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
You just sit there and watch Ben, he played night and day from last year's playoff time to this year's. Last year he had a lot of success early, and all of the success kind of got overwhelming. He's been more calm and collected this year.
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.
We have to stay away from the negative plays. The third-and-longs, those are hard to overcome. We overcame a couple of them last year but last year we were a great team with second-and-short, third-and-short.
I'm sure Cleveland is going to be looking to knock us out of the playoffs. It's a playoff run from here on out. We have to play on the road, and what better way to get that experience than to go out and approach each game like it is your last game?
I can't even begin to tell you how do good this feels ... especially after how our season ended last year. Nobody believed in us except the guys in this locker room. All our hard work has paid off. We're going to the Super Bowl.
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.
Last year when we had home-field advantage, it was kind of more of a distraction more than anything. We had more ticket requests. A lot of people wanted to come and watch. With us going on the road, we really don't have to worry about that too much. We just go out there and concentrate on football.
I hated to see that happen to Jerome. Not on the last play of his career.
We're the same team that went 15-1 last year and made it to the championship game.
Nobody believed in us, but we believed in ourselves, and now we're in the Super Bowl. These last three games on the road show a lot about our team and this coaching staff.
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 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.
We didn't want to go through this by choice. That is how it went. Last year, we were a No. 1 seed. This year, we had to win our final four games just to get here. So we've been on a playoff mentality the last four weeks of the regular season. It's win or go home, so we've gotten used to playing with pressure.
We didn't really plan to go this way. It's been twice I had home-field advantage, and we came up short both times. We're one game away from the Super Bowl. We're right back where we were last year.