Tasser: Quarterbacks find redemption

It has been a week of redemption for NFL quarterbacks.

Two embattled professional QBs, Ben… It has been a week of redemption for NFL quarterbacks.

Two embattled professional QBs, Ben Roethlisberger and Erik Ainge, are trying to put their ugly pasts in the rearview mirror. And as members of a culture that loves the underdog, we’re hoping to see them succeed.

Roethlisberger, who has been accused by not convicted of sexual assault twice since 2008, is engaged to be married. The engagement confirms a rumor that has been floating around since before the Super Bowl.

Ainge, the New York Jets backup, publicly discussed a past alcohol and drug addiction that has plagued him since he was 12 years old.

The two-time Super Bowl champ Roethlisberger is less than a year removed from facing a sexual assault complaint from a 20-year-old college student who met him at a Georgia nightclub. Although the authorities didn’t bring charges against the Steelers quarterback, he did serve a four-game suspension at the beginning of this season.

Now Roethlisberger intends to marry girlfriend Ashley Harlan on July 23.

The intended date of the wedding is a week from the expected beginning of training camp, pending the resolution of the NFL’s current lockout.

“I think a small part of her is hoping we hold out for a week so we can honeymoon,” Roethlisberger told the Post-Gazette. “I told her I was laughing with Coach [Mike] Tomlin; he said, ‘You guys might have to have the honeymoon suite at Saint Vincent [College, site of the Steelers’ camp.]’”

Roethlisberger met Harlan, a physician’s assistant, at training camp in 2005, and they have been friends ever since. He announced that he expects 500 people to attend the wedding, and instead of bringing gifts they will be asked to make donations to a charitable foundation.

While Roethlisberger’s past troubles have been well documented, Ainge’s have been private, known only to close friends, family and a few of his teammates on the Jets. According to a first-person account published on ESPN.com, Ainge has been sober for nine months, the longest such stretch since he first used drugs.

Ainge started using drugs when he was young and continued to use through high school and college, when his usage hit a peak. Having abused cocaine, heroin, prescription painkillers and alcohol, Ainge said he “would’ve made Charlie Sheen look like Miss Daisy.” The quarterback claims to have taken 25 Percocet three times a day when he was at his worst.

Ainge developed his painkiller addiction in college, when he battled a variety of injuries while starting at the University of Tennessee, where he played for four years During the 2008 season  — his rookie year — he was suspended after failing a drug test. Last season, he did not play because he was in and out of rehab.

Now, Ainge is living in Boston with his uncle, former NBA player and current Executive Director of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics Danny Ainge and has been taking medication for bipolar disorder, something he says has helped tremendously.

Erik Ainge has several tattoos that remind him of his past and keep him moving in the right direction — and not all of the markings are good. Ainge claims to have no memory of having “Crazy White Boy” seared across his shoulder blades, but the tattoos on his wrists he does remember, and they are comforting. Those read O.D.A.T., T.T.S.P. and J.F.T.  — “One Day At a Time,” “This Too Shall Pass,” and “Just For Today.”

If one young athlete “hears this interview and sees that it’s OK to ask for help, it’s OK to be vulnerable,” Erik Ainge says, his decision to go public will have been worth it.

As both quarterbacks continue down the road to recovery and redemption, America will watch them closely. There’s nothing fans love more than a good comeback story, whether it involves a maturing lifestyle or a recovery from a lifelong addiction to drugs and alcohol.

I know I’ll keep pulling for the underdog.