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
We have to count our blessings. The man above, he really looked down on Jerome and said, 'I'm not going to let you end your career on a fumble like that.' ... We're one game away from getting him to Detroit.
We have a lot of confidence. Maybe the world doesn't believe that we can go out and win, but to beat the No. 1 and No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, you've got to have confidence. We felt like with the guys and coaching staff that we have in this locker room, we could get the job done. We've just got to go out and execute our game plan and make plays, and everything will take care of itself.
If this is going to be his last year, what better way than to finish his career off where it all started in Detroit? Last year, we were one game short. This year, we're back to that and that's all we ask for is another opportunity. We're in that position to put him back in the Super Bowl.
I don't get caught up in numbers. All I care about is winning.
What better way to finish your career than where it all started?
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.
It's a book waiting to be written. If this will be his last year, what better way than to finish his career off where it all started, in Detroit. . . . A lot of our guys just want to go out and not only play for themselves, but for a guy like Jerome Bettis.
Jerome has just meant so much to us. For him to go out the way he went out (as a Super Bowl champion), if I was retiring and my career was towards the end, that's how I would want to go out.
He's still the 37 I know. He may have lost a step or something but he'll still end your career if he gets a chance.
We fell one game short (last year). A lot of guys are focused, real hungry. Things didnt go particularly the way we wanted in the preseason, but you dont game-plan in the preseason. Our whole focus now is Tennessee.
We felt we were in control. But they played 60 minutes and we didn't. So now we've got to regroup and let's try to win 13 straight.
We felt we were in control. But they played 60 minutes, and we didn't.
It would truly be a fairy tale story, to go on road, beat Cincinnati and come in and beat Indianapolis, then to get Jerome back to where it all started for him in Detroit. Somebody needs to write a book about that. It would make a lot of money.
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.