Getty Hines Ward reacts after scoring a touchdown.
Few rivalries are as unforgettable as the Pittsburgh Steelers–Baltimore Ravens rivalry of the early aughts. Week-long trash-talking was followed by fierce “all 60-minute” battles where players came away more bloodied and bruised than your usual Sunday.
For two decades, the evenly matched teams fought tooth and nail, often until the final week, for the AFC Central/North crown. Brian Billick was Baltimore’s Super Bowl-winning head coach for 19 of those games over nine years (1999-2007).
One of the most hated yet most respected Steelers of that era was wide receiver Hines Ward. He’d bust your jaw with a smile on his face. Billick remembers the Steelers legend fondly.
“I told people all the time, Hines Ward was the most loathsome. I hated Hines Ward, but I’d given my left arm to have a team full of him,” Billick said on 93.7 The Fan’s PM Team. “I keep coming back to physicality — Hines Ward brought a physicality. He brought a physicality to the receiving position. A competitiveness that says, No, no, no, I’m in the middle of this. I’m not just downfield catching balls and all that. I’m gonna be in the middle of whatever we’re doing. Phenomenal player that way. Totally unique in bringing that perspective to it. Phenomenal athlete, he was just gonna find a way.”
Billick spoke to the often brutal matchups between the two storied franchises. One word he used repeatedly was physical — 17 times in fact — because that was the nature of the rivalry.
Though Baltimore was regarded as an expansion team, it was truly the former Cleveland Browns. In an unprecedented move, the NFL allowed owner Art Modell to transfer Cleveland’s existing football organization to Baltimore. And along came with it, the rivalry.
The beating the Steelers and Ravens put on each other would literally change the way the teams prepared for and recovered from those games.
“The physical aspect of the game that you knew you were, you were gonna be in for a long, long day,” Billick said. “And more importantly, anytime you played Pittsburgh, you always had to recognize, Okay, what are we gonna do next week to rehab? You changed your practice schedule when the Ravens and Steelers played. You certainly didn’t want to beat each other up during the course of the week getting ready for the game.”
Brian Billick: ‘[Hines Ward] is a Slam-Dunk Hall of Famer’
Hines Ward changed the way the game was played. He was more than just a receiver. Yet he remains without a gold jacket.
A semifinalist for seven consecutive years, Ward (and teammate James Harrison) was most recently denied Hall of Fame entry once again.
“It’s because of the numbers, unfortunately,” said Billick. “To me, he’s a slam dunk Hall of Famer. When someone goes into the Hall of Fame, I want to know what did they bring to the game? Did they change the game? Did the game change because of them, like a John Lynch, the game changed, and the way safeties played because of John Lynch.”
“In my mind, Hines Ward changed the game, changed the mentality. I think he belongs in the Hall of Fame.”