Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Don't know whether it was the faded brown bucket hat, the T-shirt displaying the cast of "Good Times," the mile-wide Dy-nomite smile or the typically blinding diamond stud earrings, but the composite Hines Ward look again somehow dripped authenticity.
Back with the Steelers as of last night after a 15-day holdout he ended with all the bravado of a little lost lamb, Ward nonetheless electrified the atmosphere of the club's first exhibition game with the kind of genuine black and gold soliloquy that makes the fan base love him to death.
"I'm never going to put on another uniform but the black and gold," Hines was saying an hour before the Steelers confronted the Terrell Owens-less Eagles at Heinz Field, a political dichotomy lost on no one. "I don't even think I'd look right in another uniform. I want to thank the fans. I know this can be an ugly situation, but to know that the fans support me is very special. I want to be here, especially in a game-time situation. I want to support the guys the way they've supported me."
Anybody else, you would be frisking him for a public-relations degree, but Wards' motives are pure. That wasn't Evian he was using to weep on camera for Jerome Bettis after the AFC championship game loss to the Patriots in January. Ward feels the game, feels the people, and likely feels too much for his own good.
It wasn't a stretch to assume that, while Ward was complimenting the city and the organization and his teammates for enduring his holdout in good spirits, a certain Mr. Eugene Parker was less than amused. Parker is Ward's agent, and agents have had better days.
There is still no deal between the club and the four-time Pro Bowl wideout, and any chance Parker had of getting the optimum deal for Ward likely went through the floor about 10 minutes after Ward decided unilaterally to telephone Bill Cowher Sunday night. The head coach, a closet sweet-talker from way back, melted Hines' soft heart.
Ward and the Rooneys will work something out now, but it won't be anything Parker will able to show his other clients with any particular pride, and it won't be anything like Ward might have gotten had he said all the nice things he said last night in front of a St. Vincent dorm July 31.
"He works for me," Ward said. "He just gives me the options; I make the decisions. The options he presented -- you could go back and you could get hurt and lose everything. You could go back, have a good year, and they could put the franchise tag on you. I don't care. I'm here to show good faith because I want the opportunity to retire as a Steeler."
To be sure, most business models that include every implication for the financial future of Ward, 29, vary very little in real-world terms. Ward is and will be either rich, very rich or absolutely filthy. The Steelers don't much care, except that the corollaries are paid, overpaid and 5-11 for the next four years.
"This organization has done so much for me and for my family, so I'm doing my part," Ward said. "I'm here and that puts the ball back in the organization's court. I wanted to put an end to all the speculation, all the talk that, you know, greed and he wants Marvin Harrison money. I don't want what T.O. or Randy Moss or Marvin Harrison gets. Those numbers are ridiculous, not to say that I'm any less of a player than they are. But I know the way this organization works."
The way that this organization works -- not negotiating with players who are absent but under contract -- and the way Ward works -- always putting the club's larger mission above his personal needs -- are proven quantities in an equation with an unknown variable: the possibility of injury.
A debilitating injury in the near term is the difference between Ward being rich for a while and rich forever.
For my tastes, Ward is here too early. Cowher will be tempted to let him play Saturday against the Dolphins and will pretty much have to put him out there in subsequent exhibitions at Washington and Carolina, which are very dangerous situations. Aug. 27 would have been fine for last night's entrance. It's not like he doesn't know the offense. Ward could teach the offense. It's not like his teammates wouldn't have welcomed him back. Another 12 days wouldn't have done much to his leverage either.
So after seven seasons, 500 catches for 6,000 yards, 41 touchdowns and four consecutive 1,000-yard autumns, hundreds of crunching downfield blocks and a million dy-nomite smiles, we've finally seen something in this game Ward can't do very well. Hold out. Just flat has too much heart for it.
"I was just missing football," Ward said. "It sucks being at home, watching all your teammates. They've got the NFL Network now; you can watch practice."
Ouch. Now it's starting to make sense.
(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.)
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