It was a late weekend night, with the music blaring in a rural nightclub located in the quaint, rural town of Milledgeville, Georgia. A bodyguard escorted a local college student to the bathroom, where Ben Roethlisberger, the quarterback for the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers, was waiting.

The next morning, Roethlisberger woke up to find out that he was being charged with sexual assault, his second such charge in less than a year.

Two questions rose from this situation: why would a pro athlete, who could basically get any girl he wanted, do this? And what the hell was Ben Roethlisberger doing in Milledgeville, Georgia?

Roethlisberger gave a half hearted apology on the event, accepted his six game suspension from the NFL, and claimed he would make character changes for the better.

Before the incidents, Roethlisberger was heralded in Pittsburgh for his incredible play, leading the Steelers to two Super Bowl victories, and becoming the youngest quarterback ever to do so.

But after a motorcycle crash that almost killed “Big Ben”, who was viewed as one of the league’s best off-field personalities, and rarely had issues concerning the general public, Roethlisberger went into a downward spiral, turning 180 degrees and committing acts so ridiculous for a pro athlete that even a fan with a tattoo of Roethlisberger has been questioning keeping him on the Pittsburgh Steeler’s roster.

His first incident occured only nine months ago in Lake Tahoe, when the 241 pound Roethlisberger committed his first crime by trying to seduce a worker at the hotel he was staying in after he called her to fix his television. The employee claimed that Roethlisberger used force, and reported the incident to her boss at the hotel. Her boss did nothing to help her, however, claiming that he didn’t want to ruin his close friendship with Roethlisberger.

On top of that, countless smaller incidents involving Roethlisberger have been reported in the Pittsburgh area restaurants he regularly eats at. According to the local owners, Roethlisberger attends each restaurant with a large posse, who muscle their way in and out of any situation they want, and bully and intimidate the locals. According to a restaurant worker, he is very disrespectful to almost anyone who crosses his path.

One worker, a twelve year veteran at the Lake Tahoe hotel, was fired at Roethlisberger’s request after asking a girl Roethlisberger was with for her ID.
Roethlisberger traded in his beloved status in Pittsburgh (you used to be able to buy burgers called “The Roethlisburger”),for a position as the hot gossip and villain in the city (now you can buy a t-shirt that says “Dumb and Dumber” with Roethlisberger and Tiger Wood’s faces on the front). All because he couldn’t behave appropriately under the spotlight of fame.

Woods found himself in a similar situation when the biggest sports story of the year cracked in November 2009. What began as a car crash near his beautiful Florida home snowballed into embarrassment and a permanent stain on the legacy of the genuinely nice golfer who actually turned out to be not so genuine.

Merely two weeks after Wood’s wedding to the beautiful Swede Elin Nordegren, he began running around with high profile prostitutes behind his wife’s back. Five years and two kids later, Tiger got busted, sending feminists into a furious frenzy. Elin did them proud however, by taking out Tiger’s famous seven-iron and bashing him straight in the head.

Tiger issued an apology later for lying to his wife multiple times and accepted full responsibility for his actions, almost breaking into tears multiple times. His reputation became even more tarnished after he admitted that he had a sexual addiction and had to go to a rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi.

Multiple sponsors, including Nike and Gatorade, dropped Woods after the incident, losing the highest paid athlete in the world millions of dollars in endorsement deals.

Woods had the perfect lifestyle; married to a beautiful woman, living in a house that’s probably bigger than our school, and being a role model for millions of kids across the country. But he too traded that away, as a consequence of his inappropriate actions.

Although Roethlisberger and Wood’s stories are the most well known, they are only two of the many recent incidents of pro athletes behaving inappropriately.

As pro athletes, the standard of behaviour is set higher, and because there is so much media and cameras constantly surrounding these figures, there is almost no privacy or room for error in their actions. It’s a shame, because even though both men are fantastic athletes, they will forever be remembered for their unfortunate mistakes.