Football season has hit Gotham City as The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that a number of Steelers players have joined the cast of Christopher Nolan’s latest as members of the “Gotham Rogues”. Ben Roethlisberger will join his teammates as extras in the Warner Bros. film, which is prepping for a major action sequence set to film at Heinz Field this weekend.
“I heard it’s going to be a neat thing at the stadium,” says Roethlisberger, “I don’t think it will be a big part, it’s not like we’re chasing Batman down or anyting. It’s something neat that in 10 years or 20 years we can tell our kids we were in a movie… From what I’ve heard, it’s going to be like a pre-game, warming-up type thing. I don’t know the whole concept. There’s a Gotham team, a football game. We’ll be wearing uniforms. It will be fun.”
The list of players expected to participate includes Ryan Clark, Willie Colon, James Farrior, Casey Hampton, Heath Miller, Troy Polamalu, Maurkice Pouncey, Aaron Smith, Mike Wallace and Hines Ward.
Jeff Pearlman, who’s normally a pretty good writer, wrote a grating SI article somehow managing to blame “society” for Ben Roethlisberger getting in trouble for sexual assault. Drew Magary didn’t like that very much:
I fucking hate columns like this. Mike Lupica built his career on this kind of dogshit. Wilbon would be unemployed without it. Even fucking Petchesky used it today. Someone busted into Erin Andrews hotel room? That’s because WE objectified her and compelled a crazy man to film her biscuit! Barry Bonds took steroids? That’s because WE demanded more home runs from our heroes! BP spilled an assload of oil in the Gulf? Well, that’s clearly because WE crave gas and all collectively hired shoddy engineers and unqualified personnel to oversee the rig’s construction and day-to-day maintenance! Are NFL players suffering from serious concussions? That’s because WE need big hits! MORE MORE MORE! Everything everywhere is ALL OUR FAULT! THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!Sometimes, an asshole is just an asshole. Okay? Not everything is some glaring symptom of a societal ill. Not every athlete skeeting on a bathroom wall is a clear sign of the decline of Western Civilization. If it were, we’d all be fucking dead by now. Any sportswriter who does this is basically saying ALL OF US ARE BADDDDD, AND ONLY I AM BRAVE ENOUGH TO SEE IT! I’M TOTALLY ABOVE IT ALL! I’M THE ONLY ONE THAT DIDN’T SKEET ON THE GIRL’S CHEST! You’re basically declaring yourself a pompous shithead when you do something like this. What are you gonna do, shithead? Punish us by taking away sports? The world has always been shitty. Your little artful display of melancholy won’t change jack SHIT.
Then again, maybe it’s not Pearlman’s fault he wrote something so blatantly pedantic. Maybe he wrote it because WE are always looking for someone to blame when something bad happens. Maybe WE take comfort in knowing that there aren’t bad people out there, just a bad environment that causes such columns to exist. Maybe WE wrote this column.
