Ben Rothlisberger and Milledgeville, GA

Milledgeville, GA, once the state capital of Georgia, has been known for decades as the location of the State's mental hospital. It's name became synonymous with mental illness. If you were acting foolishly, someone would say that you were about to be sent to Milledgeville. If someone said that an individual had been taken to Milledgeville, you knew they had a problem.

Today the mental hospital is being closed and the town is becoming more well known as the location of Middle Georgia College and State University. Once a women's school, it is now co-ed and growing rapidly. Milledgeville is a relatively quiet town with a long history. Oliver Hardy resided there for a time, having been born in Harlem, GA, near Augusta.

Last week 28 year old Pittsburgh Steeler's quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger and some of his friends, went trolling for girls and I do mean that literally, in Milledgeville, bringing the town and university to national prominance in a very negative way. Rothlisberger has a vacation home in nearby Reynold's Plantation, a playground for the rich and famous, particularly from the sports world it seems. He and some of his football player friends decided, I suppose, that college girls would be a nice distraction and an easy mark for professional football players, so they went to town and began a tour of the bars downtown.

At some point, something happened between Rothlisberger and a female student from the college. She approached police very distraught and said that she had been assaulted. Rothlisberger's lawyer said nothing happened. Rothlisberger now says that there was a "sexual encounter." He has been accused of this sort of thing before. It is interesting that he hired a high powered lawyer, who has represented other sports figures accused of serious conduct, including murder.

It has been a week and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is still saying that they will be "interviewing" Rothlisberger soon. This is always interesting to me. If it were me, they would have "interrogated" me that night. I would have been hunted down, handcuffed, and ridden to the police station in the back seat of a patrol unit. For celebrities, it is different. They are usually "invited" to come in for an "interview" at their convenience. This is always after they have had time to talk to their expensive lawyer and their witness friends and concoct a story of what "really happened."

Just what will happen here is yet to be revealed. My guess is that Rothlisberger will be cleared and we won't hear much from his private life until he has another problematic relationship with a female. Maybe next time he will look for a woman closer to his age to have a "sexual encounter" with in a bar. Atlanta isn't far away. He might find someone more his style in a larger city.