Led By Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers’ Killer Bs’ Hall Of Fame Window Now Open

With the new Hall of Fame class enshrined, the Steelers’ Killer Bs—Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Le’Veon Bell—are on the clock. Each of them played their last football during the 2021 season, meaning the requisite five years have elapsed. While they all came up short in their time together, they hope someday to reunite in Canton. Well, some of them would, anyway.

The trio of Roethlisberger, Brown, and Bell produced some of the most compelling offensive football in Steelers history, but only the quarterback could be argued as a lock for the Hall of Fame. And not even necessarily a lock under the new rules for the first ballot, as we have seen.

Antonio Brown makes a compelling case for the Hall of Fame on the field, but it will depend on to what degree voters choose to consider off the field. Le’Veon Bell was once on a Hall of Fame trajectory, but his self-admitted mistake of leaving the Steelers derailed his career. Now, he is bigger things to worry about, too.

In the case of Ben Roethlisberger, of course, there is no question that he will be in the Hall of Fame. While he lacks the typical accolades—just six Pro Bowls in 18 seasons—he certainly has everything else you could want. Including two Super Bowl rings, 165 career wins, 418 touchdowns, and over 64,000 passing yards. Not to mention 41 game-winning drives and 53 fourth-quarter comebacks.

For a six-year period, Antonio Brown was the best wide receiver in the NFL and drawing comparisons to Hall of Fame legend Jerry Rice. From 2013 through 2018, he caught 686 passes for 9,145 yards and 67 touchdowns. That’s an average of 126.8 catches for 1,690 yards and 12.4 touchdowns per 17 games during that span. For most wide receivers, that would be a legendary season; that was his routine.

As for Le’Veon Bell, at one point he had the highest scrimmage yards per game figure in NFL history at 128 yards, edging out another member of the Hall of Fame, Jim Brown. While he only had one 2,000-plus-yard season in scrimmage yards, he was a consistent producer when healthy and out of trouble. The only thing that he lacked, increasingly as he progressed, was the big-play potential.

And the thing is, Ben Roethlisberger knew how to maximize what he had in both Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. He had no problem lining up Bell as a receiver to take advantage of his hands and yards after the catch. He and Brown had a secret language together, communicating silently to the point that even the other nine players on offense didn’t know what would happen next.

But both Brown and Bell had unceremonious ends to their careers, even if Brown eventually won a Super Bowl playing with the Buccaneers. It’s not clear that either of them will eventually join Ben Roethlisberger in the Hall of Fame. Brown has a better chance, but voters will have to overlook his history of troubling behavior.