DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
http://www.nydailynews.com/
Friday, January 30th 2009, 2:24 AM
Ben Roethlisberger and Hines Ward celebrate their 23-14 win against the Baltimore Ravens during the AFC Championship game on January 18, 2009 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.(Getty Images) TAMPA - Toughness is so inbred in the Steelers that when the Cardinals organization wanted to break its culture of losing, it tried to tap into Pittsburgh's success by hiring Ken Whisenhunt.
The Cardinals feel they finally turned that corner this year, but the Steelers won't let you into their locker room if you even blink. If Super Bowl XLIII is going to separate the men from the boys, the Steelers feel they patented the mold decades ago.
"You don't last if you're not tough here," running back Willie Parker said. "It's a blue-collar city and the whole culture is being tough. When a rookie or somebody new comes in, you can tell if somebody fits right away, especially once we start hitting."
"Everybody on our team has a physical nature. There's nobody on this team who will back down from a fight," said big-hitting safety Ryan Clark. "Whether it's taking on blocks, making tackles, nobody shies away. We have a receiver who will break your jaw, we have a quarterback who for the sake of making a play will try to break four or five tackles. We've got a middle linebacker who needs to wear a neck brace from hitting so much. It just resonates throughout our building that we are a physically and mentally tough group. That's what set us apart this year."
That is why Ben Roethlisberger played through a shoulder injury for the first part of the year and why Hines Ward will suit up after injuring his knee in the AFC Championship Game.
"We're sacrificing," said receiver Santonio Holmes. "We're a group of guys that's willing to put everything on the line for each other. You probably don't get too many teams that want to do that. Myself, I've been hurt all season. I've had nicks and bruises, I've had shoulder and ankle injuries and I still wanted to play. I've seen Hines bandaged up for four weeks straight with a pulled quad muscle still going out there and trying to make as many plays as possible. That just shows the dedication and the heart and the soul we have for this team."
Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, for instance, says he has a Plan B in place for Ward but thinks Plan A will be just fine.
"I look to last year when we had Jacksonville in the playoff and his knee was a lot worse," he explained. "He only caught 11 balls for about 150 yards. Hines is a money player. He doesn't miss the money games."
Actually, as Parker said, it's "weird" that Ward is the only real injury concern. At one point, the Steelers seemed to be losing a running back a week (Parker missed five games with a knee injury) while Roethlisberger was just trying to get by.
"It's amazing, what they've been through all season and now all of a sudden you see Ben throwing 60 yards in practice where he couldn't throw 40 for six to eight weeks and Willie flying around looking like Willie in training camp," Arians said.
He also said you "can't measure" Roethlisberger's toughness.
"Twice this year we lined up in the hotel on Sunday and he was trying to throw a football to see if he could play," Arians revealed. "And he threw for 300 yards. He took us from behind and won a game when four hours before the game he could barely get his shoulder back.
"That's the thing people don't know about him. I get upset with the national media when they use the word drama. This guy is a warrior. To play that position and to take the hits he takes, you're going to get beat up. The shot he took in the back against Baltimore didn't look like much but it stunned him pretty good. He was in the tunnel and he thought he'd broken a rib."
"That toughness is just within us," Parker said. "We thrive off it."
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