Mike Wagner would welcome Hines Ward into the fraternity of old-school football players, except the former member of the 1970s Steel Curtain defense believes Troy Polamalu has that era all wrong, as well as this one.

"I don't think it's a pansy game,'' said Wagner, the free safety on those four Steelers Super Bowl teams who closely watches the current game. "I think they've just tried to protect the hits that have caused the bad injuries, like the crackback block.

"Everyone gives Jack Lambert credit for saying that quarterbacks should wear skirts, but it's a big investment they have in those guys."

The dual fines from the past two games on Ward, the Steelers four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, for "unnecessary roughness" prompted a wide and prolonged discussion in the Steelers locker room and among those who once dressed there.

Coach Mike Tomlin and Steelers chairman Dan Rooney both debated the fines on Ward with the league and publicly proclaimed that the receiver plays the game the right way.

Wagner agreed, and said no receiver played that type of game during his era, and he saw nothing like it until Ward came along.

"I saw Hines a couple years ago and I said to him, 'You could have played during our era,' which he understood was a heck of a compliment.

"He kind of changed the wide receiver position because he was the first wide receiver I saw or remembered so aggressively blocking opponents downfield, particularly when they were on the tackle. You see a lot of times wide receivers will be hitting the tackler as he's on the ballcarrier. It didn't happen too often in my era."

Polamalu, the Steelers four-time Pro Bowl strong safety, claimed the past week the NFL is turning the game into a "pansy" sport, and said former players like Dick Butkus, Jack Tatum and Ronnie Lott would have a hard time adapting their physical styles of play to the current game.

Wagner disagrees, and said in ways the modern game has become more violent.

"The game is still very physical, that's for sure. And these guys are stronger, particularly in their upper bodies. They want to smack people down. When I played, yeah, it was nice to have a big hit, but the most important thing to me is that the ballcarrier does not get past me."

Lambert, of course, might disagree. In fact, a few other old-time Steelers did think the NFL has taken things too far. Somewhat of a surprise: These guys played on offense and one played quarterback.

Mark Malone was not one of those quarterbacks Lambert had in mind to wear a skirt. Malone was a big, tough, athletic quarterback who played wide receiver before he played his given position.

Now a radio broadcaster for Westwood One, he has given a lot of though to the NFL's crackdown on certain hits.

"From a pragmatic standpoint, I understand what the league is trying to do -- protect players, especially star players because they help market the game.

"From a football standpoint, it makes little sense; it's a physical, brutal game and you don't want to take cheap shots, but I've seen roughing the quarterback calls that are laughable. When you put on the helmet and shoulder pads, you expect to get hit. I don't think any position should be insulated from that kind of contact."

Steelers broadcaster Tunch Ilkin, a two-time Pro Bowl right tackle for them, also believes the league has gone too far.

"Would Donnie Shell get fined every week in today's game? He was the human torpedo. Would he have gotten fined for hitting Earl Campbell too hard?"

Ilkin recalls a fight involving a number of players after a play in Houston between the Steelers and Oilers in the 1980s. Some of the after-whistle blows were vicious.

"Nobody got fined,'' Ilkin remembered, "and the penalties were offsetting. I was thinking about that, what if it happened now? Everybody would get thrown out, everybody would get huge fines."

Added current Steelers linebacker James Farrior, the captain and dean of their defense:

"I think they're making a lot of unnecessary rules. You can't apply those rules to the game we play. There are certain ways you have to tackle now. There's certain stuff you can't do.

"If I'm out there playing defense and I'm trying to get a guy on the ground, I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get him on the ground. I'm not trying to do something bad, I'm just trying to do my job."

Both Farrior and Wagner said the officials, both on the field and in the league office, do not often take into account the speed of the game. Both believe that helmet-to-helmet hits, which can prompt a penalty and a huge fine and suspension, are often the unintended result of a high-speed collision.

"At such speeds, a guy hits a receiver over the middle and his head could be at chest level,'' Wagner said, "but you get two different people going in two different directions and you don't know where either will end up. A guy gets hit in the helmet and the other guy gets fined and suspended."