought in NFL history.

Then, the team that said it would keep it together fell completely apart. Hill saw the ball pop out as Cincinnati tried to run out the clock and the Steelers recovered at the Pittsburgh 9 with 1:23 left. Just enough time for Roethlisberger — with plenty of help from Cincinnati — to send the Steelers to Denver and a rematch with the Broncos, whom Pittsburgh beat 34-27 last month.

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Brown Steels Win Over Colts

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 364 yards and four touchdowns as the Pittsburgh Steelers overwhelmed the Indianapolis Colts 45-10 on Sunday night.

Antonio Brown caught eight passes for 118 yards and two scores and also returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown for the Steelers (7-5).

Martavis Bryant hauled in four passes for 114 yards and a score, and DeAngelo Williams added 134 yards rushing as Pittsburgh shook off a slow start to dominate the Colts (6-6) over the final three quarters.

Roethlisberger has 886 yards passing and 10 touchdowns in his last two starts against Indianapolis.

Matt Hasselbeck threw for 169 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions before leaving in the fourth quarter because of neck and shoulder pain. The Colts remain tied with Houston for the lead in the AFC North.

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Vikings Down Steelers

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Minnesota Vikings claimed a tense 34-27 win over Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL at Wembley Stadium.

A near sell-out crowd of 83,519 saw a thrilling finish as the Steelers came close to scoring a touchdown in the final seconds.

But Everson Griffen sacked Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to clinch Minnesota's first victory of the season.

Vikings quarterback Matt Cassel said: "What an amazing experience."

Coach Leslie Frazier added: "It feels great to get a first 'home' win of the season even if we had to come all the way to London to get it.

"I'll always have a special place in my heart for Wembley Stadium. Thank you London for helping us get that first win. With all the noise we felt at times like we were back at home."

Pittsburgh, who contested three of the last eight Super Bowls, have now lost their opening four games of the season for the first time since 1968.

The match was the first of two NFL games at Wembley in the space of a month - Jacksonville Jaguars play San Francisco 49ers on 27 October.

Minnesota started strongly, opening the scoring with Blair Walsh's 54-yard field goal before stretching their lead to 10-0 through Greg Jennings's touchdown.

There was a quick response from Pittsburgh as Le'Veon Bell took Roethlisberger's pass to score but Adrian Peterson restored the Vikings' 10-point lead with a spectacular 60-yard touchdown.

Pittsburgh's Shaun Suisham and Minnesota's Walsh kicked field goals to leave the half-time score at 20-10.

The Steelers made the perfect start to the third quarter when Bell forced his way over, but they then conceded two touchdowns in as many minutes as Peterson and Jennings both claimed their second of the game for a 34-17 lead.

Jerricho Cotchery's touchdown kept the Steelers's hopes alive early in the fourth quarter before a Suisham field goal cut Minnesota's lead to 34-27.

The Steelers were closing in on the Vikings' endzone and looked set to level the match before Griffen stripped the ball off Roethlisberger on the six-yard line with 19 seconds left.

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