Ward gets all the attention, but Hampton gets a new contract
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The duties of his position require nose tackle Casey Hampton to take on many blockers so Steelers linebackers are free to swoop in and make plays. This time, though, he ran a reverse and let Hines Ward clear out the field for him.
With Ward running all the interference on the contract front, Hampton scored a new five-year deal yesterday that was negotiated outside the limelight. Like the 324-pound Hampton, it was not small. He received a $6.975 million signing bonus, the third highest in team history, as part of a total package worth $22.775 million through 2009.
"Everybody worried about him," Hampton said of Ward, "and I just snuck in through the back door and got mine done."
Steelers president Art Rooney said there's plenty of room under the salary cap for the team to sign Ward and "others" such as receiver Antwaan Randle El and safety Chris Hope, but acknowledged that time is running out. The Steelers have held to a policy of not negotiating contract extensions once the regular season starts. They open Sept. 11.
Each of those three players is entering his final contract year, and chief negotiator Omar Kahn is discussing deals with all of them.
"This does not affect our ability to sign some of the other players we're talking with," Rooney said, "and, hopefully, we'll have other announcements in the future. ... Omar is capable of doing more than one thing at a time."
Ward, who returned to the team last week after a 15-day holdout to protest the lack of movement on his negotiations, said he was unaware of Hampton's new deal until reporters informed him of it on the field at St. Vincent College after practice.
"Hmmm, congratulations," Ward said.
He said it does not affect his own deal that he said Saturday night was "close."
"All I can say is they're negotiating with my contract," Ward said.
Ward's contract would be the highest in team history in signing bonus and total amount, if it gets done. Until then, Hampton's signing bonus ranks only behind quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's $9 million (or, as some calculate it, $7.8 million) and Kordell Stewart's $8.2 million in team history.
Club officials felt it was well worth it for a player who made the Pro Bowl in 2003 and proved this summer his knee has returned to full strength after a torn ACL in the sixth game ended his 2004 season prematurely.
"I think Casey's the prototype nose tackle for the 34," coach Bill Cowher said. "He has great balance, very powerful and he can move.
"It's hard to block this guy one on one. You see him take up two blockers, which frees up Larry [Foote] and James [Farrior]. Trust me, they're the ones who take him out to eat every week."
End Aaron Smith, who sets up to the left of Hampton in the team's three-man line, also wants to nourish him.
"Casey's a building block that everything else is built around," Smith said. "Our defense is designed for him to hold the point, and then after that everybody else plays off him."
Hampton has good range for a man his size; Cowher noted how he moved outside and caused a fumble Saturday night against the Miami Dolphins.
"He's a lot faster runner than you would think for a man of his dimensions," coordinator Dick LeBeau said. "But his real strength of course is anchoring and inverting the line of scrimmage and letting us play around him."
Even though the Steelers won every game they played without him until they lost in the AFC championship, it did not diminish his importance to their defense. They signed Chris Hoke, who played nose tackle in Hampton's absence, to a contract this year to protect themselves, but they wanted Hampton back.
"We missed him," Cowher said. "Yeah, we won some games, but this guy is one of the best at his position in the National Football League and is recognized as such."
Hampton believes he had to prove that again to them this summer because of his injury.
"I really did feel that it was just a matter of them seeing that I was ready to play and my knee was going to be OK. Once that I showed them that, I felt they would try to get the deal done."
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)
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