"Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward's afternoon in Week 17 included hauling in his 1,000th career reception, and it appears he may elect to sit on that number as a good total for his career. According to what a Steelers teammate told Mike Freeman of CBS Sports, the feeling in the locker room is that Ward will soon announce his retirement (ESPN)."
It makes sense he lost his starting job and really wasn't much of a factor as the season went on. Ward has had a great career, but when you are forced this far down the depth chart and n his past 10 games he's been held to one or no catches six times you know it's time to call it quits. I fucking hate the Steelers, but Hines Ward played WR the right way. He made clutch catches, but bigger then that he blocked down field. I really do believe he is a large part of why the Steelers were such a great running team for so many years. If I was a Steelers fan I would pray he comes back as a WR coach.
***UPDATE***
“I'm also getting lots of questions about retirement so let me set the record straight: I have no plans on retiring right now. I want to win another Superbowl (sic). I don't know where the media is getting this info from but rest assured that when I decide to retire, you'll hear it from ME first.”
Ward has 2 years $4 million left on his deal, so it's really not that much of a cap hit. I can't see the Steelers cutting this guy, and him being in another jersey would just be wrong. I guess the Steelers get one more year of Ward.