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
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.
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.
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.
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.
We're the same team that went 15-1 last year and made it to the championship game.
We learned a lot this year from the wins and losses. Hopefully in the playoffs it will get us where we want to go. That was our goal all year, to get another opportunity to try to make that run.
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.
We play them twice a year and we know them. We'll take our chances going to Cincinnati. ... It's not going to be easy, but we're more comfortable with them.
He saved the year for us with that tackle.
Everybody was ready to put Denver and Indianapolis in the championship game. We're the same team that went 15-1 last year and made it to the championship game. We're coming from a different perspective now, being on the road playing two tough road games. We all believed in one another, even if no one else did.
When you're that No. 1 seed, teams are gunning for you, everybody wants to be that team to knock you off. For us, we get a chance to face the No. 1 team for a second time this year, so let's see what happens.
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 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.