Ben Roethlisberger's white wedding will be accented by plenty of black and gold.
Team sources told NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora that Pittsburgh Steelers brass -- including ownership, front-office executives and coach Mike Tomlin -- received permission from the NFL to attend the quarterback's wedding Saturday in Ohio Township, Penn.
All are expected to attend, as are many of Roethlisberger's teammates. Several Steelers were under the impression that linebacker James Harrison -- who made criticial comments about the quarterback in a recent magazine profile -- would be there.
Team officials needed permission to attend because they are barred from interacting with players during the NFL lockout. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones similarly received permission from the league to attend quarterback Tony Romo's wedding earlier this month.
Roethlisberger will tie the knot with fiancée Ashley Harlan, with whom he had an on-and-off courtship over five years, according to the *Pittsburgh Tribune-Review*.
The wedding represents another sign of Roethlisberger's positive new direction in life. A two-time Super Bowl champion, Roethlisberger had his reputation badly tarnished by two separate sexual-assault allegations. In 2010, he received a six-game suspension -- which later was reduced to a four-game ban -- from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after the second accusation came to light.
Roethlisberger appears to have changed his ways since then.
"I wasn't making changes for other people," Roethlisberger told the Tribune-Review. "I was doing it for myself. Just wanted to do the right things and be the person that I know who I am and can be."
WPXI-TV reported Friday that the wedding will take place at Christ Church at Grove Farm with heavy security on hand. Roethlisberger is paying for the extra police presence, with the tab running at roughly $4,000.
