Ben Roethlisberger Downplays His Talks With 49ers Last Season

Ben Roethlisberger is downplaying the talks he had with the San Francisco 49ers.

Roethlisberger revealed last month that the Niners had been in touch with his camp after running into quarterback issues late in the year.

“There were some truths to the Niners thing,” Roethlisberger said last month. “They were, I think reaching out maybe just to gauge my interest. I had discussions. I don’t want to sit here and say I was going or anything like that. They called me to gauge interest … ”

Now, on his show Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger, Big Ben seemed to want to downplay those discussions by making it clear that it went about as far as contacting his agent,

"I'll reiterate. It was them calling my agent just to gauge interest," the former Pittsburgh Steelers great said. "There's a local radio station — that we won't mention — that likes to make stories out of nothing."

He seemed irritated by the way those brief talks morphed into reports that he was nearly on his way out of the tunnel at Levi's Stadium when the deal fell through at the eleventh hour.

That's not at all what happened, he says.

"I'm not trying to defend anything, because they called, but again, I'll reiterate, It was gauging interest."

Ben Roethlisberger's career was plagued by injuries, so the last thing he needed to do was hop under center for the 49ers. (Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Roethlisberger May Have Dodged A Bullet Not Signing With The 49ers

It makes sense that at the time the 49ers would explore every possible option before tossing Brock Purdy into the deep end of the pool. Things worked out okay... until the NFC Championship game, but those were fairly unusual circumstances.

To that point, Roethlisberger is probably counting his blessings that the talks didn't go any further. He had his struggles with injuries in the past, and we all know the fate that befell anyone who went under center for the Niners last season.

Given his history, he could've ended up in that infamous walking boot of his for the rest of his life had he signed.

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