PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The Steelers use more than traditional statistics such as yards, receptions and touchdowns to measure the play of their wide receivers. They keep track of different blocks as well as missed ones because of lack of effort - and those include water-bucket blocks and knockdown blocks.
Steelers receiver Hines ward has a reputation for delivering bone-crunching blocks to opponents.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
Water-bucket blocks are when a receiver pushes a defender all the way to the sideline. Knockdown blocks need no explanation. Nor is an answer required to the question of which wideout leads the Steelers in that category.
"Who else?" wide receiver Nate Washington said last week with a smile. "(No.) 86, definitely."
In a surprise along the lines of the sun rising every morning, Ward has the most knockdown blocks among the Steelers wideouts. They have become his signature, have made him a YouTube sensation and, it appears, the subject of a bounty.
They also make him the most polarizing Steeler, but he doesn't apologize for the aggressive blocking style that borders on viciousness.
He made that clear last week when he sent a text message to Chad Johnson asking the Bengals wide receiver to relay something to linebacker Keith Rivers, who is out for the rest of the season with a broken jaw. Ward did not apologize for the block he laid on Rivers last Sunday but said he was sorry about what had resulted from it.
The hit on Rivers, which the NFL ruled legal, provided another example of why Ward is frequently lauded for playing the game the way it is supposed to be played. Yet, it was violent enough that it also gave more ammunition to those that claim Ward crosses the line.
"People are going to call me dirty. People are going to call me clean," said Ward, a four-time Pro Bowler who holds most of the Steelers' major receiving records. "I don't worry about what other people say - only how my teammates feel."
The evolution of Ward as a blocker can be traced as far back as the 1998 NFL draft. The Steelers took him with the last pick in the third round - after forgettable wide receivers such as Brian Simmons, Brian Alford and Jammi German had been drafted - and Ward arrived at his first training camp with the mindset that he had to fight his way onto the team.
"Hines is not dirty," former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis recalled. "Hines was not the kind of guy in practice who beat up on his own teammates. He waited until game day, and you saw something totally different out of him."
A decade later, his teammates are still seeing that transformation.
"A lot of guys look to Hines to sometimes jumpstart this team," said Washington, who will start at the wide receiver spot opposite Ward today. "(But)Hines is going to show up every time. If he doesn't, it's one of those jaw-dropping 'Wows!' "
Ward's desire is not the only reason why he consistently delivers blocks that are literally jaw dropping.
At 6-feet and 205 pounds, he is more powerfully built than prototypical wide receivers such as the long and lean Plaxico Burress, who returns to Heinz Field today for the first time since he left the Steelers and signed with the Giants.
Combine that with the technique he has honed for more than a decade, and it's not hard to see why Ward is widely considered the best blocking wide receiver in the NFL.
"He always explodes from his hips," Steelers wide receivers coach Randy Fichtner said. "He sees what he hits, and the biggest part is he's not afraid to hit what he sees."
That trait has not endeared him to opponents, and Ward said last week that the Ravens have had a bounty on him for the past five or six years.
"It's unfortunate, the bad rap he gets," Steelers offensive tackle Willie Colon said. "We consider Hines one of us from the standpoint of he's not afraid to knock somebody out."
Scott Brown can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com or 412-481-5432.
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