Ben Roethlisberger probably shouldn’t be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he will.

Big Ben retired Saturday. His next stop is Canton and his production tells us he deserves it, with 64,088 passing yards and 418 touchdowns. And if you add postseason numbers, the yardage is more than 70,000 with 454 scores.

He won two Super Bowl titles in his 17 full years as the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, finally winning The Steelers’ One For the Thumb for the 2005 season against the Seattle Seahawks to give the Iron City ballers 5 Super Bowl crowns. Roethlisberger’s last Super Bowl title came at the end of the 2008 season in Tampa against the Arizona Cardinals.

We all knew Roethlisberger was going to be special. He proved that in college at Miami (Ohio), completing passes like he was in his backyard playing catch.

I took my son, Carter, to see the man who would become known as Big Ben at the Citrus Bowl against UCF in 2003. I told him he was going to see something special that day. Roethlisberger proved me right.

He completed 24 of 29 passes for five touchdowns and 327 yards in propelling the No. 15-ranked Redhawks to a rout of UCF 56-21. Roethlisberger was the 11th pick in the 2004 NFL draft — behind Eli Manning and Philip Rivers — and was the Steelers quarterback from Day 1.

But it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows.

I’m on the fence about his inclusion in the Hall of Fame. I’m torn by whether off-the-field behavior should be held against a player — Roethlisberger was twice accused of rape, once in 2009 and once in 2010.

Andrea McNulty would vote no if she had a Hall of Fame ballot. So would another unidentified woman. Both accused Roethlisberger of rape, the incidents just seven months apart.

McNulty claimed Roethlisberger raped her at a Lake Tahoe hotel and casino just five months after his second Super Bowl victory in 2009. The unidentified woman accused Roethlisberger of the same crime at a Milledgeville, Georgia, nightclub in 2010.

The Steelers haven’t been back to the Super Bowl since losing to Green Bay in the 2010 season’s title game. The 11-year drought is the second-longest in Steelers history. The Steelers’ longest drought was 15 straight seasons from 1981 to 1995.

Since 2010, the Steelers won five division titles. In those 11 seasons, they made it past the playoffs’ wild-card round three times.

Most of Roethlisberger’s good years were prior to the alleged rape incidents.

It has not been a good decade for the Steelers and their beloved quarterback. But the fans love Big Ben. They turned their heads when he was accused of sexual assault. They’ll bemoan the fact that I am bringing up the past with Roethlisberger.

It’s Roethlisberger’s past, however, that will get him into the Hall of Fame, and he’ll become the 21st Steeler to wear the gold jacket on the steps of Canton. His first six years were his best. Then his ego took over.

He allegedly drank too much. He allegedly thought women were personal toys, and on at least two occasions allegedly thought it was OK to have nonconsensual sex.

Spare me the rhetoric about there never being criminal charges brought against Roethlisberger. The McNulty civil lawsuit was settled out of court, a telling fact as to there being at least some legitimacy to the woman’s claims. The second one was thrown out for lack of evidence. Police, however, seemed to have protected Roethlisberger a bit the night of the accusation. An officer on the scene said that the woman was a “drunken b----.” Last time I checked, however, that does not make you a legal target for rape.

Roethlisberger fans will also say he is a changed man and has a wife and children and a new outlook on life. I hope that is the case and, if so, I’m happy that he turned everything around.

People do make mistakes. But if being a family man plays a part in getting a player into a hall of fame, so then should rape accusations play a part in at least causing pause for the voters.

But don’t tell that to Antonio Brown or Le’Veon Bell. They were team troublemakers when they were let go by the Steelers. Brown was so good that the Steelers put up with him for a while, but it became too much and the team traded him. Bell just refused to play, so the team had no choice but to release him.

So the Steelers will get rid of a player if they do not play nice. Roethlisberger did his part to stay in the team’s good graces and he will walk away a fan favorite in Pittsburgh.

Does he deserve to be so revered? I guess so. But it’s still difficult to look past those allegations. Roethlisberger is fortunate the accusations did not take place during the “Me Too” era. He would have faced far different treatment. He would have been vilified.

Big Ben is done now. The fans will look for a new QB hero. Some might have been getting fed up with the mediocre Ben Roethlisberger Show anyway.

They’re getting antsy in the Steel City. They expect their team to win. They expect their team to wear Super Bowl rings.

Can you say the Mason Rudolph Show? Didn’t think so.

This article originally appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Chris Hays covers high school football and college football recruiting for the Sentinel. He can be reached at CHays@orlandosentinel.com.