Ben Roethlisberger: I’ll miss a game if my wife goes into labor

[papillon]

Yeah, I realize that things happen, but I also have to wonder about the planning, or lack thereof.

Also, not to sound insensitive, but I didn't see a mention of foregoing a game check. I realize players practice for most of the year, but Ben is essentially paid to perform for 16 -20 games per year. And really, with the defense on the field roughly half the game, he's paid to perform for about 24 hours a year. If Ben wants to take a game off for personal reasons, he should, at a minimum, forego a game check and return the appropriate pro-rated portion of his signing bonus.

My comments about the calendar and gestation period were tongue in cheek. It seems they attempted to plan for a summer baby, but were off by a month or two, there are many reasons for that. As long as the Pittsburgh Football Steelers are fine with Ben taking a "day" off, I'm fine with it as well, since I don't have to pay him.

Pappy

[Steelgal]

As someone who's gone through labor and delivery 3 times, I agree with others here. He should miss any game for the birth of his child. Nothing can replace the birth of a child. He may be a NFL player for 10-15 years, but your always a parent. I wouldn't ever want to have to tell my child "Sorry, I had a big game against the Ravens, so chose to be there instead."

[fordfixer]

As someone who's gone through labor and delivery 3 times, I agree with others here. He should miss any game for the birth of his child. Nothing can replace the birth of a child. He may be a NFL player for 10-15 years, but your always a parent. I wouldn't ever want to have to tell my child "Sorry, I had a big game against the Ravens, so chose to be there instead."

Thanks for your input but I don't think anyone would blame you for being at the birth of your kid

[Oviedo]

As someone who's gone through labor and delivery 3 times, I agree with others here. He should miss any game for the birth of his child. Nothing can replace the birth of a child. He may be a NFL player for 10-15 years, but your always a parent. I wouldn't ever want to have to tell my child "Sorry, I had a big game against the Ravens, so chose to be there instead."

So far you are the only "expert" opinion that has been posted. I totally agree. Short of being away at war you don't miss this.

[RuthlessBurgher]

I was present for the birth of my firstborn son. The doctors decided to induce 2 weeks prior to my wife's due date, because my son appeared to be quite large (like 95th percentile or something like that), so they decided it would be smart to take him a bit early rather than waiting full term for him to get even bigger. No problems there (he actually ended up being substantially smaller than they were predicting based on the ultrasound measurements...go figure).

However, I was not there for the birth of my daughter, the second of our two kids. The doctors noticed that she had a single umbilical artery, which could lead to some potential complications, so they scheduled a C-section this time around. Two weeks prior to the scheduled C-section, my wife went in for a routine visit the obstetrician...I was at work like any other day. The doctor noticed that my daughter's heartbeat wasn't as strong as it should be that morning, and worried about the possibility of the umbilical cord possibly being around her neck. They immediately whisked my wife away for an emergency C-section, and she called me at work from her cell phone while being wheeled to the O.R. on a stretcher...we were on the phone for maybe 15 seconds trying to explain to me what was happening before she had to hang up. I quickly called my parents (who called her parents, my sister, etc.), before leaving work abruptly to get to the hospital. It would normally be a 30-35 minute drive from my office to the hospital. I planned to drive faster than normal to get there sooner than that, but someone had other plans...a tractor-trailer carrying apples was overturned on the highway, so it took me about 1 hour 20 minutes to get there, and therefore I missed everything. My father and sister were already there with my daughter when I finally arrived, so they both saw the baby before me. I then went to the recovery room to be with my wife as she woke up from the anethetic. I did see my daughter before my wife did, because she was obviously under for this entire ordeal. That certainly sucked, but ultimately everything turned out alright for us (everyone was healthy and happy, in spite of that sudden crazy scare).