Hines Ward spoke to Pittsburgh Steelers on 247Sports just over a quarter of the way into the Pittsburgh Steelers' 2018 season. At that time, the Steelers were 2-2-1 and were starting to break out of their "September stench" (as Mike Tomlin called it) after routing the Atlanta Falcons at home in Week 5, 41-17. But Pittsburgh was just a few weeks removed from Antonio Brown's second of three disappearing acts during the 2018 season, as Brown did not show up for a Monday meeting while also causing a social media firestorm by tweeting "trade me" in response to a comment by a former Steelers' staffer that stated that Brown's success was largely due to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

While he tackled a variety of topics during his phone interview with us, Ward did offer the following response when he was asked what advice he would have given the 2018 Steelers. Ward served as a coaching intern on Pittsburgh's staff during the 2017 season.

“Just play football. That’s just always been our mentality. That’s always been our culture. We just line up. We don’t have cheerleaders. We don’t have special things. We just line up and kick tail on the football field. Don’t listen to outside noise. Don’t really worry about all the drama that’s going on. Just focus on getting better each and every day in practice so that on Sunday, the game should be easy because you put in the work during the week in practice. "I get it, being a former player I do get embarrassed talking about the drama more than the football itself. I understanding the culture [in Pittsburgh], I’ve been there, I've played there 14 years. When you talked about Steelers football, it was never about off the field stuff. It was always about ‘let’s prepare for the Pittsburgh Steelers because they’re gonna hit you in the mouth regardless on offense and defense.’ That’s what it should be about.”

It appeared the Steelers -- without knowing it -- took Ward's advice after winning six straight games while extending their lead over Baltimore in the AFC North division standings to 2.5 games. While Pittsburgh was winning on the field, they had also appeared to be a more united group after Brown's "trade me" tweet and Le'Veon Bell's failure to report to the team could have caused divisions within the locker room. It appeared, at 7-2-1, that the drama was behind the 2018 Steelers, who seemed poised to secure a playoff bye for a second straight year.

Pittsburgh not only failed to secure a bye, they failed to make the postseason altogether after losing four of their final six games and losing the North to the Ravens by a half game. While the offense's inability to add to their fourth quarter leads as well as the defense's inability to get key stops late in games served as the biggest reasons why Pittsburgh failed to quality for the postseason, the team's off-field distractions -- in the wake of Brown's bizarre disappearing act during the final days of the regular season -- may have also played a role in the team's late season slide. Unfortunately, Brown's late season actions has cast a negative light on the team entire team, a fact that is not fair to the majority of the Steelers' roster that does things the right way.

In the end, Pittsburgh would probably have done a few things different last season. They would have done more to address the void Ryan Shazier left at the inside linebacker position. They would have done something with Bell while not burning a $14.5 million hole in their pocket. They would have found a way to figure out why their offense couldn't add to leads and why their defense couldn't get critical stops despite being No. 6 in the NFL in total defense and tied for first in the league in quarterback said.

They also probably would have listened to Ward, who won two Super Bowl rings on teams that let their actions on the field speak for themselves.