Big Ben.....
Today we had a completely unplanned and very unexpected Ben Roethlisberger
sighting.
We are in Pittsburgh for the week and today Kate needed to take Crispian to sign up for Midget Football. This fall Crispian will be a member of the Lawrenceville Seminoles. We had to go to the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh to register at the community football field. Today they had a game, an adult football game, that was well-attended. It wasn't clear to us where the teams were from, but the players and crowds were largely African-American. This is important only in that it caused the presence of Ben Roethlisberger and his crew to stand out.
They were very near the sign-up table for the football league. To anyone they just looked like an odd assortment of clean-cut yet biker-tatooed young white guys. They could have been regular-old Mon-Valley 20-somethings just having lunch at the Church Brew across the street from the stadium after a round of golf this morning and hanging around for the game. Ben Roethlisberger among them stood out even further than that among them because he is so much taller. If you had no idea it was Big Ben, you would have barely noticed them other than they were just about the only white people at the game.
Of course I only had my camera phone on me and so it is hard to see in the picture. One of Crispian's new teammates on the Seminoles, Will, got Ben to autograph the inside of his ballcap. Ben is the one in the black t-shirt (which was from a local Pittsburgh Harley dealership, and his motorcycle enthusiasm has caused some off-season controversy in 'burgh) and grey shorts.
He was as you would expect him to be if you have seen him on TV--gracious, not annoyed at autograph seekers and people trying to take his picture, and clearly just having a good time with his "buddies."
I had to call my step-daughter Katie immediately when I left the field and Big Ben was still there.. Here is how the conversation went:
"Where are you?"
"Ummm, uptown [Marienville] with some friends right now. Why?"
"Oh, if you were anywhere close to Pittsburgh I would tell you where Ben Roethliberger is becuase he was just a few feet in front of me."
"*Screams*" What? Where? I even have on my Roethlisberger jersey!!"
"Oh, too bad you are three hours away then, huh?"
sighting.
We are in Pittsburgh for the week and today Kate needed to take Crispian to sign up for Midget Football. This fall Crispian will be a member of the Lawrenceville Seminoles. We had to go to the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh to register at the community football field. Today they had a game, an adult football game, that was well-attended. It wasn't clear to us where the teams were from, but the players and crowds were largely African-American. This is important only in that it caused the presence of Ben Roethlisberger and his crew to stand out.
They were very near the sign-up table for the football league. To anyone they just looked like an odd assortment of clean-cut yet biker-tatooed young white guys. They could have been regular-old Mon-Valley 20-somethings just having lunch at the Church Brew across the street from the stadium after a round of golf this morning and hanging around for the game. Ben Roethlisberger among them stood out even further than that among them because he is so much taller. If you had no idea it was Big Ben, you would have barely noticed them other than they were just about the only white people at the game.
Of course I only had my camera phone on me and so it is hard to see in the picture. One of Crispian's new teammates on the Seminoles, Will, got Ben to autograph the inside of his ballcap. Ben is the one in the black t-shirt (which was from a local Pittsburgh Harley dealership, and his motorcycle enthusiasm has caused some off-season controversy in 'burgh) and grey shorts.
He was as you would expect him to be if you have seen him on TV--gracious, not annoyed at autograph seekers and people trying to take his picture, and clearly just having a good time with his "buddies."
I had to call my step-daughter Katie immediately when I left the field and Big Ben was still there.. Here is how the conversation went:
"Where are you?"
"Ummm, uptown [Marienville] with some friends right now. Why?"
"Oh, if you were anywhere close to Pittsburgh I would tell you where Ben Roethliberger is becuase he was just a few feet in front of me."
"*Screams*" What? Where? I even have on my Roethlisberger jersey!!"
"Oh, too bad you are three hours away then, huh?"
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