Hines Ward
Hines Ward
Hines Edward Ward, Jr.is a retired American football wide receiver, businessman, and television personality. He is the current NBC studio analyst who played 14 seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. He played college football at the University of Georgia. The Pittsburgh Steelers selected him in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft, and he became the team's all-time leader in receptions, receiving yardage and touchdown receptions. Ward was voted MVP of Super Bowl XL, and...
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth8 March 1976
CitySeoul, South Korea
It was third and long and we were scrambling around. We practice on the scrambling drill. Ben threw it kind of short; I had to run back.
Ben threw for 300-some yards. Any problems he might have had, I think, had to do with planting his foot.
Ben might not have the numbers of Peyton Manning, but it's time that he started being mentioned as one of the great quarterbacks in the game.
Ben is different with his confidence this year. He has trust in everyone around him and he makes the team work for him. He has been a phenomenal leader.
Ben has a desire to be the best. You can see that in him. He's going to be a great quarterback for a lot of years.
Ben doesn't put up numbers like Peyton Manning, he just wins.
Ben actually looked to the left and I had a hitch route. It was only about six yards, so when he came back to me, I kind of figured Champ was driving on me and that's not how you want to start the game, with a pick for a touchdown.
You just sit there and watch Ben and he has played night and day from last year's playoff time to this year's playoff time. He's just going out there and having fun playing the game of football.
I thought it was over when we had the ball at the 2-yard line. Didn't you? Of course, I thought it was over. Everyone did. Then a guy who very rarely fumbles fumbled, and Ben did a heck of a job to tackle the guy. He saved our year. It was a great play. When you're in your goal-line offense, you have all big guys out there and the only guy with any speed is the quarterback.
The quarterback starts everything off. If the quarterback has confidence, the other 10 guys around in him believe in him. We'll go as far as Ben takes us.
That was great timing between Ben and I. He threw it to me before I even made my break. That's the timing we're starting to develop. We felt that we had control of the game at that point, but we just couldn't finish it off.
To convert on that and have Ben score a touchdown, we had momentum going into (halftime). We came out in the second half and Willie busted a wide open touchdown that put us up 14-3, so that was a huge play.
It was easier for Ben last year (as a rookie) because we had veterans, guys like myself, 'Plex' (Plaxico Burress) and Antwaan, ... This year, myself and Antwaan are really the only veteran guys. Cedrick is coming in from a new system, and Lee hasn't played much. But I'm not too concerned. It's just a matter of us getting on the same page.
It's great to be back - I missed it. It was just day three for me, and we're getting better. Ben is making good reads and we need to make some plays for him.