Tim Benz: Looking for a perfect end to Ben Roethlisberger's Steelers career? Too late.

Feb. 22—If we want to be honest, Ben Roethlisberger's Steelers career effectively ended as the opening snap of this year's wild-card game sailed over his head.

All the discussion since then has essentially been nothing more than figuring out how both sides can best accept that reality. Frankly, it's already become a conversation that's far more hyperbolic and complicated than it really needs to be.

That tone heightened last week because of Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert's blunt "As we sit here today, Ben is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers" quote.

Honestly, those words look a lot more ominous in print than they sound when you hear them on tape. That vibe was augmented by all the other unfortunate — but accurate — comments that Colbert made about the Steelers' bleak salary cap situation.

Regardless, I'm glad Colbert made them. Because it clarifies the reality of the situation. Either Roethlisberger is going to have to rework his contract on extremely team-friendly terms or he's going to be gone.

That's it.

Well, I suppose there's one other option before midnight strikes on Big Ben.

So to speak.

The Steelers could keep Roethlisberger with his current $41 million salary cap hit on a roster that's already facing a mass exodus due to cost constraints just for the sake of a feel-good farewell tour.

But Colbert won't let that happen. The organization won't let multiple players walk in free agency just so Roethlisberger can go on the rocking-chair circuit with a roster that may go 7-9 in 2021 — and may set up to be worse for whoever takes over the quarterback duties in 2022.

Meanwhile, media and fans keep looking for a path to a warm and fuzzy parting between Roethlisberger and the Steelers.

Sorry. Too late.

I know. The hope is to have Roethlisberger finish his career in storybook fashion like Jerome Bettis winning a Super Bowl ring in his last game. Sadly, that quest is now a fool's errand. We need to get a better grip on how much of an exception Bettis' run to Detroit was.

New England Patriots fans had to watch Tom Brady win a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay. Indianapolis Colts fans had to watch Peyton Manning win one in Denver. Chargers fans witnessed Phillip Rivers pilot the Colts to the playoffs as a one-year personal denouement in Indianapolis.

Remember how those careers ended with their first teams, though?

Brady's 2019 Patriots lost a home playoff game against the Tennessee Titans that went almost as badly as the Steelers' debacle against the Cleveland Browns this year. It featured a hideous pick-6 from Brady at the end of the game as his final Patriots pass.

Manning was displaced in Indy by injuries and Andrew Luck. Rivers' Chargers were 5-11 in his final campaign.

Even with the Steelers, Troy Polamalu's departure was messy after a first-round playoff exit in 2014. Hines Ward was released before he wanted to retire, even though he never latched on elsewhere. James Harrison famously sulked his way out to New England.

What about Mario Lemieux's retirements? Both of them.

Everyone remembers his famous goal at the end of the first round of the 1997 Eastern Conference quarterfinal. But that was in a 6-3 defeat in a five-game dismissal by the Philadelphia Flyers, following disappointing results in the four prior years.

Hmm (scratches chin)? A humbling playoff loss at the hands of their hated rivals as the latest in a string of late-season failures.

Sound at all familiar, Steelers fans?

And no one wept all that much the second time Lemieux left because of the symbolic passing of the torch to Sidney Crosby. But Super Mario's final season in 2006 was aborted after just 26 games, thanks in part to atrial fibrillation and Lemieux's admission that he could "no longer play at a level (he) was accustomed to in the past."

So it rarely ends in sunshine-and-daisies fashion as it did for Bettis. And it won't for Roethlisberger in 2021.

He'll retire with that dreadful three-interception playoff performance against the Browns as his last game. Or he'll guide this declining edition of the Steelers to borderline playoff mediocrity. Or he'll play in Chicago, Washington or — gasp — New England.

We're just putting way too much weight on this whole "last chapter" thing for Roethlisberger. If he needs to be cut, cut him. If he keeps playing, it may not look great and may hurt the roster long-term.

However, no one thinks about 2006 when they think of Lemieux. I say "James Harrison." You say "100-yard Super Bowl interception return" and not "You mean the former Patriot?" Hines Ward is remembered as the MVP of Super Bowl XL. Not the guy who could barely get on the field in 2011.

Hey, I didn't like how "Seinfeld" or the "Sopranos" ended either. That doesn't mean they have to give back their Emmy awards.

Want a best-case scenario? Look at Drew Brees this year in New Orleans. He guided the Saints into the playoffs, but they fizzled in their only game against Brady and the Bucs. That's about as good as it's going to get. 'Cuz ain't no way a stripped-down version of the 2020 Steelers is getting to the Super Bowl in 2021.

If somehow they do? Bet on Roethlisberger coming back somewhere in 2022. Then load up some Journey on the jukebox, and we can have a whole different conversation 12 months from now.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.