Wednesday, May 10, 2006Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's tough being Hines Ward, Super Bowl MVP, these days.
"I'm sick of these Super Bowl commercials you see for Sports Illustrated," Ward said yesterday, smiling widely for a man so ill from seeing himself on TV. "Everywhere I go, in a bar, people look up, they look at me, they look up, they look at me: 'Hey, that's Hines!'
"They have the camera phone. They're right here in your face. I'm like oh, geez, I can't do anything."
Then, the thought hits him.
"Hey, Peyton Manning isn't doing that now."
There's a price to pay for winning the Super Bowl and the game's MVP award, and Ward is delighted to pony up. If he's dreaming, don't pinch him, even though he's had little time for sleep. People say, 'What's it like?' I can't even describe it because it's been that phenomenal. It's been amazing, just everything.
"This is fun. I love the treatment. When you can walk in and see all the players from other teams, there's nothing they can say to you. You're on top that whole offseason. I've been all over, to L.A., to Vegas, to Miami and seen all the players from all over. Hey, Peyton Manning, I know you're great and all, but you don't have a ring. You can be all this, all world, but you don't have a ring. I have a ring. There's nothing you can say to me right now."
There were four golf tournaments, the trip to South Korea with his mom, the parade at Disney World, ESPN's Battle of the Gridiron Stars, Regis & Kelly, judging Miss USA, magazine covers and television interviews. Ward is featured in a Sports Illustrated story this week. His home town of Forest Park, Ga., honored him with a parade and named a street after him, Hines Ward Pass.
He will return to South Korea, this time with his whole family, on Memorial Day Weekend to help organize his The Helping Hands Foundation to benefit biracial children in his native Korea and the United States.
There also are many endorsement offers from companies in both this country and overseas.
"It's been wonderful, it's truly been," Ward said. "I'm really capitalizing on my opportunities as much as I can because it's truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It's a great experience. I'm going to enjoy it all I can. But once I get that ring, my season starts then."
The Super Bowl rings come June 2, the same day Ward and the rest of the Steelers visit the White House. He arrived in Pittsburgh last week to begin workouts with his teammates that become more formal with the start of a three-day minicamp Saturday, followed by 14 coaching sessions through June 8.
It feels good, Ward said, to get back to the game itself.
"I want to enjoy being with my teammates and reflecting on the year, and what a great year, and what are we going to do this year? Working out with your teammates, going through battles together, the camaraderie with teammates, that's what you need to be successful. That's why I'm here early."
In his wildest dreams, back to his days as a schoolboy, Ward never thought it would feel so good to win a Super Bowl. He also never dreamed he could use the game and his newfound celebrity as a platform to promote societal change in an entire country. His April visit to South Korea, scheduled long before the Super Bowl, was to be a quiet trip where his mother could introduce him to the land where he was born.
Then came the Steelers victory against Seattle and Ward's Super Bowl MVP award, and he became Korea's rock star. There, he discovered disturbing racism. He wants to seize the moment to help kids like himself, biracial, who are shunned, often officially, in that country.
"Because of the way the society views biracial kids, you can't get a job, nobody's going to accept you," said Ward, the son of a Korean mother and an African-American father who was stationed there. "If you do play athletics, your teammates treat you like [dirt]. For kids, me being over there helped provide a sense of hope. If I can do anything, as far as using my status, my accolades to help give them an opportunity, hopefully society will change its views."
Ward asked South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun to work on changing some laws and rules that affect biracial people.
"You can't even get into the military if you're biracial," Ward said. "That is their rule, 100 percent pure, you have to be pure Korean, it's the only way to be in the military. Korea's a great country, but it would be even a greater country if we could do things to help biracial kids because you may have the next Hines Ward, the next Tiger Woods waiting there, but he's never given an opportunity to do anything."
Ward said he saw such racism in effect.
"I met a young soccer player. By word of mouth, he was a pretty good soccer player. But his teammates treated him like crap, called him 'nappy-haired boy.' Coaches tell him he'll never have a chance, don't want to play him because he's biracial. Well, maybe you guys would win if he played. That's just their views and ways. That's the negative side of our culture that my mother hid from me so much. She still had animosity toward it and didn't want me to know."
Instead of getting angry, though, Ward became energized to help. He hopes it will be a lifelong crusade for him in honor of his Korean mother, Young He Ward, that elicits real change in Korea.
"It was a tribute to her, that's what I made the trip to Korea about, using the MVP award as a tribute to opening up opportunities and giving her something. I need to do something to help those biracial kids out and provide them with a sense of hope."
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878. )
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