As a Bengals fan, I hated the Rivers hit because it ended his season, but even I had to admit that one wasn’t really all that bad. Rivers was active in pursuit of the ballcarrier, and Ward nailed him. There are far more egregious examples than that one. That Holly hit has to be one of the worst I’ve seen. There was absolutely no reason for it.
From this week’s Monday Morning Quarterback:
It was a blindside block that took a year away from a player. There is a reason that the NFL changed their rules after the hit and made it a blindside block if it comes from the blocker’s helmet, forearm or shoulder and lands to the head or neck area of the defender illegal.
And here was Hines’ response to the change:
“I’ll still hit him,” Ward said Wednesday in Pittsburgh. “I’ll just get fined. There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s either that or try to hurt somebody. So are you going to fine me, or do you want me to end someone’s career? I’d rather take a fine than try to end somebody’s career, so I’m not going to change.”
To Hines, he only has two choices, break the rule and blindside a player with a shot to the head or neck or to go for the knees. God knows he can’t possibly just block the guy without hitting him illegally.
For the poll, Ward is a dirty player. A fan of the Steelers, a complete non fan of many Steeler fans.
Sorry about the player’s jaw, but he pretty clearly took Rivers in the left arm/shoulder and chest, not the helmet. It looks to be “whiplash” that probably broke his jaw. That’s throwing a clean, hard block. His coaches love it.
I’m surprised the hit resulted in a broken jaw really. I’ve seen that clip a lot lately and it seems to just have been some bad luck for Rivers whether he was expecting the hit or not.
Wow, I had not heard that one before. A “whiplash” broken jaw. Not from Ward’s helmet going into the guys neck and head, but from whiplash. Interesting theory. Not one I ascribe to, of course, but interesting theory.
He put his right shoulder on River’s left shoulder, and put his helmet right under his chin/facemask, breaking his jaw. It wasn’t illegal when he did it, but they changed the rule to make it illegal, and he says he’d still do it. I can’t find any way that doesn’t indicate that he’s not dirty.
You don’t like to let reality intrude on your rants do you? The Holley hit was clearly late but Rivers was chasing down a ball carrier and Hines Ward blocked him, simple; a ~200 lb wide receiver decleated a linebacker. Similar blocks occur all the time on special teams. It’s Hines Ward’s fault that Rivers wasn’t prepared for it? Bullshit. Rivers made a rookie mistake and it cost him his season. Some people were calling Ray Lewis dirty last year too when they said they were going to knock Rashard Mendenhall out of the lineup and then broke his shoulder but it was a clean hit too. Mendenhall had to learn to protect himself against NFL linebackers and Rivers had to learn to keep his head on a swivel (I know that expression is overused but it’s accurate too). I’d like to find the replay from the next meeting when someone tried to throw a crackback block on James Harrison and got put down. Veteran LBs have that awareness, the ones who don’t learn find new jobs. To accuse him of a blind-side hit on a play like that is like accusing a DE of being dirty when sacking a QB from the blind side. On certain plays you have to be ready to be hit. Maybe they could put one of those deer whistles on Ward’s helmet so opposing players can hear him coming. Would that make you happy?
Is it too much to ask for you to actually read what I type, or is that yet another Steeler fan attribute. I said nothing about the hit being late, or that Ward didn’t block him. He did. He blocked him with his shoulder and helmet that went into River’s shoulder and head, and Rivers ended up with a broken jaw (note: not “whiplash” jaw).
Who the fuck are you arguing against anyway, the voices in your head? Once again, I never said that it was Ward’s fault that Rivers wasn’t prepared for it. Do try to pay attention.
And Ward stuck his shoulder and helmet into River’s shoulder/neck/ and head. As I’ve said, it wasn’t illegal at the time, but you ignore the fact that, because of the hit, the rule was changed. And Ward insists that, even with the change, he’d do it again. Because, apparently, it doesn’t occur to Ward that he can block without leading with this shoulder/helmet into the neck and head of an opposing player.
No, the voices in my head think you’re wrong too.
It wasn’t even his helmet that made the primary hit! It wasn’t dirty. He wasn’t leading with the head. He laid a clean, massive block. Good for him.
