Pittsburgh’s Ward just as classy with tall receivers

By Robert Rousseau  |   Monday, May 19, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

Pittsburgh Steelers
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Remember what Ben Roethlisberger said back in January about his hope that the Pittsburgh Steelers would pick up a tall wide receiver in the offseason? Just in case you don’t, here's a refresher.

“I'm always going to ask for a tall receiver," Roethlisberger said. "That's just me. Our receivers are unbelievable, but our tallest guy might be Hines [Ward]? Or Santonio [Holmes]? Hines is going to say he's 6 foot, but he's 5-11. It's nice to have a bailout guy, you know when you're in trouble and you just kind of throw it up," he continued. "In the red zone its nice to have a guy like that. Obviously, we have a guy like Nate [Washington] who can jump out of this world. He can jump so high. It's nice to have that.”

If you know the story, then you realize that Roethlisberger’s comments didn’t sit well with Ward, who's been one of the NFL's premier wideouts for years.

"I don't buy into the hype you have to be tall. You throw the ball up and give somebody a chance to make a play, I'll make as many catches as anyone," countered Ward.

After that, the million-dollar question became: Just how well were Ward and the new tall receiver in town, 6-4 second-round pick Limas Sweed, going to get along?

Swimmingly, of course, and Pittsburgh fans would expect nothing less from the class act known as Hines Ward.

"Even though we drafted a guy, I'm not mad and there are no hard feelings,'' Ward said back on the first day of minicamp. "They felt like this guy could help us get to the next level and win a championship. Why would I be mad at that?"

The only reason? If your ego was bigger than your desire to win. And once again, this is Ward we’re talking about, so that isn’t the case.

Not only was Ward not sore about the whole thing, he actually spent a good portion of minicamp giving Sweed pointers. And apparently the pointers helped because the sixth-leading receiver in the history of the University of Texas history played well.

Still, with all of the chatter about Ward getting old and Sweed waiting in the wings, you’ve got to think that eventually the talk will take its toll on the former Super Bowl MVP, right?

Wrong.

"To this day, everybody is waiting for Hines Ward to fall off and I love that,'' Ward said early in camp. "That gives me motivation to go out and prove people wrong. It doesn't matter who we bring in, because I'm not going to change the way I play my game. I'm going to be Hines Ward, and No. 86 is going to continue to play the way he's always played.''

Spoken like a receiver who regularly puts his body on the line for his teammates by blocking like a lineman.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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