Ben Roethlisberger expects to be 'shaking like a leaf' when Steelers open season Monday

The feeling hit Ben Roethlisberger as he was driving across the Veterans Bridge on Wednesday morning en route to Pittsburgh Steelers practice on the South Side.

“I was thinking, ‘I’m actually nervous for this season,’” Roethlisberger told reporters a little while later. “You always have a little bit of nerves and jitters for the first game. The way I feel now is more than I’ve felt in a very long time.”

Roethlisberger experienced first-game nervousness before each of his previous 16 NFL seasons. It typically wouldn’t happen, however, until the day of the game and the anxiety certainly wouldn’t begin five days beforehand.

But Roethlisberger is coming off a season in which he played six quarters, and he is approaching the one-year anniversary of the last time he threw a pass in an NFL game. When he takes the field Monday night against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, it will be 365 days (thanks to a leap year) since his 2019 season abruptly ended because of a right elbow injury that required surgery to re-attach three tendons.

Roethlisberger can only imagine the nerves shooting through his body when he walks out of the tunnel to play before a national television audience on “Monday Night Football.”

“I’m sure it’s only going to intensify as the week goes on,” Roethlisberger said, “and Monday night I’m sure I’m going to be shaking like a leaf.”

The question is how long it will take for Roethlisberger to settle down. Having played on the NFL’s biggest stage three times, winning two championships, Roethlisberger shouldn’t need long for the anxiety to subside.

“You hope you go out there and it comes back to you real quick,” he said. “There will be rust, no doubt about it, but hopefully we can get it knocked off sooner than later. I think that is what makes it fun. If I wasn’t nervous and didn’t have that anxiousness, then you shouldn’t be out there. There’s not a love for the game if you don’t have that.

“Since I have those nerves already, it shows I still have the love for the game and the passion for it.”

Roethlisberger’s comeback will come without the typical trial and error gleaned from a four-game preseason schedule. In recent years, Roethlisberger only took snaps in the third preseason game before proclaiming himself ready for the season.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Roethlisberger didn’t get the chance to test his elbow in game competition, his most serious challenge coming in several scrimmage-type settings the Steelers conducted during training camp.

“I’m more worried about myself than I am the other guys,” Roethlisberger said. “I have to manage myself as the quarterback, as the guy who handles the ball every play. Make sure we are in the right play, not try to do too much. It’s going to be on me to get myself under control and help the young guys as we go.”