"Walk into some clubs and discover the cream of the crop. The Duquesne Club, the 600 Home Run Club, the Playboy Club and the club with the half-Korean, half-African American knocking on its door to get in.

They usually don't open doors and barriers for Hines Ward, he knocks them down. He has accomplished just about everything there is in football, with one personal goal left, to join a club that is among the most exclusive in sports. Only seven players in the history of the NFL have had 1,000 pass receptions in their careers. Hines Ward is poised to become the eighth.

"That's like 3,000 hits, 600 home runs," said Ward.

Not really because the NFL's 1,000 Catch Club is more exclusive than those two in baseball. There have been 28 baseball players with 3,000 career hits. Jim Thome this week became the eighth player to hit 600 home runs.

Ward has 954 receptions. He needs 46, and he has caught more passes than that in every season except 1998, when he caught 15 as a rookie. He said he wants to win a third Super Bowl in his 14th NFL season, but hitting 1,000 remains a personal goal."