Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, who's clearly on the downslope of a brilliant career, says he wants to continue to play in Pittsburgh in 2012.
↵↵↵"I don't want to be cut, I don't want to play for another team, but I haven't thought of the possibility of that even happening ...
↵"I don't want to play for anybody else. We'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now, it's not even in my mind to think what happens -- am I going to be here, is this my last game? I don't think like that, I've never thought like that."
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It does look like this may be the end for Ward as a Steeler. The team has three electric young options in Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders, with Jerricho Cotchery also taking a lot of Ward's opportunities, and the Steelers are the sort of franchise that would generally rather release a veteran a year too early rather than a year too late. Ward only has 37 catches for 325 yards this season, and he played sparingly in the Steelers' last game against the 49ers, in which he had no catches.
↵For more on the Steelers, check out Behind The Steel Curtain.