Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, is now telling friends that he had a "brain tumor" when he and the Steelers lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC conference finals last month, reliable sources out of Pittsburgh are reporting.

Originally, Roethlisberger had complained of "broken toes," a claim that Bill Cowher, the Steelers' head coach, rejected as "ridiculous" at the time.

Cowher, sensitive to the importance of preserving a good relationship with his talented, young quarterback, called Roethlisberger "certainly delusional," and "way more whacked than we possibly thought."

But Roethlisberger insisted, "I've now learned that during the game against the Patriots I was suffering from a Grade 4 glioblastoma," a tumor that has since disappeared, he said, from recent MRI/ct-scans.

"The doctors are calling it a spontaneous remission. I'm very lucky to be alive. Given these developments, you can now appreciate how courageous I was to have played that game at all. My doctors tell me that, by all accounts, I should have been in a hospital under a brain surgeon's knife, not having my senses knocked silly by the Patriots."

The Steelers' team physician, Earl Ramapo, MD, delicately characterized Roethlisberger's assertions as "a figment of his demented imagination."

Roethlisberger stood by his story, saying "They can say whatever they want. They can try to make me look stupid. But I'm telling you, I was playing with only one kidney."