Guest Blog - Hines Ward, A Second Look

This is a first for this blog.  A guest blogger!  Please welcome Steve Folmar to the fold.  He operates a blog dedicated to politics and some sports.  He is the former head coach of the Erie RiverRats indoor football team, and an all around cool cat. 

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First of all I want to think Dom Errico for giving me this great opportunity to cross over and hopefully, the first of many opportunities, to share my blogs with the “The Voice Says…”

This is a sad day in Pittsburgh, akin to when the great Casey struck out. Hines Ward has been released by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The four-time All-Pro, All-Time Steeler Leader in receptions (1000), receiving yards (12,083), and receiving touchdowns (85), is the victim of an opponent none of us gets to beat forever, time. His diminished skills over the past season, along with the emergence of a young receiver corps that is quickly proving itself to be among the league’s most talented has left no room at the inn for the hall-of-famer. Sad, but no one can stay in their prime forever.

I guess what I find sad is all the negative responses to the Pittsburgh Steeler organization for the way he has been treated. I think this has been about as good as it can get for both sides. You look at the Montana’s, the Rice’s, even the Emmitt Smith’s. C’mon folks, have you all forgotten Franco Harris’ stint with the Seahawks already?  Is there a better way that this can go? No, I don’t think so. 

The Steelers are doing everything they can to hold onto Mike Wallace, probably the present and future for the Steelers. No team can hold on long to the past, something you are going to see proven again soon with Peyton Manning. It is arguable if Hines is even the 4^th best receiver on the team, a position that usually is kept for a special-teamer as well. This is a business decision pure and simple. 

I see a lot of people complaining about what life will be like without Hines. But I also no darn well that if the resigned him, the first time the Steelers got behind or have a special teams gaff, the excuse “well, we had to keep Hines in so we are short a guy” isn’t gonna cut it. Many don’t remember the sad parting of Terry Bradshaw, when he was boo’d off the field in the early 80’s. This from a guy who had won 4 Super Bowls for the team just a few years before. It was actually a decade or more before he would even return to Pittsburgh. Now he is as close to a Saint as you can probably become in Pittsburgh, deservedly so for what he did over his career.

Lastly, there was a lot of opinions concerning what the Steeler organization “let slip”. I don’t know if I believe that. In this day and age our media will do ANYTHING to outscoop the next guy. I believe that some clown though he was gonna get his name on the tagline about being able to “hear it here first” for something that anyone with a good balance of sentimentality and football sense already knew was inevitable. Don’t expect the truth until it comes from the horses mouth. And even then, consider the horse. And let’s be honest, the Steelers have made Hines a very rich man for his services.

This is what I believe happens. Hines goes on to play two more years with a team as a locker room leader and maybe 3^rd to 4^th wide receiver. Something he has certainly earned the right to do. He then signs a one day contract so that he can retire a Steeler, be given the hero’s welcome he deserves, takes an in-house position with the Steeler organization (if he so chooses) or on to television and goes in the Hall of Fame on the 2^nd ballot in a Steelers uniform. (“2nd ballot you say?!” Yes, there are a lot of people out there that love hating on the Steeler’s success, and Jerome Bettis didn’t get in on the first ballot and at one time he was the 3^rd leading rusher in NFL history!)

I will keep my memories of Hines Ward as the greatest Steeler receiver of all time, team leader, and Dancing with the Stars Champion (though I must admit I didn’t really watch that much.) But I also understand it’s a business, and I don’t blame either side, the Steelers from wanting to place Ward’s salary on a little more talent, or Hines for wanting to play a few more years. Retirement is all too often (unless you are Brett Farve), final. Thanks for the memories Hines and good luck in the future! (Just not against the Steelers….)