Hines Ward has Pro Football Hall of Fame credentials that keep him knocking on a door that won’t open to Canton. He just made the semifinalist list for the sixth consecutive year, starting with the first year in which he was eligible.
Yet Ward hasn’t been able to get over the hump and reach the final 15, and that’s an important breakthrough for any candidate. There are two ballots that whittle the original list of nominees — a vote to pare the names to 25 semifinalists and now another vote coming up to reduce those to 15.
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Once there are 15, the 48 selectors meet in one room and take much of the day to debate and vote for the next Hall of Fame class. This year, for the second time, that room will be on Zoom and not at a hotel at the Super Bowl site.
It’s important for someone like Ward to make that final 15 because it’s the only time we debate a candidacy among all the voters. It’s a free-wheeling discussion that can last a good amount of time with back-and-forth among the selectors. Before they reach that point, candidates are talked about with emails, etc., sent to the entire group but there is little back-and-forth and that can be vital.
I’ve been a selector for nearly 30 years, and I can attest to the fact that the discussions in that room can sway people’s votes one way or another and can be more powerful than a press release, stories, team-sponsored flyers or personal email pitches to voters. There was more to Ward than mere statistics, and those points are best driven home personally live before all the selectors.
Not that his statistics are not worthy, either. His 1,000 receptions rank 14th all-time, more than Hall of Famers Randy Moss, Andre Reed and Art Monk. His 12,083 yards receiving rank lower, 27th, because he became a possession receiver later in his career. His 85 touchdown catches rank 16th, tied with Hall of Famer Lance Alworth, just two behind Reed and 10 more than James Lofton, a Hall of Famer who played two more seasons than Ward.
Other factors in Ward’s favor: He is a Super Bowl MVP and played with run-of-the-mill quarterbacks his first six seasons until Ben Roethlisberger came along. He also played in a cold-weather city in a cold-weather division in which all teams played in outdoor stadiums. He played on a team that preferred to run instead of pass for the most part until Roethlisberger developed. He rarely missed a game since his rookie season in 1998 even though he was missing an ACL in one knee.
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Ward also may have been the best blocking wide receiver in modern football history, not a small deal as Jerome Bettis and other Steelers ballcarriers could and did attest. The NFL changed blocking rules for wide receivers because of Ward.
And, unlike many receivers who will go unnamed here, Ward was more team player than prima donna, a leader with two Super Bowl rings.
All that still hasn’t been enough to push Ward into the 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Alan Faneca picked his old buddy to present him at his induction ceremony at Canton in August to try to help his cause, the way Lynn Swann did for John Stallworth. Maybe that will be the extra push that gets Ward there, because it’s lonely out there when you keep making the list of semifinalists and do not advance.
While we’re on the topic of the Hall of Fame, what are the chances of other Steelers, recently retired or currently playing, to make it? Some would seem excellent, some Steelers fans might consider worthy, not as good. I say that after seeing how things have gone over the past 30 years or so. Let’s take a look:
L.C. Greenwood: His time has passed, I believe, even though he should have made it long ago. Joe Greene is the only one in the Hall from the most famous defensive line in football, the Steel Curtain. Greenwood’s last great chance was to make the Century Class, which chose Donnie Shell instead.
James Harrison: He has a shot, even if it’s somewhat an outside one. He was defensive player of the year in 2008 when he also authored the most spectacular play in Super Bowl history, that 100-yard interception return for a touchdown at the end of the first half that probably was a 14-point turnaround and saved the day for the Steelers vs. the Cardinals. You could make the case that Harrison was the best outside linebacker in football for three or four years. He was a late bloomer so his early years were somewhat lost, and his 84.5 career sacks don’t measure up to Hall of Fame standards, but he was as good as they come.
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Antonio Brown: Walking out on the Steelers will hurt him, as will his bizarre actions with the Raiders. His numbers are close to Ward’s, but at 33 he may not have much time to add to them.
Maurkice Pouncey: He has a chance, but here’s a cautionary tale: It took Dermontti Dawson seven years of eligibility before he made the Hall of Fame. Dawson made seven Pro Bowls and six All-Pros. Pouncey made an impressive nine Pro Bowls but just two All-Pro teams. Still, Dawson made it, and some day Pouncey could too.
Ben Roethlisberger: He’s in. Three Super Bowls, two wins and he’s among the career leaders in many stats. He never earned league MVP, but he should have been MVP of Super Bowl XLIII.
T.J. Watt: He was robbed of at least one NFL defensive player of the year award, but he’s well on his way to building a Hall of Fame résumé, not only through sacks but his forced fumbles and ability against the run. Fans saw once again Sunday night what life is like on defense without Watt.
Cam Heyward: As good a defensive end/tackle this side of Aaron Donald that there is in the NFL. A defensive player of the year award would go a long way to boosting his candidacy, which probably does not have enough awareness around the league because 3-4 defensive ends do not pile up enough stats.
Art Rooney Jr.: The contributor category would be perfect for him, but one of his scouts, Bill Nunn, rightfully went in this year as a contributor. Rooney ruled over some of the NFL’s greatest drafts, including its best in 1974 that put four drafted players plus undrafted Donnie Shell into the Hall of Fame. But with his father, brother and Nunn in Canton, it will be a steep climb for him.
