Donald Trump is campaigning, and there’s no better way to get in with Western Pennsylvania voters than to wave a Terrible Towel and talk about Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

So that’s what the Republican nominee did.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we love Big Ben,” Trump said, according to CBS News’ Sopan Deb. “Big Ben’s a friend of mine.”

Anyone itching to make a comment about Trump and/or Roethlisberger? No? OK, then we can move on to Trump’s golf story about Roethlisberger.

“We played golf together,” Trump said, via Deb’s tweet. “He once hit a shot that went dead right into a tree. It was a massive tree like this. The ball hit the tree so hard I swear I said, ‘Ben, within two years, that tree is going to be dead.’ And you know what? Two years later, I should say this because we have — we have a lot of tree lovers here. But two years later, that tree was dead. He is a strong guy and a good guy too. Big Ben.”

Fine, you’ve waited long enough, head to the comments.

Roethlisberger and Trump were in the news together earlier this year. Trump said he had Roethlisberger’s support, and the New York Times reported Trump wanted Roethlisberger and other sports stars like Tom Brady and Bobby Knight to speak at the Republican National Convention in July. It got awkward when Roethlisberger’s agent told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Roethlisberger was staying out of politics and wouldn’t attend the convention. It’s even more awkward that Roethlisberger’s coach, Mike Tomlin, is a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton.

Roethlisberger hasn’t said anything notable about the election since saying he was staying out of politics, but Trump was happy to drop his name on the campaign trail Monday.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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