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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Ward routes all lead back home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Detroit — For the longest time, Hines Ward spent Tuesday at Ford Field doing the impossible. Somehow, he kept smiling even more easily and brilliantly than he normally does. Then again, while sitting high on a podium before his portion of the 2,500 media gathered along the sideline, he was having all of these flashbacks to his youth in Clayton County.
About those flashbacks: There was Ward, operating in living color as a make-believe Jerry Rice catching a bunch of passes during a make-believe Super Bowl. This was before he starred as a quarterback at Forest Park High School. This was before he prospered as everything at the University of Georgia. This was before he produced four trips to the Pro Bowl as a wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers. This was when he was a 12-year-old in search of emulating greatness.
Which brings us to the present, where Ward is a 29-year-old evolving into what he always wanted to become: Great. Let’s just say that the real Jerry Rice is retired, and Hines Ward is a Sunday away from operating as Hines Ward during a real Super Bowl. So, not a moment is passing these days when the glow from Ward’s always bright face isn’t threatening to blind the stars and the sun. He is smiling for himself, along with for others.
“Right now, I’m living my dream, just to get an opportunity this weekend to make history,” Ward said, glancing toward the horizon, presumably in search of the Georgia state line. “Coming from Forest Park, Ga., not only am I playing this game for my teammates, for Jerome [Bettis, the Steelers’ running back returning to his native city], for the coach [the Steelers’ Bill Cowher] and for the organization, but I’m representing Forest Park. I’m representing the schoolteachers. I’m representing all of my friends from high school.”
The voice sort of quavered, but Ward didn’t cry. Well, not this time. When a smile isn’t sliding along his face, a tear might be on the way. The world discovered that Ward can run pretty fast, but he also revealed he has trouble sprinting from his feelings when he cried forever before cameras last season when he thought the Steelers’ loss in the AFC championship game might be the last game ever for Bettis. “They’re so close that they should be brothers,” Steelers offensive guard Kendall Simmons said.
Then there was four years ago, when Ward was so worked up before a home playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens that he nearly lost his breakfast on the turf at Heinz Field.
Still, the first time that Ward discovered that he often has no control over his emotions was when he was so nervous for a game that he nearly “passed out.” No, not when he played for the Steelers, nor for the Bulldogs of Georgia or the Panthers of Forest Park. Try the Dolphins of Forest Park. Ward chuckled before saying, “That was back during my first game in the Pee Wee League.”
So much has happened to Ward since then, and most of it has been good. Even much of the bad has worked in favor of this son of an African-American father and Korean mother. His parents divorced soon after his mother arrived in the United States as part of a GI marriage. Since his mother didn’t speak English and lacked a job at the time, Ward was forced to live with his father and stepmother.
Not good, according to Ward. Just last week, he told Korean television that he eventually sneaked back as a second-grader to live with his mother, and that was good. He said he acquired her work ethic after he watched her take three jobs to support the two of them along his way to becoming the most prolific player in all-purpose yards at Georgia not named Herschel Walker.
Ward became a Bulldog favorite, and even now, when he leaves his home in Smyrna, he hears more than a few barks.
So why was Ward laughing? “No disrespect, but Atlanta is Michael Vick’s town,” Ward said. “Everybody cheers for him, but that’s where my roots came from. I still have a lot of ties with the Georgia Bulldog community. That’s home for me, but the city of Pittsburgh has been great for me, and I’m glad to try to do whatever I can on Sunday to bring the Super Bowl back to the city of Pittsburgh.” He still didn’t cry, but just wait.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
As far as I’m concerned, XL is Detroit’s first
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
OK, let’s get some geography straight here. The first Super Bowl “played in Detroit” actually wasn’t. It was played in Pontiac, and we’ll get around to more on that.
The Detroit Pistons actually live in Auburn Hills, and so does the NBA championship. Now, the Tigers and Red Wings have always belonged to Detroit, far as I know. But this business of blaming the 1982 Super Bowl on Detroit is not fair.
It was Pontiac! That’s 25 miles from Detroit. Darn few people who went to Super Bowl XVI ever got to Detroit, unless tunneling through on the way to Windsor, where they could do a lot of things they couldn’t do in Detroit. The Silverdome seemed to be a safe place to play a game, but the Pontiac weather was just right for an Iditarod. Nobody expected a blizzard.