We all know how long Mike Tomlin is under contract because the Steelers announced that it runs through 2024 when he signed a new deal last spring. What we don’t know for sure is how much he makes. I’ve seen estimates anywhere from $6 million to $8 million per year. Would it surprise you if it’s much more than that?
It’s more than a surprise, it’s stunning. The Steelers, never known to pay top dollar to any of their coaches, pay Tomlin a salary of $11.5 million annually, according toKurt Badenhausen of Sportico, a site that devotes itself to the business of sports.
That salary would tie Tomlin as the fifth highest-paid coach in all of American sports with the NBA’s Gregg Popovich, the only coach in the top five not from the NFL. The leader of the pack is Bill Belichick at $18 million, followed by Pete Carroll and Sean Payton at $14 million each, Andy Reid at $12 million and then Tomlin/Popovich.
I’m not sure how the author discovered all those salaries because, unlike player salaries, they are not reported anywhere and are usually a well-kept secret with the exception of the 10-year, $100 million salary for the now-deposed Jon Gruden of the Raiders. If true, it’s hard to argue that Tomlin doesn’t belong with the likes of Pete Carroll, Sean Payton and Andy Reid who, like him, each have one Super Bowl victory on their résumé and have coached a long time in the NFL.
We also will take a moment to clear up a misconception about the contract extension Tomlin received this year. It’s been reported as a three-year deal, which is correct. But many have wondered why the Steelers veered from their usual two-year two-year extensions for their coach.
This one really is a two-year extension because Tomlin had 2021 under contract and 2022 as a team option. As they often have done with their coach when he has two years left under contract, they added two more. The only difference is they turned the 2022 option into a hard contract year.
Something astonishing happened during Tomlin’s Tuesday press conference. The coach admitted he and his staff erred in how they tried to defend the Chargers on Sunday night.
It’s rare when Tomlin — or any coach for that matter — admits a mistake, but he indeed took responsibility for the loss because of schematics. Here was his unprompted statement:
“With the configuration of the people that we had available to us on defense, we probably should’ve done some things differently, more out of our personality, to be quite honest with you. Drawing inside the lines when you’ve got significant people missing at every level, we weren’t able to be as good as we desired to be and win those moments versus a well-balanced group like that. We weren’t good enough to keep the quarterback in the pocket with our four-man rush.
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“Under normal circ*mstances, our four-man rush probably is good enough to keep quarterbacks in the pocket. Buffalo, for example. It was not good enough in those circ*mstances with some of the people that we were missing … . We were less aggressive in maybe some of our blitz game. We felt like we needed seven people in coverage and so we didn’t get after him as much as we would like, some of those things. It was just one of those games that was something to learn from, particularly from a coach’s perspective. And we will.”
Facts ‘n that
• Roethlisberger will make regular-season start No. 241 Sunday in Cincinnati, breaking a tie with Philip Rivers for the fifth-most starts by a quarterback in NFL history.
• The Steelers’ 27 points in the fourth quarter Sunday were one shy of the most points they’ve ever scored in any quarter. They scored 28 points in a quarter five times in their history.
• Over the previous 30 seasons, the Steelers started at least four rookies in just five games. They’ve done so in six games this season.
• The Steelers are listed as 66-1 to win the Super Bowl after opening the season at 40-1.
Stick to football, Ed
• I prefer shoveling snow to raking leaves, coffee over tea, ham over turkey, and sun rising over sunsets.
• What a year: My high school football coach died this week, my teener baseball coach is not doing well, my high school folded, my college discontinued its journalism department, the newspaper where I worked 36 years prints just twice a week.
“Ch-ch-changes,just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time” — David Bowie
Tweetables
Steelers fans when Matt Canada doesn’t give the ball to Najee Harris at the 2 yard line pic.twitter.com/rm5jE7QAH4
— Ty ✌️ (@TyTroII) November 22, 2021
Down so many defensive stars, the Steelers did a remarkable job of storming back to take the lead – Ben sure looked like vintage Ben. Only one late defensive breakdown cost them from winning what sounded like a home game at Chargers. Moral victory.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) November 22, 2021
Hated this more than anything when we played! Even when we were winning! Man that hurts your spirit when you see all those towels at Paul Brown Stadium! Hope you get chicken pox for 4 hours if you sell your tickets to Steelers fans. #Whodey https://t.co/k1i5I6GqSH
— Willie Anderson (@BigWillie7179) November 23, 2021
I sent him a text bitching about Devin Bush during the game. He responds, “I wouldn’t know. I’m in the hospital.”
I fully expect Mark to make his presence felt in Cincinnati next week. https://t.co/eutbDY6VeR— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) November 23, 2021
Quotables
“Highly. Whatever unit’s on the field, I’m highly involved in and responsible for … I do more than suggest. Just to be clear. At times.” — Mike Tomlin, asked if he gets involved in the offense during games.
“That’s why you have hope, regardless of your record. There’s a few games left and I feel like the AFC is still kind of anybody’s game.” — Ben Roethlisberger on the wide-open AFC.
“Don’t tell me you’re playing 100 percent but when I cut the tape on it, you’re not.” — Former Steelers LB Arthur Moats (via 93.7 The Fan) on current Steelers LB Devin Bush.
(Photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
