Wow, Hines Ward called out Roethlisberger before the game last night

[grunt]

Hines is a wr. This isn't the first time Hines and Ben had a stiff in the media. Big Ben wanted a big wr to replace Plax and Hines didn't appreciate the comment. You can play together without liking each other.

The sad part of the story is how so many players lie to get back on the field even if their brains become mush.

[MARTZball]

I didn't know Hines Ward had a PhD. The decision to not play him was the right one.

[steelcurtain311]

I can understand calling a guy out for motivational purposes, but in a case like this, calling out a guy who has played with injuries that would sideline any QB in the league plenty of times, is just silly. Ben is the definition of toughness. He's actually cost his team games because he refuses to sit, and goes out there playing hurt.

It's probably just Hines continuing his "chip on the shoulder" mentality. There always has to be something with him.

[metallicatz]

Quote: Originally Posted by grunt

Hines is a wr. This isn't the first time Hines and Ben had a stiff in the media. Big Ben wanted a big wr to replace Plax and Hines didn't appreciate the comment. You can play together without liking each other. The sad part of the story is how so many players lie to get back on the field even if their brains become mush.

Bingo.

And Tripwire, that's pretty far from a "fact". The Steelers won Super Bowl XL in spite of Ben, not because of him. Who was MVP of that game? That's right....Hines Ward. In fact, Antwaan Randle El threw more TD passes in that game than Ben did. Without many of Hines Ward's plays from 05 to 08 we don't even get to those Super Bowls. Somebody has to catch those balls that Ben throws. And then somebody has to do something with it once they catch it (YAC).........which Ward has consistently done.

[tyler289]

Hines Ward's official FB page just had the following updates:

Quote:

To my Steeler nation and my fb and twitter fans; I just finished an extensive conversation with Ben. We spoke about the interview in which I made the #1 mistake in doing a interview, I did it based off of emotions. It's interesting how people interpreted my interview. Some say I threw Ben under the bus, some say I was just making a general statement about about concussions.

Quote:

I would never question a man's toughness playing in a STEELER unif. I didn't mean to cause such a stir. My frustration was based on the fact that this was a big game for us to stay in the playoff picture and having Ben out there gave us our best opp to win in Balt. I was frustrated because there was no indication of Ben not being able to play because he practiced a normal routine this week (wed, thurs and fri).

Quote:

Some of the guys didn't find out he wasn't playing until saturday and getting that news on the day before the big game didn't go to well. Now as a veteran guy on the team you can see how upset that made a lot of us considering we were going down into the lions den in Baltimore without our fearless leader.

Quote:

In the locker room some questions came about playing with a concussion, that is where my 50/50 comment came from based on players opinions. Some say they've played after having a concussion and some say you don't wanna mess with that. half of the guys on the team have had concussions at least once in their careers. But in football it's a tough decision on whether one should play or not play.

Quote:

I know Ben wanted to play this game but the docs told him he's down, and with that we trust our docs with their decisions. We would never jeopardize anyone's health for a game of football. Life is way to precious. One thing about Ben, he is a WINNER. We just wanted this game so badly.

Quote:

So the moral of this story is not to do an interview based off of emotions and I made that mistake and I have apologized to Ben for that. Ben and I are cool and always will be. We will not let this come between us, our talk was very productive.

Quote:

I wanted to set the record straight with my fans first because the media will not get comments about this situation from me, it's resolved and we are focusing on Oakland and getting back on the right track. Hats off to Dennis! He played his heart out. He won over a lot of guys on our team. He is gonna be a star! 86

[CW McGraw]

Quote: Originally Posted by metallicatz

Bingo. And Tripwire, that's pretty far from a "fact". The Steelers won Super Bowl XL in spite of Ben, not because of him. Who was MVP of that game? That's right....Hines Ward. In fact, Antwaan Randle El threw more TD passes in that game than Ben did. Without many of Hines Ward's plays from 05 to 08 we don't even get to those Super Bowls. Somebody has to catch those balls that Ben throws. And then somebody has to do something with it once they catch it (YAC).........which Ward has consistently done.

How many Super Bowls did Ward even get to before Ben? Ben didn't play great in that particular SB game, but he had a lot to do with why they even got there in the first place. There's a reason the Steelers weren't winning championships for the decade before Ben. They had the defense and running game, but Tommy Maddox, Kordell Stewart, and Neil O'Donnell weren't good enough.

[metallicatz]

That doesn't diminish anything Ward has done. As I said, and there really is no valid argument to the contrary, without numerous game-saving plays by Ward they don't even reach those title games (much less win them). As with all things between a QB and a reciever, it's a symbiotic relationship. Niether does jack without the other. There's a reason Ward is the all time Steelers receiving leader in multiple categories and is still in this league and that reason is because he's damn good at what he does.

[wwharton]

Quote: Originally Posted by metallicatz

That doesn't diminish anything Ward has done. As I said, and there really is no valid argument to the contrary, without numerous game-saving plays by Ward they don't even reach those title games (much less win them). As with all things between a QB and a reciever, it's a symbiotic relationship. Niether does jack without the other. There's a reason Ward is the all time Steelers receiving leader in multiple categories and is still in this league and that reason is because he's damn good at what he does.

The bolded part is all anybody's saying. If Ben said something similar about Ward he'd get the same reaction bc he needs Ward. The fact is Ward said them about Ben... and he was dead wrong for doing it.