FINDLAY, Ohio - There's only one Rothlisberger in the phone book and that creates quite a bit of confusion for one family.
“I could retire if I got a dollar or two for every phone call or knock on the door,” said Steve Rothlisberger - who is not related to Ben Roethlisberger. The Pittsburgh quarterback grew up in this northwest Ohio town and will lead the Steelers into Super Bowl XL on Sunday.
Their last names aren't even spelled the same way, but that doesn't stop people from calling or dropping by his house.
“I look at it as a minor inconvenience,” said Rothlisberger, an assistant football coach when Roethlisberger was a star at Findlay High School.
One time a woman hoping to get the quarterback to show up at a fundraiser came to the house. A year ago, a drunk fan from West Virginia called in the middle of the night.
He said his wife, who works at a furniture store, can't escape the attention either. “She wears a name tag and she says she gets asked 15, 20 times a day if she's Ben's mom,” Rothlisberger said.
The quarterback's family, who still live in Findlay and have an unlisted phone number, knows the Rothlisbergers and can empathize.
“They're nice people,” said Brenda Roethlisberger, Ben's mom. “Unfortunately, since they're the only Rothlisbergers in the phone book, I think they've taken the brunt of most of our calls.”
