Arnold Palmer Allegedly Put Ben Roethlisberger in His Place

Some six months after Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of raping a hotel employee in Lake Tahoe, a college student accused him of sexual assault at a Milledgeville, GA bar. Roethlisberger has since hired Ray Lewis' former attorney, and while we wait for this latest episode in his off-field life to play out, some media folks are coming forward to explain just how big a jerk Big Ben really is.

Pittsburgh's John Steigerwald on Friday called Ben a "jackass", and a day later, citing a "very credible source," Waggle Room posted this story about Roethlisberger:

The Steelers have their training camp in Latrobe, PA - a town absolutely owned by Arnold Palmer. Near the training camp is Laurel Valley golf club. It has hosted several major championships and is a big deal club in the area. Ben Roethlisberger came by during training camp one summer and said he wanted to get on the course to play. The pro shop said that they would accomodate him but that members that had tee times would go ahead of him and they would work him on.

So, Ben looks around the pro shop and starts buying up stuff. Makes his purchases, then disappears to the first tee. He's teeing off out of turn. The pro shop wrangles him down in the first fairway and demands that he return to the clubhouse to wait his turn to play. Eventually, he gets to go off. He runs into a bunch of people who naturally want his autograph. He says no to all of them. Doesn't want to be nice to the people letting him play their exclusive track.

When he's done with the round, Ben goes into the locker room in the clubhouse. He takes a shower and comes out, when a man comes up to him and tells him, "What you are going to do right now is go into the pro shop and sign autographs for every single person who wants them, and then you will never come back here again."

The man who told him that? Arnold Palmer.

No idea if this is true but it wouldn't surprise me. Palmer is known for a lot of things including his generosity. And he's previously sounded off on autographs, once lamenting that, "I don't know where a player comes off, a young player particularly, that is being asked to give an autograph and he scribbles something down there you can't read. Who in the hell knows what it is? Why take the time to do it? Why not make it legible?"

I can only imagine that Arnie's blood pressure was sufficiently high when he allegedly heard about Big Ben. I just hope Roethlisberger wasn't wearing a hat in the clubhouse.

via Out of Bounds