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THE TIMES LEADER www.timesleader.com
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2012
STEELERS
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward (86) hopes to remain with the team in 2012 and retire as a career Steeler.
Ward willing to restructure deal The wide receiver wants to complete his pro career with the team he broke in with. By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH — Steelers’ wide receiver Hines Ward wants to retire with the Pittsburgh Steelers, offering to restructure his contract to do it. Ward posted on his Facebook page Saturday that he’s already told the Steelers he’s willing to work with them on altering his deal so he can remain with the team. Ward’s comments came after NFL.com reported the Steel-
ers are planning to cut the franchise’s all-time leading receiver. “I don’t normally like to respond to rumors, but as I’ve said all along, I want to finish my career with the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Ward posted. The 14-year veteran is scheduled to make $4 million in 2012. He’s coming off a season in which he finished with 46 receptions for 381 yards and two touchdowns, the lowest totals in each category since he was a rookie in 1998. Ward, who turns 36 next month, became the eighth player in league history to reach 1,000 career receptions in the regularseason finale against Cleveland. He and Jerry Rice are the only
players in league history to reach 1,000 receptions and win multiple Super Bowls. Yet Ward’s role within the offense diminished as Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders passed him on the depth chart and Mike Wallace became a Pro Bowler. Ward pushed aside speculation he would retire after the Steelers’ season ended with a 2923 overtime loss to Denver in the wild card round. “No, I’m not even thinking about that,” Ward said at the time. The 2006 Super Bowl MVP did not catch a pass against the Broncos, the first time in Ward’s career he was held without a reception
in a postseason game. His future is one of several questions that will need to be addressed during what’s already been an active offseason for one of the league’s most stable franchises. Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians was not offered a new contract and spent just over a week unemployed before taking the same position with the Indianapolis Colts. The Steelers hired former Kansas City head coach Todd Haley to replace Arians. The Steelers will look for receiver depth after releasing veteran Arnaz Battle this week and the possible departure of Jerricho Cotchery, who will be an unrestricted free agent.
AP PHOTO
Bowles to lead Eagles secondary The former Temple standout recently served as interim head coach of the Dolphins. By JONATHAN TAMARI The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — On paper, coaching the Eagles secondary would seem to be a job full of upside. The team has invested secondround picks in safeties each of the last two years and its top three cornerbacks have combined for eight Pro Bowl appearances. But the last few seasons have been hard on the Eagles’ back four. The team has finished ranked 24th, tied for 29th, and 24th again in the NFL in touchdown passes allowed after giving up 27, 31, and 27 scores through the air the last three years. Veteran defensive coaches Dick Jauron and Johnnie Lynn have come and gone. Now the job of getting the most out of the secondary falls to Todd Bowles, a longtime defensive assistant who won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins as a safety. Bowles inherits a perplexing group. Nate Allen, a secondround pick in 2010, showed flash-
es of talent but also errors after returning from a knee injury. Jaiquawn Jarrett, the team’s number two pick in 2011, barely got on the field and was stuck behind Kurt Coleman. And the star corner trio of Nnamdi Asomugha, Asante Samuel, and Dominique RodgersCromartie all played well below expectations. "You see a lot of athletes, you see some playmakers back there, and you see some guys that can hit, so you see potential," said Bowles, 48. "You see potential, but you just have to bring it all together." He wouldn’t delve into his plans, noting that he’s been in Philadelphia only about a week and was still reviewing games from last season. Bowles, the only new addition to the coaching staff, took the Eagles job over offers to become the defensive coordinator in Oakland, to remain the assistant head coach/secondary coach in Miami, or take the same position in Cincinnati. He interviewed for at least five head coaching jobs in recent years, and there’s been speculation that Bowles could be a fallback option if defensive coordinator Juan Castillo falters.
N.Y. Giants camp going back home The team trained in Albany, N.Y., for 15 years before the lockout broke that streak. The Associated Press
AP PHOTO
Miami Dolphins interim head coach Todd Bowles, right, talks with free safety Reshad Jones during the first half Jan. 1 against the New York Jets in Miami.
"My role is to be the defensive back coach," Bowles said. "I answer to the defensive coordinator." Bowles grew up in Elizabeth, N.J., and played safety at Temple. Mild-mannered and soft-spoken — he’s no Jim Washburn — Bowles showed his toughness as a senior. In a practice shortly before his
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final college season, Bowles dislocated six bones in his wrist and missed five games, but he returned to the field with three pins holding his wrist together. At the NFL scouting combine that year Bowles couldn’t do a pushup, let alone the bench press, and he went undrafted. But he signed with the Redskins and worked his way into the lineup,
winning a championship in 1988. After eight seasons in the NFL, though, including seven in Washington, Bowles wore down. He left the game for two years, and worked as an owner of a gym and a construction company, but he returned as a scout for the Packers and then a defensive coordinator at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
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ALBANY, N.Y. — The Super Bowl champion New York Giants say they’re planning to return their training camp to Albany this summer. Pat Hanlon, the team’s vice president for communications, told Albany-area media outlets Thursday that the Giants plan to follow up on franchise President and CEO John Mara’s pledge to bring the camp back to upstate New York. The Giants decided during last year’s NFL labor lockout to hold the 2011 training camp at their headquarters in East Rutherford, N.J. Mara had said then that the team intended to return its training camp to Albany in the summer of 2012. The Giants trained at the University at Albany for 15 years, their longest stay at one training camp site in the 87-year history of the franchise.
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