Just hang it up if the Steelers cut him.

Yeah, this shows brutal.

So obviously Ben Roethlisberger.

The conversation right now is based off of comments made by his GM, where he basically just said, Ben plays for us right now.

And then he said, We got a cap problem and we need to fix that.

He did not parse words.

Ben has gone and said he wants to keep playing.

Ben has said I don't even care about money next season, which is a weird strategy and just kind of makes me feel icky because it feels like, No, no, I'll do anything.

You can do anything to me.

Just please, please, please, please don't leave me And that kind of desperate energy just makes me uncomfortable when it plays out in public.

But the truth of the matter is that right now he's like a $41 million cap hit which is wild.

There's a number of ways they could get that down.

If they cut him where he retires, I believe it drops to around 20 to He could not likely but play for the minimum and then I think that gets it down to 23 or they could restructure it, and then it gets it to 27.

Either way, none of those numbers air all that good.

The question being asked is, Should he retire if he gets cut?

I think it's clear he wants to play somewhere else.

And look as somebody who could never have pictured Tom Brady playing somewhere else and then had to very much get used to it on the highest level this season, I think it could be a possibility that we see him go somewhere else.

I don't think that's probably going to be best for his legacy and career.

But who am I to say?

I think this is about Ben's ego as much as anything.

I mean, the reality of who he is and how old he is.

He is the same age.

Is Aaron Rodgers, right?

That's absurd.

That is pitbull vibes like Pitbull, by the way, just 40 years old.

Shocking right?

Big Ben Onley, as old as Aaron Rodgers.

Similarly shocking.

What I would say about the Steelers and him, though, in this relationship that is clearly eroding in public, is that as much as he should be aware of his own mortality and how he is slowing down in every way.

Think about how he went out that game.

They lost against the Browns.

It was three turnovers in the first quarter.

It was 28 points.

Given up, you can't end your career by stepping onto a giant orange rake like that.

And so I think Big Ben, even if it's not with Pittsburgh with somewhere else.

And by the way, there may be like a half dozen teams that could possibly use even this version of Ben Roethlisberger.

I don't think this is when he says, Actually, I am done with the game.

Let that be the last time you seem.

But that's the thing people like.

If his ego is factoring into this, if he does not want to look like a lesser version of himself, he should not play football anymore.

I mean, Ben Roethlisberger can play quarterback in the NFL, but he can't play it well.

We saw that he had the lowest average completed air yards per attempt of any quarterback last year.

Defense has figured that out about halfway through the season, knowing that he wasn't gonna throw it deep started playing him aggressively, and that playoff game was the result.

Now there is a universe in which he plays behind a better offensive line in a running game.

But do we really want to see Ben Roethlisberger carried to the finish in a weekend at Bernie's style offense?

Does Ben Roethlisberger want to be Bernie in this very bleak metaphor?

I don't think so.

So if I'm him, I look at my Super Bowl ring and my money, and I call it a day, even if I can still play in a diminished fashion if I'm him.

I also am probably watching ESPN and I'm like, Man, it seems really fun to criticize me as opposed to actually be me, man.

These people have compared me to a dead guy who got walked around the party and a desperate person who doesn't want to be alone for the rest of their life.

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