Ben Roethlisberger is one Hall of Fame quarterback who did not adhere to the TB12 Method. The Steelers great survived 17 seasons in the NFL based on pure toughness and guile. Even Brady has to respect that.
On Thursday, Brady was one of many NFL greats who paid his respects to Roethlisberger for a tremendous career. Brady jokingly mentioned how Roethlisberger followed a different training regimen, yet still produced incredible results.
“Ben defied the TB12 Method in favor of the ‘Throw Some Ice On It’ method his whole career, and ended up an all-time-great with 6 Pro-Bowls and 2 Super Bowls,” Brady tweeted. “There’s more than one way to bake a cake!”
Indeed. Roethlisberger never missed more than four games in a season, outside of 2019, when he underwent surgery on his elbow. He also frequently took a beating, getting sacked more than 30 times in 10 seasons.
Brady and Roethlisberger had several duels in their career, though Brady wound up on top more often. Ben went 4-9 all-time against the Patriots, including 3-9 against Brady. The Patriots bested the Steelers twice in the AFC Championship (2004 and 2016) during the Roethlisberger era.
Ben’s final victory against Brady came in Week 17 of the 2018 campaign, when Pittsburgh won 17-10.
Brady, Roethlisberger and Peyton Manning owned the AFC for nearly two decades. One of the three quarterbacks represented the AFC in the Super Bowl for 16 out of 17 years. We’ll probably never see another trio of QBs dominate like that.