Eh, this comes up every season, usually more than once. Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward lays somebody out, and in the week that follows, all we hear is that he's a dirty player. Ward spent Friday defending the fact that he takes blocking seriously, even if unsuspecting defenders don't appreciate it.
"I'm not a dirty player," Ward said Friday in a telephone interview. "If I was trying to hurt somebody, I'd go low and try to take their knees out. It's a violent enough game as it is. I don't go out and try to intentionally hurt people."Ward was fined $5,000 for this Week 1 hit on the Davin Holly that left the Browns' cornerback with a concussion. Holly told the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot that he would try to light Ward up during today's get-together. Ward finds it all kinda funny:
"When you've got a guy talking about getting me back, he's got to understand that he's calling me out, too," Ward said. "If I had wanted to hurt Daven Holly, believe me, I could have. It's comical to me that these guys are all of a sudden worried about little old me."Most recently, Ravens linebacker Bart Scott threatened to kill Ward after the YouTubes above happened, but Ward's heard it all before. Plus, it's not like Ward never takes a hit. The 49ers Patrick Willis put him on the shelf for three weeks with this. You see, because it's called football.
Previously at FanHouse
Hines Ward Ain't Afraid to Hit You in the Mouth
