The last 12 years of NFL history could have had an entirely different trajectory.
Mike Singletary, former coach of the 49ers, told the The Athletic he vetoed a trade that would have sent Ben Roethlisberger from Pittsburgh to San Francisco because the quarterback had recently faced sexual assault allegations.
As Singletary tells it, he had a meeting with 49ers owner John York, CEO Jed York and GM Trent Baalke. They said they had a trade in place. He said no.
“I had been telling the team I wanted a team of character,” he said. “I felt I had to be true to that. But if I could do it again, I’d do it differently.”
Singletary also felt some loyalty to incumbent starter Alex Smith.
Singletary’s story of the trade that wasn’t doesn’t come with a timeframe, though he took over the 49ers as interim head coach midseason in 2008 after Mike Nolan was fired. He was their full-time coach in 2009 and 2010.
Roethlisberger faced two different sexual assault allegations. One woman accused him of rape in a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2008. The QB was sued but not charged in that alleged incident, and settled the suit in 2012.
He was also accused of sexual assault at a bar in Georgia in 2010. He was not ultimately charged in the incident, but NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ruled that Big Ben had violated the league’s personal conduct policy.
The Steelers’ quarterback, who announced his retirement Thursday, was suspended for the first six games of the 2010 season. The ban was later reduced for four games.
The butterfly effect of Roethlisberger getting traded to the 49ers, presumably before the 2010 season when he was facing that suspension, would have created an entirely different NFL landscape over the past 12 years.