It struck at the most inopportune time, when the crowd was trying to get there. I’d caught an early bus and was safely inside, but the first President Bush’s motorcade barely made it through.
Then, there was the matter of getting back to where you’d come from. The NFL took a calculated risk, a payback to General Motors, one of its biggest advertisers.
This time, it’s step No. 2 in the 21st century transfusion of old downtown, which was a pretty nice place. Baseball’s All-Star Game was first, and I’m just not sure it was that uplifting. Most of us were housed in Dearborn, as we were for Super Bowl XVI, and what we saw of downtown was out of bus windows, and it wasn’t pretty.
This is a Super Bowl I couldn’t miss. Bill Ford has built a nice game room downtown and put the family name on it, though I’m not sure Ford Motor Company can afford it.
There’s another item: My wife was born in Detroit, Woman’s Hospital, on this very same February date. That means I’m deeply indebted to this place. She won’t be there. Super Bowls aren’t one of her favorite events, especially at these prices.
She once made a deal: “If I don’t go, do I get the price of the ticket?” It was only $375 then; $700 deals I don’t make. She could have brought a friend in 1982. Tickets were only $40, and danged if the pleasure has increased by that much. I know of no sports event I’d pay $700 to see, though I might make allowances for the Black Sox World Series of 1919.
This will be my 39th of the 40 Super Bowls. (Actually, it wasn’t called “Super Bowl” until the second game, so I guess you could say I’ve been to all the Super Bowls.)
I was turned down for the first game, for our publisher didn’t think it was worth the cost of a trip to Los Angeles. Five writers have made them all, and much is made of their presence each year. But I can tell you this: Neither one of them picked the Jets to beat the Colts in No. 3. There were six of us, and our “feat” is enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. I’ll take that, but unfortunately, I didn’t bet it.
So I missed Media Day, when all the questions that will be asked the rest of the week are asked for the first time. In truth, I’ve never been to one, but I did watch portions of this one on ESPN. I learned little, if anything. Ye gods, they were even reproducing questions that had been asked when Jim Plunkett played. I feel sort of like Forrest Gump here, when he said, “That’s all I got to say about that.”
I will say this, that this is the perfect setting for the two teams that made it to No. XL. (First time I ever realized that “L” stood for 50.) Detroit is an industrial town, “Motor City” in fantasy, though more motors are being turned out in Japan. Pittsburgh is an industrial city, and I never saw another coach who looks as much like a shop foreman as jut-jawed Bill Cowher. And what other team has a player known as “The Bus” ?
Seattle, that’s where planes come from and where ships are built, so the two cities have much in common. Most of all, these are teams without kooks. Or, if they’re there, they haven’t shown themselves. But, of course, they still have until Sunday.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN
10: Steelers 23, Seahawks 20. Trust me. I’m scary good.
9: You know how I feel about facts. Overrated. But OK, here goes: Pittsburgh gets my edge at quarterback, pass rush and run defense. Other than having the best running back in the game (Shaun Alexander), I’m hard-pressed to find any obvious advantage for Seattle.
8: The teams are relatively even in turnovers. What it comes down to is this: 1) With the game on the line, it’s easier for me to see Ben Roethlisberger making a play than Matt Hasselbeck; 2) The Steelers have come through road games at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver. They are not the team to bet against.
7: And if I’m wrong, just remember. We don’t charge you for these blogs any more. You get what you pay for.
6: I am so over Anna Benson.
5: A Hawks note (Don’t leave. It’s just one.) Of their 12 wins, four have come against teams that had winning records entering Tuesday (San Antonio, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia), and three are against .500 teams (Indiana twice, New Orleans/Oklahoma). Their problem hasn’t been competing against teams (generally). Their problem is making sludge look like gold. They’re 0-6 against Toronto, Portland and Charlotte (which have a combined record of 42-92).
4: The NBA sent out a press release announcing the top selling jerseys in China, and Yao Ming finished third behind Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson. But I’m sure Ming is the man in South Philly.
3: I lied. I just Googled Anna again. I think she likes me.
2: I leave for Turin next week and will be out of touch with Hawks and Force news. I’m looking for an official correspondent to send me updates. Or hemlock. Seriously, here’s a chance for you, the blogger, to send me column ideas. Please hurry because if there’s one thing I hate doing, it’s thinking during work.
1: It’s letter-of-intent day Wednesday. Coincidentally, it’s also garbage pickup day in my neighborhood.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
