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
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.
Teams seem to put us in black jerseys whenever we go anywhere that's hot. We're accustomed to playing in that.
Everybody gets excited seeing him throw. But in our case Tommy right now gives us the best opportunity to go out and win ball games. You can't blow off a year in this league. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision, but right now Ben's not comfortable enough to go out and lead our team just yet. But when he's ready, he's going to get his opportunity.
When teams play the Cover 2, you're supposed to be able to run against them, ... We couldn't.
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.
We don't feel like we're favored. We're not going to change. We're still playing like a team with desperation.
Just hit it down their throats. They've got great team speed. When we were down 10-7 against them before, we still had a chance in that ballgame to go out and make plays. We just didn't do that.
For us, we don't get caught up in statistics as much. As players, the team MVP is the guy who exemplifies hard work at practices, gives it his all on Sundays and is the guy to get the guys up.
Carolina played a lot of Cover 2. When teams play Cover 2, you have to be able to run the ball. We didn't do that. And, we have to stay away from negative (yardage) plays.
We have a coach who's been here 14 years, and that says something right there about how the team operates.
We're the same team that went 15-1 last year and made it to the championship game.
No team ever won all three games on the road and won the Super Bowl. Why not try to make history?
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.
We thought we could take some shots in the air. We're an experienced team and we took our chances.