From Tom Brady building the New England Patriots dynasty to Nick Foles’ improbable Super Bowl win in Philadelphia — Ben Roethlisberger saw it all during his NFL career from 2004 to 2021. But beyond the action on the field, the Steelers legend also saw a shift in locker room culture, a trend driven by smartphones and social media. And he’s not a fan of it in the slightest.
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In the latest episode of Footbahlin’ with Ben Roethlisberger, the two-time Super Bowl champion opened up about how players gradually started prioritizing their phones over game analysis—even scrolling through social media during halftime.
Roethlisberger started observing this phenomenon around 2015 and watched it grow into a widespread habit. What started with a few players eventually became common practice by the time he retired. Now, it’s probably even worse.
“There was a trend in my last few years of playing that gradually got worse. I can’t remember exactly when it started—maybe five or six years before I retired—but it became more noticeable over time. Players would come into the locker room at halftime, go straight to their lockers, grab their phones, and check social media,” recalled the former QB.
“Some would even do the same right after the game ended. Not everyone, but more and more guys started doing it,” he added.
For someone old school like Ben Roethlisberger, social media’s infiltration of the locker room marked a stark contrast to the culture he was accustomed to at the start of his career. He recalled how, back in the day, Mike Tomlin preached the philosophy of “singular focus.”
What the Steelers HC meant by the term was that during the 3-4 hours of the game, a player should focus solely on the team and the game. And the halftime break? Tomlin saw it as a time for adjustments—identifying key issues and discussing ways to address them.
Unsurprisingly for Roethlisberger, this growing trend was infuriating. In his eyes, a player concerned about social media chatter during halftime was more likely to get distracted by the noise. Additionally, these players were wasting crucial time that could have been spent discussing the game plan for the next half with their coaches or bonding with teammates.
“But what drove me nuts was seeing certain players isolating themselves, glued to their phones instead of engaging with their teammates. You’d never see the linemen on their phones, but other guys? Instead of sitting with their group, they’d be at their lockers scrolling through social media. Unless they were reviewing a film or a play-call sheet—which they weren’t—it was a distraction.”
According to the Steelers icon, the reason behind this growing trend among players can be attributed to their mentality of “me” over the “team”. He argued that social media has unknowingly made many people more self-absorbed, pulling their focus away from what’s in front of them.
Roethlisberger did acknowledge that using mobile phones in the locker room is acceptable in cases of family emergencies. But, using them for any other reason, in his view, is a sign of indiscipline.
The question now remains—will the focus ever return to pure football, or has the locker room dynamic changed for good? Because what Roethlisberger observed wasn’t just a behavioral pattern; it signified a broader cultural shift within the sport.
