Ben Roethlisberger was easy to admire as a quarterback, but not as a man

The Steelers quarterback is headed to the Hall of Fame. But he was unloved outside Pittsburgh for understandable reasons

Ben Roethlisberger is lucky that football legacies are not decided by finales. If Sunday night was indeed Big Ben's last ever NFL game, as he has strongly hinted, it wasn't exactly a mic drop. In the 42-21 beatdown by the Chiefs, Roethlisberger struggled with rollouts, and lacked the creativity and finesse of his opposing number, Patrick Mahomes.

Just as no one places too much weight on Dan Marino's 62-7 playoff loss to the Jaguars in his career finale, Roethlisberger's clunker of an ending won't be a significant part of his story. But in comparison to Marino - and most other quarterbacks - Roethlisberger's legacy is complicated.