Ben Roethlisberger: Big Ben’s Little Ben Gets Him Into Trouble

Just when Michael Vick gets released from federal custody another star NFL quarterback gets in trouble. This time it’s not for fighting with dogs but for having sex with one.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been named in a sexual assault lawsuit. The civil suit was filed Friday in Washoe County (Nevada) and it seeks at least $390,000 in damages or the minimum salary for a second year NFL player.

Andrea McNulty (pictured) claims the two-time winning Super Bowl champion sexually assaulted her in July of 2008. The alleged assault took place at McNulty’s place of employment, Harrah’s hotel in Lake Tahoe.

According to McNulty, Big Ben asked her to fix his room’s television. She claims she couldn’t find anyone else to fix the set so she went to his room to do it… herself… fix the television that is.

After she fixed the set, Roethlisberger wouldn’t let her leave and ignored her pleas to stop groping her. It’s nice to see Big Ben had priorities—get the TV fixed first and then allegedly rape hotel guest services.

Roethlisberger pushed McNulty on the bed, ripped off her “underpants” and then, according to McNulty, “proceeded to penetrate her.”

Pretty many sounds like what the Steelers do to the Browns every time they play.

When McNulty mentioned that she wasn’t on birth control, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Roethlisberger said “Don’t worry, I’ll pull out.”

That folks is an audible.

Keep in mind that this is just HER side of the story. No criminal investigation was ever conducted.

“Ben has never sexually assaulted anyone… The timing of the lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct. If an investigation is commenced, Ben will cooperate fully and Ben will be fully exonerated,” David Cornwell, Roethlisberger’s lawyer, said in a statement.

McNulty claims she didn’t file a criminal complaint because she was afraid the hotel would side with Roethlisberger and she’d be fired. But a highly publicized civil suit will go unnoticed by her employers?

According to TMZ, McNulty was involved with a married man at the time of the alleged incident with Roethlisberger. The man’s wife began to correspond with McNulty pretending to be a soldier station in Iraq; she was hoping the ruse would pry information from McNulty.

Apparently, McNulty fell in love with the imaginary soldier and began to tell people they were engaged. When the scorned wife stopped the charade McNulty told people the soldiered had been killed. It was this ordeal, not her run in with Roethlisberger, that sent McNulty to a psychiatrist.

Take that story for what you will, but it does sound like McNulty is a little “cuckoo for coca-puffs.”

It will also be interesting to see how the media handles a sexual assault case against a popular, white athlete. As of today at noon (Pacific Daylight Savings Time) the story was not listed as a headline on either NFL.com or ESPN.com.

The NFL is looking into the matter and ESPN says they don’t report on civil lawsuits. How convenient for them.