JC

There has been a lot of talk about Ward Hines since he recently won the MVP award. Here’s another article about him, but this time from the perspective of his mom. Yonhap News interviews Kim Young-hee:

Kim Young-hee, proud mother of 2006 Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward, said she hadn’t dared dream of such an honor for her son. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency over two days, Kim was spare with words but still could not hide her pride in her son.

“I raised him strictly. I sometimes spanked him,” she said, “not that he did anything to be scolded. But I was intentionally strict with him.” Ward, born to a Korean mother and African-American father, won the Most Valuable Player award at Super Bowl XL, his Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Seattle Seahawks 20-10.

“The MVP award was really unexpected. I didn’t know things would come this far,” she said. Too jittery to watch the game, she stayed at home in Atlanta. As the entire city of Pittsburgh was celebrating Monday, she went through her day like any other — going to her US$600-a-month job at a nearby high school cafeteria.

She doesn’t remember working less than 16 hours a day, holding down three jobs, to make ends meet.

“Things became fussy from long time ago. American television stations and newspapers call me, come to me, ever since Ward went pro,” said Kim.