Hines Ward: Steelers' Seemingly Indestructible WR Forced to Sit Against Patriots

Hines Ward will NOT be active for the Pittsburgh Steelers game against the New England Patriots today.

Albert Breer of the NFL Network reported the news via Twitter and let the world know about it not once,

but twice.

Ward is an absolute ironman in the league and has only missed six games in his entire 14-year career. No one expected him to miss any time with his latest ankle injury. Not even coach Mike Tomlin, who said,

"Hines always finds a way to defy logic, if you will, when it comes to injury and so forth. So we will definitely leave a seat on the bus for him." 

Tomlin made those comments after the Arizona Cardinals game in which Ward was spotted on the sideline getting his ankle taped up in the second-quarter and did not return.

Ward is 35 years old, and it makes sense that he cannot bounce back from injuries and play like he could in his more youthful days.

At 6’0”, 205 pounds, Ward is averaged sized at best for a WR, and the pounding his body takes on a regular basis is going to need more time to recoup in the twilight of his career.

Hines is also known for being an absolute beast of a blocker for his position and isn’t afraid to go over the middle. He needs to have his ankle healthy in order to excel at things like this and not risk reinjuring it or hurting something else.

The Steelers are going to go ahead and use Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders to replace him alongside of Mike Wallace.

This combination looked phenomenal last week and sparked a 361-yard, three-touchdown performance from Ben Roethlisberger.

Pittsburgh gets much more athletic and quicker with Ward out of the lineup, but his presence will sorely be missed in the running game, and his ability to the little things will not go unnoticed this week.