Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's suspension will come to an early end, meaning his first game back likely will be at home against the Browns.
Updated at 2:46 p.m.
View full sizeNFL Commissioner Roger Goodell officially reduced Ben Roethlisberger's suspension to four games. That means the Steelers' quarterback could make his first regular season start at home ... against the Cleveland Browns.Ben Roethlisberger's suspension was reduced to four games from six by National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, who was suspended after being accused of sexually assaulting two women, can return to play on Oct. 17 at home against the Cleveland Browns.
Goodell had barred Roethlisberger from the first six games of the regular season for violating the league's personal- conduct policy. The commissioner said in a letter to Roethlisberger in April that the player's conduct at a Milledgeville, Georgia, club the previous month undermined the integrity and reputation of the NFL, and that he put himself and others at risk by providing alcohol to underage college students.
"You have told me and the Steelers that you are committed to making better decisions," Goodell said in a letter to Roethlisberger, according to an NFL statement. "Your actions over the past several months have been consistent with that promise and you must continue to honor that commitment."
Goodell also barred Roethlisberger from the team's offseason training until he completed a "comprehensive behavioral evaluation by medical professionals," mandatory under the league's policy, the NFL said.
Roethlisberger met today with Goodell. The commissioner said at the time of the suspension that if Roethlisberger followed the league's guidelines and avoided trouble, he would consider reducing the suspension to four games.
“I have learned a lot over the past several months about myself as a person,” Roethlisberger said in a statement released through the team today. “I am committed to continuing on this path of being the type of person my family raised me to be, and exceeding what is expected of me as the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
"Ben has done a good job this summer of growing as the person that he needs to be, both on and off the field," Steelers President Art Rooney II said in a statement. "I am confident that Ben is committed to continuing in this positive direction."
The reduction comes more than four months after prosecutors said they wouldn't charge the 28-year-old quarterback for an alleged sexual assault on a 20-year-old college student in the Milledgeville bar.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Frederic Bright said "significant questions" remained about what took place that night. He said the woman involved wrote to his office that she didn't want the matter prosecuted.
Roethlisberger, who led the Steelers to Super Bowl victories after the 2005 and 2008 seasons, was also sued by a woman who said he raped her in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2008, according to the Associated Press. Roethlisberger has denied both allegations.