Immediately after the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Wild Card game in Denver, the speculation ran rampant that Ward would likely retire and had played his last NFL game. A CBS Sports report earlier today claimed that a teammate of Ward\’s said the expectations around the team was that Ward would soon announce his retirement.
Ward announced later today on his Facebook page that he has no plans on retiring right now and that he wants to win another Superbowl. He also said that he does not know where the media is getting their info from, but that rest assured that when he does decide to retire, we will hear it from him first.
Ward is scheduled to count $4.61 million against the Steelers 2012 salary cap and he is signed through the 2013 season. He mentioned prior to the start of the 2011 season that he wanted to play two more years or until his wheels fell off. It sounds like he his still happy with his wheels and intends on playing at least one more season. The question now becomes will he play for the Steelers and at what price tag if he does?
Head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about Ward on Monday during his season ending press conference and if it was his final game as a Steeler and Tomlin replied, “I don\’t know what I can say about Hines what hasn\’t already been said. We love Hines.”
We shall see who loves who more over the next few months, but at least we know Ward does not have any thoughts of retiring just yet.
