If Hines Ward is not in the Hall of Fame by now, he doesn’t stand a great chance getting in. Retired for over a decade, the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver played in a transitional period. He experienced the shift from a more rushing league to a more passing league, and played in an offense more resistant to that change.
Accordingly, his numbers don’t quite live up to the greatest of his contemporaries, and voters don’t really care about intangibles. Most Steelers fans will proclaim Ward’s qualifications for the Hall of Fame until the cows come home, though. And so will his teammates, like CB Ike Taylor, who battled him in practices with regularity.
“Hines was a fan favorite. Pittsburgh Steelers legend. Shoutout to Hines [Ward], man; y’all takin’ too long to get my dawg in the Hall of Fame, too”, Taylor said on the Bleav in Steelers podcast. They were actually discussing the Batman movie in which he appeared, but Taylor had to give him his due. And he knows there are plenty of Steelers coming—or so he thinks.
“But I ain’t trippin’, Seven [Ben Roethlisberger] about to slide up in there”, he said about his former teammates making the Hall of Fame. “Hines [Ward] gonna be up in there. James Harrison gonna be up in there. Y’all takin’ y’all time with Joey Porter, too. Troy [Polamalu] already slid up in there”. He also mentioned Maurkice Pouncey, though he played on the other side of the ball with Roethlisberger.
A third-round draft pick in 1998, Hines Ward played his entire career with the Pittsburgh Steelers through the 2011 season. He recorded 1,000 career catches for 12,083 yards and 85 touchdowns. Like many, though, he made his money in the playoffs. In 16 postseason starts, He caught another 88 passes for 1,181 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Hines Ward won two Super Bowls with the Steelers in 2005 and 2008, appearing in a third in 2010. He was the MVP of Super Bowl XL in 2005, catching a touchdown pass from WR Antwaan Randle El. In all, he caught five passes for 123 yards that game, plus an 18-yard rush.
But the reality is that Ward only ranks 28th in all-time receiving yards, which doesn’t exactly sound like the Hall of Fame. He ranks 14th in receptions and tied for 19th in touchdowns. The numbers he put up are no longer transcendent in this era, and he will always face a logjam for wide receivers. His best chance may be as a Senior Committee candidate some time from now.
“The problem is they figure we got too many already up in there”, Ike Taylor said about a Steelers bias in the Hall-of-Fame voting, to which he attributes Ward’s absence, in part. “That’s what I tell people all the time. Y’all can’t get mad because the Pittsburgh Steelers know how to draft”.
