Ron Cook: Ward Again Proves He's a Money Player

Friday, October 14, 2005

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This is why Pittsburgh loves Hines Ward:

It's early in the second quarter in San Diego on Monday night, the Steelers and Chargers scoreless. Ward beats cornerback Quentin Jammer with a slant move and makes a diving catch at the San Diego 33. He quickly bounces up, weaves, dodges and powers his way to the end zone. It's a spectacular 47-yard touchdown, his fifth in four games.

Or maybe it isn't a touchdown.

Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer challenges that Ward was down by contact. After further review, referee Jeff Triplette determines Jammer grazed Ward's right foot with his left hand. The ball goes back to the San Diego 33. Ward loses a touchdown.

It was a tough break for the Steelers, but it didn't diminish from Ward's usual all-out, all-the-time effort. Nor did it change the fact he made the play on virtually one leg.

That brings us to another reason Ward is the team's most popular player since the Super Steelers days:

He shows up for work every week. It doesn't matter how much he's hurting or how sick he is, come game time, he's going to play.

"I want my teammates to know, 'We don't have to worry about Hines,' " he said yesterday.
Ward hasn't missed any of the 122 games, including playoffs, since he joined the Steelers in 1998. He has made 89 consecutive starts. Those streaks figure to be in some jeopardy Sunday when the Steelers play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Heinz Field. Ward said his sore right hamstring -- originally injured late in the game Sept. 25 against the New England Patriots -- is worse this week than last week. And he had a hard time making it through against the Chargers.
Ward said he tweaked his injury on the second play, then again on his apparent touchdown catch. He went to the locker room late in the second quarter to get a head start on his halftime heat treatments so he could play in the second half. Even then, fatigue caused his leg to stiffen and ache in the fourth quarter. That's why, after the Steelers' charter flight landed in Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning after their all-night flight home, he headed straight to the team's South Side headquarters for more treatment.

"I even beat the trainers here," Ward said, fairly giggling. "I got through the traffic quicker than they did."

Ward didn't practice yesterday and didn't know if he would be able to work today.
"I'll do everything I can to play Sunday, but I have to be smart about it. I've been lucky. This is the first time in my career an injury has even been an issue with me. It's better if I have to miss a game or two now rather than miss a month or two."

Of course, Ward felt that way before the game in San Diego and that didn't stop him from playing.

One, it was "Monday Night Football." Ward lives for that. Two, it was a game he said he felt the Steelers had to win after they were beaten at home by the Patriots. And three, well, if you're going to ask for the kind of big money he did this summer, you have to play if there's any way.
"I was hurt, but I was still getting open and still making plays," Ward said.
Especially when the game was on the line.

Moments such as these are why seemingly all of Pittsburgh wanted to see Ward get everything he asked for and more when he was a holdout during the exhibition season:

The Chargers had just scored to take their first lead, 16-14, with 11:41 left. The largest crowd in San Diego football history has Qualcomm Stadium rocking. Ben Roethlisberger looks for Ward on the first play after the kickoff and finds him for a 33-yard gain. Roethlisberger looks for Ward on the second play and they hook up for 13 yards. Ward is having a hard time running, but Jammer and the others in the San Diego secondary can't keep up with him. The Steelers retake the lead on the next play when Roethlisberger throws a 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end Heath Miller.

In the instant Miller scores, Ward's pain is the last thing on his mind.

"I just felt like this was a really big game for us," he said.

The Steelers wouldn't have won it without him.

"I know I might not be the prototypical wide receiver," Ward said. "I'm not 6-5 or 6-6 and I don't run 4.3. But I know what I bring to this football team. You can't knock what I do on the field in the clutch."

Ward ended up signing a five-year, $27.5-million contract, richest in Steelers history. It's ridiculous money, Monopoly money. A lot of contracts in pro sports are. Ward knows that. He admits it.

But in the warm afterglow of this win, after seeing Ward hobble to the team bus after leaving so much of himself on the field, it didn't seem like a penny too much.

(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1525.)