I don’t have a problem with the Keith Rivers hit. It was obviously necesary/useful, and it was just a fluke that the guy got injured from it. In general, there seems to be an assumption that injury-creating hits are dirty and ones where the guy gets right up after aren’t, but that’s just results-oriented thinking.
Most of Ward’s “big hits” are either clean or… not outright dirty. He leads with his helmet too much and goes for the opponent helmet too much, but generally that isn’t the sort of thing I’m talking about.
Problem is that I can’t find much video evidence of what I’m referring to because the NFL takes down most youtube videos, and they tend not to mention/show the actual dirty hits on their highlight videos. I did google “Hines Ward Dirty Player” and saw several blogs referring to youtube videos that claim to show his dirty hits… but they were taken down by the NFL.
When I say Ward is dirty, I’m not referring to the Rivers hit and stuff like that. I’m referring to mostly when he’s on the other side of the field from where the play is, and both he and the defender are doing the half-ass jog thing that players who aren’t at all involved in the play do, when suddenly he sprints up and spears the defender who has no reason to protect himself, sometimes after the play is over. This happens a lot with him and it doesn’t generally result in injuries, which means it usually doesn’t warrant discussion or make replay/highlight material. But if you watch closely it happens all the time. He’ll wait till a defender isn’t guarding himself, because they’re both away from the play and/or because he goes for the hit after the play is over. The Holly hit is more in line with what I’m talking about.
He led with his right shoulder and helmet. The right shoulder hit Rivers’ left shoulder. Fine block. But at the same time, his helmet cracks River’s right in the chin, breaking his jaw. Not so fine. Hence, the rule change.
I’m no fan of football. In fact I think it is the most boring, unskilled major professional sport and has only survived as a means for aging meat heads to think that they too were once tough enough to lace’em up and speak of war as if they’ve been in one.
That said, I’ve seen some clips of your boy. By any measure of competition and sportsmanship he’s dirty. Full speed hits on a guy jogging towards an out of bounds play are not hard nosed. Nor are hits on opponents nowhere near the ball. They’re pathetic attempts at intimidation and bodily injury that have no place in sports.
You think your boy is a real man? Get him to roll up his skirt, shove in a tampon and head out to play something like rugby. Let’s see how hard he hits unsuspecting competitors then.
Rugby players would die en masse in football.
I doubt it. Though what’s quite obvious to even a casual observer of both sports is that the average NFL player would be down on the ground clutching his chest after 30 seconds of live, continuous action in a rugby game.
But all of this is inconsequential to the point I made. If the wuss Hiney Ward had to make those hits on unsuspecting players while wearing nothing but a jersey, they wouldn’t have been made. In the plays I saw he hid behind his protective armor for the sole purpose of inflicting harm on his opponents. He is a dirty player.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. NFL players are conditioned better, they’re bigger, and they’re faster than rugby players. Assuming you could neutralize any advantage that would be gained from experience, it would be an absolute and complete slaughter.
As a former rugby player and avid football fan I think the typical NFL player would suffer from lack of conditioning in a rugby game mainly because they are conditioned for burst type activity rather than the more sustained activity on the rugby pitch. They would adapt though. There are quite a few NFL players who have played rugby though. What I disagree more with is the implication that dirty play wouldn’t be tolerated in rugby. I played forward; the stuff that goes on in the scrum is worse than anything I’ve seen in football. Comparing who’s tougher is comparing apples to apples. Both sports require a lot of toughness regardless of the difference in equipment.
They’d be crushed like insects on a windshield.
Conditioned better? They play a game in which there are stoppages every 10 seconds. You must be high.
No, you don’t now what you’re talking about either. Conditioning isn’t about what happens on the field, it’s about what one does on a regular basis. On top of that, stoppages have nothing to do with how difficult the exercise is. If you disagree, you’ve obviously never known the difference between running wind sprints and running continuously for distance.
I played lacrosse, and we ran more than rugby players do. Even so, I wouldn’t want any part of someone who has a full-time strength and conditioning coach regulating their every workout and dietary need.