Ben Roethlisberger: I just...I can't.

I tried not to watch the Super Bowl. Really, I did. A team I detest playing a team led by a rapist. I didn't think I could stomach it. In fact, I made plans to spend the day at the movies instead. I bragged to everyone for weeks before about how I wasn't going to watch it. My father accused me of being a terrorist.

But, alas, along came Sunday. I spent the vast majority of the day on the couch with my boyfriend watching Law and Order SVU on Netflix. This, sadly, is not abnormal. Five o'clock rolled around. I took a deep breath, peeled my butt off of the couch and changed the channel to Fox. I swore it was just to watch Lea Michele sing America the Beautiful (admitted Gleek).

Then I started listening to the pre-game show. Announcers started talking about how, if the Steelers won, it would really be a great chance for a "Roethlisberger redemption".

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.

I could have hurled something at the television. I've spent the hours since then racking my brain, trying to find some grain of logic that would explain how a Super Bowl victory for him would in anyway excuse the fact that he raped a girl.

Now, Steelers' fans and otherwise, don't come at me with the whole "it was never proven" "he was never charged" ridiculousness. Amazing how videotapes and evidence miraculously get lost at a police station, preventing charges from being pressed, isn't it? Trying to explain how blatantly ridiculous it is for anyone to even doubt the allegations is frankly beating a dead horse at this point. It's also not the focus of this post.

The point here: any of Roethlisberger's performances on the football field, victorious or otherwise, have absolutely no bearing on the prior behaviors.

Let's say the Steelers had come up on top last night: winning a Super Bowl does not equate not raping someone. And, as Big Ben would have been interviewed and explained future travel plans to Disney World, what kind of moronic sports commentator thinks that this would making a young girl in Georgia feel any better about what happened to her that night? As if she would sit there post-game and think, "Well, at least the man that raped me is a Super Bowl winner. That makes me feel much better."

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.

Now, maybe I've just been watching a little bit too much SVU on the weekends (I probably wouldn't argue that myself), but I'm pretty sure that's not the way rape victims think.

Ben, do you want to redeem yourself for your actions? Call me up. We'll organize a press conference where you admit that you are, indeed, a rapist, the scum of the planet, and a liar. You'll admit that you paid off that girl and everyone involved in the situation. Then, you'll turn yourself in to authorities and serve your prison time like every other convicted felon.

I'll be sitting by the phone.