Ward Says Sorry for Questioning Roethlisberger’s Toughness

Hines Ward says he talked Monday with QB Ben Roethlisberger and coach Mike Tomlin in separate conversations, expressing regret for saying during a pregame NBC-TV interview that the locker room was split 50-50 whether the quarterback should play in Baltimore.

“I have apologized to Ben,” Ward wrote in a posting on his Facebook page. “Ben and I are cool and always will be. We will not let this come between us, our talk was very productive.”

Ward chose to make his comments public because he doesn’t plan to speak further about the subject.

“I would never question a man’s toughness playing in a STEELER unif(orm),” Ward wrote. “I didn’t mean to cause such a stir. My frustration was based on the fact that this was a big game for us to stay in the playoff picture and having Ben out there gave us our best opp(ortunity) to win. I was frustrated because there was no indication of Ben not being able to play because he practiced a normal routine.”