Ward Says No Matter What Rules are Passed, You Can’t Protect Football

Hines Ward is still reveling in his victory on Season 12 of “Dancing with the Stars” but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been paying attention to football matters. In an interview provided by Michael Bean of SportsRadioInterviews.com, Ward addressed the so-called “Steelers Rule” while talking with WCNN in Atlanta.

The rule provides for fines and potentially even lost draft picks for teams with players that repeatedly commit late and rough hits and many observers believe it is specifically aimed at players like the Steelers’ James Harrison.

This is what Ward had to say on the subject:

“That’s just something that the owners are going to have to deal with. It’s still football. I mean, I understand they’re trying to bring safety to the game, but you can’t bring safety to a game that’s a violent sport already. When you have two grown men traveling at 20 miles per hour on a head-on collision, guess what, something in your body is going to hurt. So regardless of what you do, it’s still a physical ball game. But what are you going to do when a runner is continuing to try to run over a guy? Are you going to just wait until one guy can’t tackle him before you go in there and assist somebody? So for me, I understand where they’re coming from, but at the same time you can’t protect football. It’s a violent sport. If you want to protect it, we need to play flag football.”