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NFL Players Think Hines Ward Is Dirty; Teammates Say No Way

New Sports Illustrated Poll Ranks Steelers' Wide Receiver No. 1

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ThePittsburghChannel.Com
updated 11:48 a.m. ET Nov. 5, 2009

PITTSBURGH - THE PITTSBURGH CHANNEL.com

Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward was voted the dirtiest player in the National Football League, according to a Sports Illustrated poll of players throughout the NFL.

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Ward got 11.6 percent of the players' vote, followed by his ex-teammate, Miami's Joey Porter, who was tied with Washington's Albert Haynesworth for second place at 6 percent. (

See The Complete "Dirty Player" Rankings

)

"I beat Joey? Wow, that's definitely a big honor to beat Joey Porter," Ward said, laughing as he talked with reporters after the Steelers' Wednesday afternoon practice.

Former New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, who's now a pregame analyst for NBC, was named the dirtiest player in a previous SI poll about this topic.

"That's something I can take from him and tell him I'm number one," Ward said, adding that he won't change the way he plays just because of the magazine's poll.

Several teammates came to Ward's defense on Wednesday, including safety Ryan Clark, who said the voters probably got smacked around a bit and every team would love to have Ward because he plays hard.

"You don't hear about Hines eye-gouging guys or grabbing guys in obscene places under the pile," Clark said. "The things that he does, he does in between the whistles and he does it in the way football's supposed to be played."

"You could look at it as being the nastiest player, or just being the toughest player, you know? Because I think he's probably one of the toughest players I've ever seen play the game," teammate Max Starks said.

Ward -- a member of

the Pittsburgh Steelers' All-Time Team

and the franchise's career leader

in receiving touchdowns and yardage

-- has been fined by the NFL several times for hits on defenders that were deemed to be excessive. He wasn't penalized by game referees in the majority of those cases.

NFL executive vice president Ray Anderson traveled to Pittsburgh in October 2008 and met with Ward and teammates Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger and James Farrior and Coach Mike Tomlin to explain why the fines were being levied.

"How can you fine players because a ref may miss a call?" Ward said at the time. "You can't go back and then say, 'OK, yeah, I think that's a fine.' Well, give me an apology. Don't take $15,000 out my pocket, because you're not fining the referees for calls that they may miss in a game. All you do is give me an apology letter saying, 'This was an incorrect call, I'm sorry', and then move on."

Before the 2009 season, the NFL wrote a new rule which assesses a 15-yard penalty if a player delivers a blind-side block to the head of a defender using his helmet, forearm or shoulder. The league also expanded its existing rules and banned all hits -- not just helmet-to-helmet contact -- to the head of defenseless receivers.

The changes -- commonly known as the "Hines Ward rule" -- were spurred by several Ward hits, including

one that broke the jaw of Cincinnati's Keith Rivers

last year. All of those hits were legal at the time.

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