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Keith Rivers became an unwitting star in Hines Ward's growing collection of YouTube hits when the Steelers visited the Cincinnati Bengals last month.

Whether Rivers' teammates plan to exact revenge for the block that broke the rookie linebacker's jaw -- and cemented Ward's reputation as the kind of player opposing teams love to hate -- will soon become apparent.

But Ward had this message Tuesday for any Bengals defender looking to take out the Steelers wide receiver in Thursday's 8:15 p.m. game: he doesn't scare easily, and threats are about as foreign to him as Terrible Towels are to Heinz Field.

"Every game, somebody is trying to get me back," said Ward, who is coming off back-to-back 100-yard receiving games, "but I'm not going to change my ways. Nobody's going to apologize to me when they knock me out going across the middle, so why should I try to apologize to anybody?"

Ward, though, did try to reach out to Rivers through Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson. Ward, who apologized for the outcome of his crack-back block but not for the actual hit, said he never heard back from Rivers, the Bengals' first-round draft pick.

The four-time Pro Bowler has more important things to worry about -- including whether a group other than Bengals defenders will target him Thursday.

Referees flagged Ward three times, twice for holding and once for a block in the back, in last Sunday's 11-10 win over the San Diego Chargers. The penalties, he said, were more than a source of frustration.

Ward became so wary of the officials that he pulled back on a block during a Willie Parker run because he didn't want to draw a holding penalty. Even on that play, which came on the Steelers' final drive, Ward said he drew a rebuke for not being aggressive enough.

"I put my hand on the guy and once I saw Willie get around (the corner) I pulled it off because I didn't want to get another holding call for something I didn't know what I was doing," Ward said. "One ref said 'Don't do that. You make it seem like we missed a call.'"

Ward, who doesn't think the NFL is singling him out because of his reputation as a fierce blocker, plans to get a clarification from referees before kickoff Thursday on what he can and can't do while blocking.

The 11th-year veteran needs no reminder from the Bengals when it comes to how they feel about him as a blocker.

Rivers, who is out for the rest of the season, said at the end of October that with Ward, what goes around, comes around.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said Tuesday that Ward's block on Rivers was "within the spirit of the rules the way it is right now." Lewis, however, is on the NFL's eight-man competition committee, and he said he expects the group to discuss the legality of that kind of block during the offseason.

That echoed something NFL vice president of operations Ray Anderson said last month when he met with several Steelers players, including Ward.

"If I really wanted to hurt Rivers, I would have went low on him and tried to take out his knees," said Ward, who did not get fined for the hit. "For people to label me as dirty or (the hit as a) cheap shot ... you're worried about a little, 200-pound, 32-year-old wide receiver. I take that as a compliment."

Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said he thought Ward's hit on Rivers was clean and he doesn't expect it to be an issue Thursday night.

"Maybe the guys on defense might feel different," Houshmandzadeh said, "but it hasn't been talked about thus far."

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