Getty Images Our long national nightmare is over. Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph have spoken. Sort of. The Steelers rookie quarterback said after his first minicamp practice that he got a nice text message from the incumbent quarterback who didn’t seem immediately inclined to communicate. “He reached out [Thursday] and said, ‘Hey, good luck in rookie minicamp.’ I was really appreciative of that,” Rudolph said, via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. “I just said, ‘Hey, thanks, look forward to meeting you.’ Wasn’t a whole lot [of dialogue], but it meant a lot that he reached out.” Roethlisberger may or may not have had a tone when his first post-draft comments about the Steelers using a third-round pick on a possible heir. But at some point, these two have to work together, and Roethlisberger’s initial mentor Tommy Maddox predicted that it would go respectfully. For his part, Rudolph tried to take some of the air out of the balloon. “I think the media got it kind of twisted around a little bit. He’s a competitor,” Rudolph said. “He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback. He’s a competitive guy. That’s what I would expect. He’s a longtime starter. I’m sure when we get in this building, in this room, we’re going to be friends, and I’m going to let him do his thing and pick up what I can from him but not bother him.” Spoken like a good rookie. 🙂
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