Two-time Super Bowl champion and CNN Sport contributor Hines Ward shares his Week 11 takeaways with CNN’s Perry Kostidakis.
Playing on Thanksgiving Day, you’ve plenty of reasons to be thankful. Everyone at home is watching with their family and friends and, as a player, it’s awesome. It’s kind of like all eyes on you.
My Thanksgiving match-up against Detroit in 1998 is one that stands out in my mind.
What it’s most famous for is Jerome Bettis on the coin toss. He got caught up in the moment and when the coin was in the air, he called “hea…tails.” The ref ended up giving it to the other team, thinking Jerome said heads when the coin landed on tails.
He tried to argue it, but on the sideline everybody was laughing like, “C’mon Jerome, you know you can’t do that.”
They actually changed the rule because of that, now you have to make the call before they throw it in the air.
We ended up losing the game but it was still a great experience. Jerome’s from Detroit, so he and his mother invited us over and man, we threw down some food!
We couldn’t really go hard like we wanted because, of course, we were playing the next day but it was still a really special moment.
Even though we weren’t with our actual families, we still got the feeling of being part of one. It definitely made us a closer team, and it gave us a greater appreciation for Jerome and his family.
You mentioned that playing on Thanksgiving is awesome for players, but most people would think the opposite. That’s pretty interesting?
Well yeah, you’re away from your family. But sometimes, like in my case, you play so early that you can make it back in time and still eat with them. You also get that opportunity for brotherhood with your teammates, like with Jerome, where we could have been cold in a hotel room but instead his mother opened up her door to us like we were her kids.
So, switching lanes. The Steelers had a great game this week, where Ben Roethlisberger probably had his most important rushing touchdown since Super Bowl XL. All the talk of Pittsburgh’s demise early in the season now maybe seems a little premature. What’s their outlook moving forward?
What I’ve seen this year is Ben putting the team on his shoulders and carrying them. Early in the year, all that talk about Le’Veon Bell was a distraction. Now, it’s a matter of focusing on the players who are there.
Now, watching them play and putting together a streak of wins, that’s what what you expect out of the Steelers. I played with Ben Roethlisberger and I know, I don’t care what the score is, it’s hard to count that team out when he’s on the field. He’s gonna do what it takes to get a W, and we saw that against Jacksonville.
They’ve still got a few tough match ups in late December, facing off against the Patriots and Saints, but that’s when you already need to be playing playoff football.
That’s when you need to be able to compete with teams that you might be seeing in the postseason, and that’s the benefit of having these tough games at the end. You want to be able to see where you are, you want to be at your best.
Washington has been looking pretty good, but quarterback Alex Smith just suffered a pretty gruesome injury. We saw a team from the NFC East recover from losing their quarterback last season, but how likely is it that it can happen again?
It’s hard, especially when your leader goes down. Emotionally, as a team, it takes the air out of you, especially when you’re playing pretty good football. They’re in the lead of their division, but with the Cowboys coming together pretty strong, Washington’s looking over their shoulders, especially with a huge match up between the two teams coming up on Thanksgiving.
Washington’s got to find a way to come together, re-group, and step up their play. But Adrian Peterson man, he’s been playing lights out and having a phenomenal year after people thought he was done.
I’m ready for this game against Dallas to be a running contest; AP vs. Ezekiel Elliott. I’m excited about that.
