Hines Ward Bowl Quotations

We're still a great team. It's one loss. We didn't play particularly well but still had a chance to win the game against the Super Bowl champions. We've got to learn from it and get better, and get a lot of guys healthy and come back and make this 13-game run.

If anyone wants to play the respect card, be mad at the people that make the odds, don't be mad at us. I don't know how they can feel disrespected when everybody had them going to the Super Bowl anyway. We feel like we're the underdog. Nobody was talking about us.

It has been a heck of a ride. We get the opportunity to go down in history among some of the greatest players. This is what the Super Bowl is all about.

Jerome has just meant so much to us. For him to go out the way he went out (as a Super Bowl champion), if I was retiring and my career was towards the end, that's how I would want to go out.

Jerome has inspired each individual on this team in some form or way. He kind of inspires us to go out and play hard so we can get him that Super Bowl ring and end on a great note.

Those guys made spectacular catches in the Super Bowl. I wanted to be compared to those guys. I never thought I belonged on the list because they had Super bowl rings. You can put me on the list now.

We have to keep the nucleus together, and plug in some new faces, and we'll be fine. One thing about winning a Super Bowl is that everybody wants a player off that Super Bowl team. They're very hot commodities. Unfortunately for our team, you can't pay everybody.

When I signed the deal, I wasn't a Pro Bowl player, ... To go to four straight Pro Bowls, you deserve some type of raise. They said, 'Come into camp and we'll continue negotiations,' and that's why I'm here.

It was all for Jerome. We were going to fight for him. I'm just so happy for him. The way he ended his career, to win a Super Bowl in his own town, is a fairy tale come true.

The Super Bowl tickets, that's the worst headache. I'm glad they gave us the week off. You really need a couple of days. They say you lose family members over the Super Bowl and I can see why because everybody in the family didn't get tickets. They're mad at me now. That's when I realized we were going to the Super Bowl.

For a second-year guy, he's been outstanding. We wouldn't be in the Super Bowl without him.

I never went into the game saying I wanted to be the Super Bowl MVP. I just went out and played. And everything worked its way out.

He's touched every player in this locker room in some way, somehow. I just didn't want him to go out like that, one game short of the Super Bowl. It's not often you're playing with a Hall of Fame running back, and a Hall of Fame guy, period. I appreciate what he's done for my career, and having him come back and winning a Super Bowl where it all started, I'm glad to help him achieve that.