NFL

Ben Roethlisberger Denies Having Skin Cancer, Says Facebook Page Is Fake

Posted May 21, 2009 10:45AM By Ryan Wilson (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Steelers, AFC North, NFL Fans

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Ben Roethlisberger is 27 years old, has two Super Bowl rings, and is the starting quarterback for the league's most popular team. There are worse ways to go through life. Of course, with fame comes the hassles of dealing with crackpots.

There used to be a time when stalkers had to do some legwork, literally. John Hinckley Jr. and Margaret Mary Ray come to mind. Now, thanks to the series of tubes that has made it easier for all of us -- save Ted Stevens, perhaps -- to communicate, those people with nothing better to do than harass the rich and famous, can do so from home.



In recent years, social media web sites have gone from a niche following to an integral part of most users' online experience. Athletes and actors are now on Facebook and Twitter, allowing fans to talk to them directly. This has also led to the proliferation of bogus accounts, many of which are confused for the real thing until said athlete or actor -- or more likely, their agent or publicist -- tells us otherwise. (Hey, Lane, might want to try that next time.)

Just this week, the Twitter accounts of the Eagles' Trent Cole and Asante Samuel, and the Cowboys' DeMarcus Ware all proved to be fake. And today, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that despite what Big Ben wrote on his Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages, he doesn't have skin cancer. Because those aren't actually his sites.
"There's no truth to it. I don't have any of that stuff," the Steelers quarterback proclaimed yesterday. ... Roethlisberger said he does not use [social media sites], including the one under his name that proclaimed he had skin cancer.

"I had a bunch of people ask me about it; obviously it's not true," Roethlisberger said after yesterday's spring practice. "We had to go on our Web site to let them know I don't have an account. There's nothing going on."
But it gets better: "I get people all the time who come up to me and they actually get really mad because I didn't talk to them on Facebook or something, or MySpace," Roethlisberger said. "I try to tell them I don't have it."

Right, Ben, and those "Sent from my iPhone" signatures on your curt, grammatically laughable e-mails are actually sent from your iPhone and not your laptop.* And you're not "waiting to go out with friends." Uh-huh.

In general, other than having the sites taken down after the fact, I don't know how you avoid this. In Big Ben's case, however, it's probably worth sending a patrol car to Brian Jackson's house. It's the right thing to do.

* I might be projecting

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Tags: Asante+Samuel, AsanteSamuel, Ben+Roethlisberger, BenRoethlisberger, DeMarcus+Ware, DemarcusWare, Trent+Cole, TrentCole

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