Reports hint at Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Hines Ward on risk of forced retirement – NFL News
Another player is set to become a prey of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ austerity drive against his wishes of continuing to play for the side for more seasons to come, even if it requires renegotiation of his deals and a cut in his remuneration.
This time it is their veteran wide receiver, Hines Ward, on risk to come under the hammer as his team looks to consolidate their players’ salary expenses, well above the cap of around $120 million a year.
Ward has strongly reacted to rumours around the possibility of him announcing retirement from the professional league, and wrote on his Facebook account that he wanted to play football for Steelers in the future.
Speculations have hit the street that the player was set to call it quits after his team decided not to pay him the due bonus of $4 million by the deadline of a date in the month of March this year (2012) and release him from the contractual bindings with
them.
The player has denied all those rumours and expressed his will to accept renewed terms from his team to fulfil his ambition of playing more games for Steelers and ultimately finishing his career at the Pittsburgh.
"I don't normally like to respond to rumours, but as I've said all along, I want to finish my career with the Pittsburgh Steelers," Ward said.
His willingness to accept an altered deal was in the obvious reference to Steelers’ aim to cut their expense on the players’ wages, which stands $20 to $25 million above the limit.
The team management had called the launch of the drive to seek slashing in the spending soon after they were over with their 2011 National Football League (NFL) run to be inevitable.
Steelers as first step of the austerity measures released their cornerback, Bryant McFadden, last week. They are expected to save an estimated amount of $3.5 million annually as a result of his waiver.
Now the talk around the possible departure of Ward has gained prominence and despite that the player has desired to continue his career at the Pittsburgh, the team’s management is keeping a mum on the issue.
Reports in some sections of media have quoted anonymous sources claiming that a decision on the release of the player has already been taken by the team.
They are going to miss the deadline of bonus payment to him, forcing him at the end to call it a day in his professional career, according to the reports.
All these reports apparently have irked the player and he has reacted immediately to them, pinpointing to his team his interest in playing more football for his team.
The situation around the controversy is likely to clear closer or after the deadline.
Steelers in the meantime are seen with clear intensions of removing more players from their way to meet their financial targets.
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