The Steel Curtain

Ben Rothlisberger is a rapist. I don't care if he never makes it to trial or spends a night in jail, he's a rapist. For the second time in less than a year, he's been accused of some sort of sexual misconduct. Last summer, a woman in Nevada filed a lawsuit against the Steelers quarterback accusing him of sexual assault, but didn't file a criminal complaint because she didn't think her claim would be properly supported by hotel employees, because of his star status. Earlier this month, a 20-year-old college student in Georgia accused him of sexually assaulting her in a nightclub.

Once again, Ben Rothlisberger is a rapist. But you may never know this, because there's been little media coverage surrounding these accusations, possibly because they're just allegations, but more likely because he's white. Michael Vick had a hand in killing a few dogs and was vilified nightly on the news beyond ESPN, but this guy may or may not have violated one or two women, but that seems not be newsworthy.

Let's go a little deeper than any racial implications that may play a factor in the coverage, that wouldn't happen here in these great United States of America could it? At some point the NFL or whoever White men answer to need to step in and have Big Ben examined, there has to be some sort of defect that allows this man to put himself in this position multiple times. Maybe he's a sexual deviant, a sociopath or maybe I've watched too many episodes of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", but it is time for him to answer to his behavior. The same way NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sat Adam "Pacman" Jones down when he was arrested multiple times for various offenses, it's time to call Rothlisberger down to the carpet and talk to him about his drinking and behavior with women.

Plaxico Burress shot himself, Michael Vick killed man's best friend and R. Kelly pee-peed on a little girl, ok, bad example. But all of these cases became high-profile, but it seems as if the persistent coverage that dogged Vick (no pun intended) and the others has been spared of the investigation of Rothlisberger and his cavalier attitude about the word "no'. Maybe if it happened in a Toyota Prius it'll be on the news every night!

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