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You may have heard that Ben Roethlisberger is back in the news these days. One year after winning his second Super Bowl, Roethlisberger will endure a second straight offseason with accusations of sexual misconduct hovering over his head.

This tale revolves around a 20-year-old college student in Milledgeville, Georgia that claims the Steeler quarterback sexually assaulted her at a dance club.

Certainly not helping matters for Roethlisberger is the fact his accuser was admitted to the hospital due to a head injury, treated and then, released.

Tuesday’s news involved Roethlisberger’s legal team. It will be Ed Garland who represents Roethlisberger during this ordeal.

Garland’s list of clients over the years included:

• Ray Lewis (during his murder trial)
• Pacman Jones (strip-club incident)
• Jamal Lewis (during federal drug case)

That is ominous company to join. While only Jamal Lewis ended up doing some prison time, that’s not the list you want to be on during the 2010 offseason.

Regardless of what becomes of this case, one is going to cast a bit of a suspicious eye at Roethlisberger. This marks the second straight offseason during which Big Ben was accused of sexual wrongdoing.

While reportedly Roethlisberger asserted to police that there was consensual sexual contact, once more, the Steelers have a potential mess on their collective hands. Dating back to 2006, Roethlisberger’s offseasons reflect more chaos than calm.

His motorcycle accident set the tone for a middling 8-8 follow up to winning Super Bowl XL. Months after Pittsburgh won Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, Andrea McNulty claimed that she was raped by Roethlisberger in a Nevada hotel a year earlier.

While there is no tangible proof that it impacted the team on the field, they missed the playoffs once again following a Super Bowl victory.

The Rooney family is a proud bunch that is obviously concerned at the latest news regarding their star quarterback. Regardless of what the truth is, there is a black cloud that now hovers over him and it is not going away any time soon.

The longer this drags on, the greater likelihood that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is going to get involved at some point. It will start with a meeting and then spiral downward from there. When Big Rog gets involved, we know how that movie ends.

The Steelers family and fans are hoping that this is a case of a woman looking to extort money out of an athlete for her own selfish gain. If not, their 2010 season could be undone before it even starts.

Trouble keeps following the Lima, Ohio native. Perhaps he should take a lesson from Messrs. Brady and Manning. Keep a low profile. It might just pay off in the long run.