Hines Ward: Good For You!

Hines Ward is not pleased with Ben Roethlisberger. I don't blame him.

Relationships are very fragile things. With an overabundance of John Cusack movies, red roses, poetry and just the right amount of ether, anyone can get into a relationship. It's keeping that relationship together that's the hard part.

In case you're too lazy to click the link above, Ben Roethlisberger told the press that he'd like a taller receiver on the team to use as a bail-out option on scrambles.

"I'm always going to ask for a tall receiver," Roethlisberger said in an interview with the Post-Gazette. "That's just me. Our receivers are unbelievable, but our tallest guy might be Hines. Or Santonio [Holmes]. Hines is going to say he's 6 foot, but he's 5-11."

Naturally, this did not sit well with Mr. Ward.

"I don't hear Tom Brady or Peyton Manning asking for that," Ward said yesterday. "I don't know, whatever he says. I have no idea. To me, it's a rare combination of receivers out there who are good and tall. We won a Super Bowl, we didn't have a tall receiver then. I don't see Tom Brady caring about who's tall or not. He got Randy this year, but he did it before without him.''

This lovers' spat clearly shows us that the honeymoon is over for the "it" couple known as RoethlisWard.

Now this may look like a simple back-and-forth between frustrated teammates, but if you look at the subtext, it clearly shows a relationship on the rocks. I'll break it down for you:

What Was Said: Roethlisberger says that he wants a tall receiver for the red zone.
What Was Meant: Roethlisberger has tired of Ward's "lack of height" and wants a man with a little more "size" for his "red zones".

What Was Said: Manning and Brady did it without tall receivers.
What Was Meant: Ward is threatening to leave Roethlisberger for a more appreciative life-mate. After all, Manning would never throw his receivers under a bus. His offensive linemen? Sure. His kicker? Of course. But never his receivers.

What Was Said: "Our receivers are unbelievable, but our tallest guy might be Hines."
What Was Meant: "It's not you, it's me."

You know what? I'm proud of Hines Ward. After all, he stuck by his lover after a nasty motorcycle accident, giving him as many sponge baths as he needed while nursing him back to health. He stuck by Big Ben during his terrible 2006. And now that Ben's had his best individual season, now he's looking for a bigger, better receiver. What Ben fails to realize is that after Ward is gone, he may have a few one-season stands with bigger receivers such as David Terrell and Charlie Rogers, but he'll always long for the stability and workmanlike loving of Ward.

I am proud of Hines Ward for speaking his mind.*


*NOTE: I do not believe anything I just said. I think Hines Ward is a pansy. Roethlisberger went out of his way to make sure his wideouts knew that he was in no way slamming them, and that he'd just prefer a tall wide receiver, just as I'm sure every QB in the league would. But Ward took it as an opportunity to bitch and get his name in the papers. Did he go to his teammate directly and take care of the problem? Nope! He spoke through the media, the way a real coward prima donna does it. Hines Ward, I used to respect you. Now you can just go suck yourself.