Wallace might benefit from taking a look at Ward’s lead
Someone — a colleague of mine — brought up Hines Ward in a column the other day, and it got me to whimpering and pining all over again. But only for a bit, because I have a point I want to get to.
Anyway, Ward was mentioned in reference to the latest tough guy to come along in the AFC. His name is LaRon Landry. You may remember him as the sixth pick of the 2007 draft.
Yes, overall.
Landry was supposed to become the next great thing, a killer out of the deep patrol. “He could become a regular in the Pro Bowl,” summarized draft expert Nolan Nawrocki of Pro Football Weekly.
But so far, no Pro Bowls. In five seasons with the Washington Redskins, Landry caused only 11 turnovers. He had some injuries and had largely become forgotten.
Until now. LaRon is supposed to be a monster on film for the New York Jets this year. The Jets apparently got a real steal in free agency this off-season, and apparently someone with the physical presence and want-to of a Hines Ward is needed to block this guy the way Hines did about 13 years ago to a guy named Victor Green.
Green was a former Jets safety who pleaded with Plaxico Burress to “tell your boy to chill out.” In receiving no such satisfaction from Burress, Green after the game turned to his wife, who went to Lethon Flowers’ wife, who told Lethon, who told the Steelers’ locker room, who got one gigantic chuckle out of it all.
But that’s when the stories about Hines scaring safeties all began, and here may be where it ends, because without Ward the Steelers are hoping that the guy who blocks the newest beast is … Emmanuel Sanders?
Sanders is a 180-pound wide receiver who has reportedly picked up Ward’s mantel and will intimidate the AFC’s toughest defensive backs for the next, oh, 13 years.
And so that does it for the whimpering portion of today’s program.
Really, I only started thinking about Hines because of what being a hero means to not only an organization, but to the person himself. And this is where the part about Mike Wallace begins.
Yep. This is a business story. But it’s a story about a hero spending his entire career in Pittsburgh and being able to cash his check or anything else in this town anytime he wants. Even today we’re pining for him to out-tough the other team’s tough guy.
Ward’s a legitimate hero in this town. He managed himself the right way and left with the ability to come and go and use his key to the city any time he pleases.
Wallace? Well, for $11 million per year instead of $9.5 million per year, he will be able to cash plenty of checks for a few years or so in Tampa. Or Phoenix. Or Seattle.
Not that it matters. What matters is that he will not become a hero if he leaves after this season. And that appears to be his path, but before he goes he has one last chance to take a look around, to talk to guys like Brandon Johnson and Jerricho Cotchery.
Johnson is a reserve linebacker who signed with the Steelers after he was cast off by the Bengals.
Yes, it was embarrassing but Johnson’s a classy guy, too classy to take any verbal swipes at his own team. So here’s what he had to say about his new team:
“It’s a group that really understands how to win, how to prepare, and how to go about things. From a simple practice to the preparation in the meeting room, I see a group that really understands how to get things done.”
Brandon Johnson had to go through hell before he went to heaven here in Pittsburgh. So did Cotchery.
He’s another classy guy, also too classy to take potshots at his old team, the New York Jets, as they prepared to play the Steelers on Sunday.
Oh, Cotchery said some things the Jets may not have liked, but they were truths, not potshots as he explained why he chose to stay in Pittsburgh instead of re-joining the Jets last April.
“Pittsburgh really wanted me back here,” he said. “It’s a place I wanted to come back to. I don’t think any team would’ve come between that at that time. It’s just a great atmosphere here. Once you’re a part of this atmosphere, it’s hard to go somewhere else. That’s just the type of atmosphere it is.”
The atmosphere is such that Cotchery’s really not even worried about gaining any personal satisfaction in beating the Jets.
“I’m not emotionally attached to playing these guys,” he said. “I’m not. I think my reason for feeling that way right now is the guys in this locker room. They welcomed me from Day 1 and they made me feel like I was a Steeler. They didn’t care how long I had been with anyone else, once you put on this jersey you’re a Steeler. They embraced me, so it was easy for me to transition.
“I’m a Steeler. I’m a Steeler,” he said with an almost disbelieving smile. “It’s like everything else doesn’t really have a huge effect on me.”
A little over the top? Well, if you had seen Cotchery last season — when Wallace overheard me asking Cotchery about a rumored trade back to the Jets, and how Wallace shouted out my question to Ben Roethlisberger, and how Roethlisberger corralled Ward and Wallace and the rest of the players on that side of the room, and how they circled Cotchery and begin chanting, “Jets suck! Jets suck! Jets suck!” — you might understand how Cotchery could feel so strongly about a team.
So take a look around, Mike. Talk to some people. Don’t turn your life into just another business story.