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 thought we could take some shots in the air. We're an experienced team and we took our chances.
We're here without him. We never made it to this point with him. So, I don't think that we miss him. That was a big question mark coming into this year: What could we do in the passing game? Well, consequently, our passing game is the reason why we're here in the Super Bowl. So, I can't sit there and say that we miss him.
We're happy to be going to the Super Bowl, but we want to win. We plan to go there and win the whole thing.
That was a rocket. I made an adjustment on my route. He had to make an adjustment and somehow he got the ball to me. That was amazing.
I think when Champ intercepted that ball and ran it all the way back and (almost) scored, Denver had the game in control.
I can't fault 'Twaan for that. He was trying to make a play. I thought he was going to get out of it and I was going to block, and he ended up pitching to me and I took my eyes off the ball and I wasn't really ready for it. I'm partly to blame. If I catch the ball, we don't turn the ball over and if we don't, we at least get a field goal out of it.
They're fast, from the front four to the secondary, and we've got to counter that. Their linebackers are really strong safeties, they rally around the ball real fast.
I've got to get on the same page with him, ... Instead of doing gassers, I might as well do route-running for conditioning and catch the ball at the same time. It was tiring, but we accomplished something.
The ball is getting spread around, and everybody's happy. We're still trying to find our identity. We're still a running team, but, when it's time to make plays in the passing game, we've got confidence all three of our guys can go out there and get the job done.
Not too many rookies can come into the league like he did and win ball games. I tell him, 'You're the captain. Let us work the ship, just steer us in the right direction.
It was probably more gratifying going through it this way. Nothing was ever given to us. We earned it.
He saved the year for us with that tackle.
It's better, ... I could have practiced today. We'll see how it goes. I want to be there in the end, so I don't want to risk anything.
Are you a little envious? Yeah, I can say that. Everywhere I go, those guys are flashing it every time. It's always motivation.