CloakNNNdagger
Hall of Fame
............He's engaged to be married in June.........
It may be a relatively short engagement but the relationship was much longer in the making. After finishing an afternoon practice in August 2005, Mr. Roethlisberger walked through part of the Saint Vincent campus, ran into a fan and started talking to him. The guy had a sister, Ashley Harlan.
"We were kind of on and off for five years -- almost six years now -- so I've known her for a while. It's not like a random new person. We dated awhile ago; we have been friends ever since."
Mr. Roethlisberger said he was determined to not only change his image but also change his ways since he was publicly humiliated -- but never charged --after a female college student claimed he sexually assaulted her in a Georgia bar 13 months ago. Players say he has become a better teammate and friend, and many from the media covering him to those working in the front office have noticed a change in attitude. He has stayed out of the limelight, intentionally, and avoided talking even after news of his engagement first leaked while the team prepared for the playoffs in January.
Some of the reaction to his engagement coming so soon after his personal problems last year was met with skepticism.
"People will always have opinions of everybody and me, and that's fine, they're entitled," Mr. Roethlisberger said. "But people who know her, know me, know us ... it's funny because I've even had lot of fan mail through my website and stuff; people will write in and say -- even before any word came out about an engagement -- 'Ben, you look like something's different with you. You look like a happier person, you play happy, you smile more on the field.' Part of that is because I'm a happier person, I'm in a happy place, but a lot of that has to do with her, too.
"People can say that it is whatever, but people who know and can see and are around us and know me, know that it's something special when you find that person, and I'm extremely lucky."
Ms. Harlan, a physician's assistant who turns 27 in July, lives at home with her parents. Mr. Roethlisberger cited the couple's religious faith and beliefs as the reasons for not living together until marriage. He also hopes she can continue to live her life out of the spotlight.
"I try to protect her as much as I can. People have gone to her parents' house and have been doing some things," Mr. Roethlisberger said of the media. "That bothers me a little bit because it's what I do for a living, I have to deal with it, but her parents and her, that's not what they have to do. I understand it's going to happen a little bit, but I'm still going to try to be very protective of the people I love -- my family, my sister, my aunts, uncles, grandparents and now her. I try to be very protective of them because I don't want her to have to be scrutinized over every little thing she does."