Former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger had a lot of success against the Cleveland Browns in his career. Roethlisberger has 26 wins against Cleveland, and 12 of those wins came on the road, with Roethlisberger holding a 12-2-1 road record against the Browns. With the team set to build a new stadium, Roethlisberger joked during an appearance on Deebo & Joe that Cleveland wants his naming rights for their new home.
“Going through e-mails and stuff, they’re asking me for naming rights,” Roethlisberger said.
“Roethlisberger Field,” co-host James Harrison quipped in reply. “He kind of up in the air with it, because when he go into the Hall, he doesn’t want his name sitting in Cleveland like that.”
The Browns are set to build a new domed stadium outside of the city itself in nearby Brook Park. And while Roethlisberger’s name won’t be anywhere to be found on the stadium, he’ll remain one of the winningest quarterbacks at Huntington Bank Field/Cleveland Browns Stadium when the team ultimately departs. Baker Mayfield has 19 wins and Joe Flacco has 13, but behind those two comes Roethlisberger with his 12 wins despite never calling it his home stadium.
Roethlisberger has enjoyed throwing jabs at the Browns since hanging up the cleats, but there’s an alternate reality where Roethlisberger may actually have had his name on a new Cleveland stadium. The team passed on him with the No. 6 pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, opting to take Kellen Winslow instead. Roethlisberger fell to No. 11, and the Browns have still yet to find a franchise quarterback 12 years later.
Had Roethlisberger wound up in Cleveland, the Ohio kid could’ve gone down as a legend for the Browns. But the decision to take Winslow means the Browns faithful have to hear Roethlisberger take shots at their team if they like to spend their mid-days listening to podcasts by former athletes.
The Browns’ sponsorship deal with Huntington Bank will transfer over to their new stadium when it opens in time for the 2029 season. The idea to build a domed stadium has drawn the ire of some Browns fans, who dealt with “The Mistake By The Lake” at Cleveland Municipal Stadium before the current stadium was built in 1999. Roethlisberger dominated in that stadium, and the Steelers will hope to find a franchise quarterback to etch his name in the record books of the new stadium, even if Roethlisberger’s name won’t be on it.