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
When I signed the deal, I wasn't a Pro Bowl player, ... To go to four straight Pro Bowls, you deserve some type of raise. They said, 'Come into camp and we'll continue negotiations,' and that's why I'm here.
We're not going to hit the panic button. We had a great training camp and we looked good in practice. We were hitting on all four cylinders. We just haven't been able to transfer that into games.
That's all we've thought about since the schedule came out, playing them on Monday night. That's why I'm here at camp now, that Monday night game. Losing that game hurt. But now we just want to get back there. Starting off with us and them on Monday night? That's classic. That's art.
When you get large, lucrative contracts, the expectations are a little greater. The statistics aren't what I'm accustomed to, but what I brought each Sunday was going out and giving it all I've got.
The play-calling was aggressive. They thought all we can do is run the ball. We can pass the ball, too.
We knew it was going to go for a touchdown. The great ones don't drop balls in the Super Bowl, and I want to be considered one of the great ones.
We knew it was going to go for a touchdown.
We're not just a one-dimensional team. We can throw the ball down the field. Now we're one game from the Super Bowl, and we're taking the mentality that it's us against the world.
This year, there was no expectation. We were the sixth seed. Nobody expected much out of us.
With all the road that we traveled to get here, it means nothing if we go out here and lay an egg in this game. If we don't go out and take care of business, then all that had work that we have done, nobody's ever going to remember it.
We gave ourselves a chance to win the ballgame,
We want to give him the ring. It would be the book in the making of the Jerome Bettis story.
You guys are going to catch him eventually, so he can't run from you. For him, it can be overwhelming, but it's overwhelming for me to look at all you guys. This is what it's all about.
This year, he's been in every scenario possible -- coming from behind, doing a two-minute drill, losing a shootout. He's experienced all that, and he's going to continue to grow.