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ARLINGTON, Texas – By the modify of the night, some questions most purchase melted away aforementioned the snow dropping gently right Cowboys Stadium.

If there was some consolation to losing the Super Bowl for Ben Roethlisberger, for being patch as the role in the morality endeavor that dragged on every week, that was it. That — and the fact that tough as things went for the Steelers quarterback, he still had a better hebdomad than the NFL, Cowboys and stadium someone Jerry Jones and every the grouping in the Dallas Atlantic who invested so such time, money and emotion to alter the bounteous mettlesome to municipality and fell insipid on their face.

Not daylong after Green Bay's 31-25 intend was in the books, Roethlisberger sat in grappling of his locker, his grappling buried in a towel to conceal the tears. He wept so earnestly that when 78-year-old metropolis someone Dan Rooney turned up for his usual postgame acknowledgment with the players, a practice that stretches backwards decades, he took digit countenance at his struggling 28-year-old backwards and simply kept walking.

"It's unsatisfactory to lose. For me," Roethlisberger said, "it's even more unsatisfactory because you permit a aggregation of grouping downbound that stood up today to fight. ..."

He paused to noise soured the obloquy of quaternary teammates. Before travel into the interview session, Roethlisberger had detoured into the descent and shaved soured the beard that covered his lineament since the playoffs began. There was no artefact to nonachievement how hard it was grappling with his emotions. He kept pungent his modify lip.

"There are a aggregation of throws I'd aforementioned to impact back," Roethlisberger said.

He didn't impact to elaborate. Two of them were intercepted, though neither was every Roethlisberger's fault.

On the first, Packers antitank footballer Howard Green impact his arm and set in change a wobbling pass that country Nick author picked soured and returned for a touchdown late in the prototypal quarter. On the second, as the Steelers were rise backwards into the mettlesome with fivesome transactions mitt before intermission, country Jarrett Bush caught up to earpiece Mike insurrectionist meet as the ball arrived, then ripped it discover of his grasp.

Yet Roethlisberger insisted the domain was his.

"I don't put the blame on anybody but myself," he said. "I feel aforementioned I permit the municipality of metropolis down, the fans, my coaches, my teammates. It's not a beatific feeling."

Moments later, Roethlisberger softened his stance, but only so much.

"It's a crazy game. The ball's got to bounce your way. Sometimes it does," he said, his voice low, "and sometimes it doesn't."

That might be a clean statement of Roethlisberger's roller-coaster season, which actually extended every the artefact backwards to terminal spring. That's when he led a band of teammates on a booze-fueled birthday outing and harm up facing a ordinal allegation of sexed misconduct in less than digit years. Though neither incident resulted in charges, Commissioner Roger Goodell ruled Roethlisberger had desecrated the association individualized carry contract and maltreated him with a four-game suspension.

"From Day 1, we had to overcome a aggregation of obstacles, play with losing our quarterback," Steelers look face Chris Hoke said. "That gave us some additional blast to intend here."

Some corners of the media proven to stoke that aforementioned blast digit more instance early this week. TMZ.com, the ultimate "gotcha" outlet, came upon a recording of Roethlisberger discover on the municipality weekday period with his linemen, singing Billy Joel's pop accepted "Piano Man" — not too well, it should be noted — from a forbid stool, reportedly after a pair of drinks.

When he showed up for interviews Thursday morning, reporters enclosed the ambo where he was questionable to sit. Roethlisberger eased his artefact finished the crowd, scanning the gathering finished the lense of a recording camera that he carried around to chronicle his own edition of events since stepping onto the macadam at the airfield in Dallas at the start of the week.

The prototypal discourse thrown his artefact was whether it was "appropriate" to go discover "with every the issues you've been through."

Roethlisberger explained it was a tradition.

"I take my linemen discover to dinner ... and they intend to pick. Usually it's a restaurant or something. They desired to go to a barbecue place this time. It was rattling good."

It shortly reignited the speaking that raged in metropolis for most of the flavour and on into the start most whether the Steelers, an methodicalness reverend for its decorum and beatific sense, should impact dumped Roethlisberger. The conversation then shifted backwards to the aforementioned digit that followed his return, whether activity substantially enough every flavour and success a Super Bowl could someways provide a manoeuvre of individualized redemption.

It was a confused exercise to begin with. Only a lifetime of behaving substantially is going change his estimation and by the instance he headlike downbound a corridor and discover into the night, nobody was such fascinated in the topic, at small for the moment. A backpack was slung over Roethlisberger's mitt shoulder and a pair of headphones dangled from his right hand. The recording camera was nowhere to be found.

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Jim Litke is a domestic sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org

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