NFL weighs possible disciplinary action against Roethlisberger

PLB Sports president Ty Ballou says Roethlisberger is “falling short” of the company’s standards after a Georgia prosecutor announced Monday he will not prosecute the quarterback over sexual assault allegations.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league would review the facts–in accordance with its personal-conduct code–and would follow up with Roethlisberger and the Steelers. He gave no time line.

The company said in a statement on Tuesday that facts presented at the prosecutor’s news conference led to the decision.

The company sold “Big Ben’s Beef Jerky” in bags depicting the quarterback at Pittsburgh area Giant Eagle supermarkets and GetGo convenience stores.

The same company markets a breakfast cereal endorsed by Steelers receiver Hines Ward and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Max Talbot.

Possible options include a suspension, fine, or having the quarterback undergo counseling or rehabilitation.

The team retains the option to discipline the quarterback even if the league does not. The team had no comment Tuesday.

In a separate case, Roethlisberger is being sued in civil court by a former Nevada hotel employee for an alleged sexual assault in 2008. No criminal charges were filed in that case either.

As a result of the recent spate of bad publicity, Roethlisberger lost an endorsement he had had for five years, with a local beef jerky producer.

If Roethlisberger has even a fraction of the common sense he’s displayed on the football field while winning two Super Bowl titles, the 28-year-old quarterback should realize he’s just about down to his last chance with the Steelers and a city that was fully prepared to love him from the moment he hit town.

Instead, the more successful Roethlisberger has gotten, the worse he’s behaved—ignoring well-meaning advice from past Steelers icons like Cowher and Bradshaw about riding his motorcycle without a helmet before he nearly died in a crash, bristling last season when his all-pro receiver Ward questioned his commitment to the team, drinking robustly and acting crudely in various bars and clubs over the years until he left the lingering impression that, if nothing else, his arrogance is off the charts.

But even Roethlisberger has to recognize he looks one bad incident away from becoming a Rust-Belt version of Michael Vick, another numbskull NFL star whose behavior was so repulsive it finally overrode the fact that he was a franchise quarterback whose sudden absence would wreck his team on the field for years to come.