The marquee for this week’s game is obvious: Ben Roethlisberger vs. Brett Favre. This Sunday will be the first and possibly the last pairing between the legend and the Pittsburgh star, who emulated Favre when learning how to play the game.

Roethlisberger cannot remember when he first saw Favre play — he is 13 years younger — but he remembers what it did to him.

“I grew up watching Brett and idolizing him and molding a little bit of my game after him, so it’ll be fun to play him for the first time,” Roethlisberger said Thursday.

“He’s a legend, and I’m just trying to get to his level,” said Roethlisberger, who leads the NFL in passing yards and average gain. One of the attributes Roethlisberger said he has copied from watching Favre is “just the gun-slinger (mentality), doing the kind of unorthodox stuff ...
“You have to be smart with it sometimes. It’s one of those things, if you watch Brett, sometimes he throws it up and you wonder what he was doing. Probably the same thing that coach says about me, you live by the sword and you die by it. He makes enough plays that you don’t question him.”

Roethlisberger said he’s in awe of Favre’s record streak of NFL starts.

“At this position? Unbelievable. You know what, a lot of it is toughness, but I’m sure he’ll tell you a lot of it is luck. You have to get lucky, especially in this sport with guys rolling into you, hitting you, any little thing that can happen. He’s gotten lucky, as well as he is incredibly tough.”