Ward Wins Weekly Hard Hat Award (Game #12, vs. Cinci)
Stiller WR Hines Ward is the winner of my weekly Hard Hat Award, given to the Stiller player who best embodies the iron-tough, hard-as-steel attitude of the steel workers inside the blast furnace of a still mill.
Ward jump-started the Stillers' first drive with a 23-yard reverse, and then caught a 34-yard TD pass to open the scoring. Ward went on to catch a total of 4 passes for 70 yards. Equally impressive was Ward's blocking, such as his taking out THREE defenders in a heady, spectacular blocking effort on Breuner's 11-yard TD catch-and-run. Ward was flagged for two holding calls, but in reviewing the tapes, the second flag was a real phantom call. Bettis had a nice gain of about 15 on this play, and Ward was erroneously flagged for a play that he had good positioning and threw a good block in support of the ground game.
Kudos to Hines for winning the weekly Hard Hat Award. Wear the Hard Hat proudly, Hines !!
Previous Winners:
Game #11, vs. Jax: Earl Holmes
Game #10, vs. Phil: Jerome Bettis
Game #9, vs. Tenn: Earl Holmes
Game #8, vs. Balt.: Dan Kreider
Game #7, vs. Cleve: Chris Fu
Game #6, vs. Cinci: D. Washington and Joey Porter
Game #5, vs. NYJ: Larry Tharpe
- Game #4, vs. Jax: Kimo von Oelhofen
Game #3, vs. Tenn: Shar Pourdanesh
The Still Mill