Living in Cleveland, Ohio as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan isn't easy. I have a Steelers lisence plate frame on the back plate of my car, I am often wearing a Steelers clothes, and I am even planning on getting a Steelers tattoo. However it doesn't matter what I do, most of the Browns fans in my area will tell me that I am nothing but a fairweather fan or even worse...and bandwagoner. Even though they don't know that my Grandparents are from Western Pennsylvania and I have been a Steelers fan basicly since birth.
I have heard a lot of the "nicknames" that Browns fans have given the Steelers, "**** Squeelers" being the most used (and most unoriginal).
I was able to deal with "Ben Toothlessberger" after the motorcycle accident. Yeah, he smashed head first into a Crysler and won while Kellen Winslow landed ona shrub and missed a season with his motorcycle accident.
But come on Browns fans, have some class and drop "Ben Rapistberger" from your taunts. It's as unoriginal as "Toothlessberger" and it's just plain wrong to say.
First, you are making light of a heinous act that no woman (or man, for that matter) should have to go through. By making fun of Roethlisberger, the Steelers, or a fan of the team with that phrase, you are putting down ever woman that has ever been sexually assaulted or raped.
Second, I honestly do not think Ben Roethlisberger sexually assaulted (which is what he is being accused of in the lawsuit) Andrea McNulty. And this isn't because I am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. If this case hit any of the other starting quarterbacks in the NFL (this exact case, just change the name of the QB), I would think the same thing.
The woman who is accusing Roethlisberger has a history of lying. She lied about a relationship with a Marine deployed in Iraq, even convicned herself (and others) that she was engaged to him. It was the wife of the Marine corresponding with the emails. Instead of admitting that she was duped, she told everyone that he was killed in Iraq.
She is claiming that she has been going to therapy for the assault by Ben Roethlisberger, but in fact she has been in therapy for the imagined relationship with the Marine.
Andrea McNulty claims that she went into Roethlisberger's room to fix his television after maintnence never answered her calls to go and fix it. Maintence employees at hotel-casinos don't ignore phone calls to fix problems for guests, especially VIP guests.
She also says that she went to the head of security to report the assault, but didn't go to the police to file a report. She says she was afraid that she would lose her job if she did indeed go to the police. What employer would fire an employee for going to the police if she were raped at work? Not to mention head of security at a hotel-casino is a career, and why would someone jeapordize that to protect a football player's name?
And then the casino-hotel she claims sided with Roethlisberger to cover up this crime?
Oh, and why would Ben Roethlisbeger go back to Nevada if there was any chance he could be served with a lawsuit, civil or criminal? Much less, stay at the same hotel. Wouldn't the hotel-casino decline he request to stay there if they felt he was bad news?
She is filingsuit for approx. $400,000 in medical bills for therapy plus punitive damages (which would be in the millions) against Roethlisberger and eight other hotel-casino employees.
Does it hurt Ben if the hotel-casino settles their end of the case? Yes, but I doubt they want the public perception that one of their empoyees was raped at work and they tried to cover it up. That would kill business.
If this case does go to trial (I personally think it will and should be thrown out by the judge), she will not be protected by rape shield laws, for those are only useable in criminal cases. The lawyers of Roethlisberger and the casino-hotel will be allowed to bring up her sexual history, subpeona her therapist about her threrapy sessions, and bring up her imagined relationship with the Marine to discredit her and prove their case.
But hey, if you are going to keep using the term "Rapistberger", you are just proving that you cannot think for yourself and that you are blinded by your hatred of a football team to demean yourself and others. Also, don't get upset if you say that to someone and the person responds with "Brady Queer". Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
