Ben Roethlisberger has decided to retire from the National Football League.
After 18 seasons and two Super Bowl victories, the 39-year-old posted a video confirming the long-anticipated decision.
He doesn't know how to say what the game of football has meant to him.
I know I have given my all to the game.
His journey began with the 2004 NFL draft and ended with a loss in the play-offs to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Ohio-born passer won the NFL's biggest prize in just his second season at the Steelers, two years after becoming an 11th round draft pick out of Miami University. He became the youngest quarterback in history to win the Vince Lombardi trophy when he beat the Seattle Seahawks in the 2005 Super Bowl.
He repeated the feat three years later, cementing a Steelers dynasty in the 2000s to rival that of the great 1970s side, and taking the franchise to the top of the all-time list of Super Bowl wins, with six. Tom Brady and the New England Pats matched the record.
He lost to the Green Bay Packers in the 2010 Super Bowl.
With Brady and Rodgers out of the play-offs last weekend, the retirement of Roethlisberger is a sign of a changing of the guard in American football.
In his final game, Roethlisberger threw for 215 yards and two touchdown in a 42-21 defeat to the Chiefs.
His opponent, the biggest young star in the league, threw five touchdown passes in the game, setting up a classic against the Buffalo Bills and another young gunslinger, Josh Allen, 25.
Jimmy Garoppolo of the San Francisco 49ers will play Matt Stafford of the LA Rams in the NFC Championship game on Sunday.
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