The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and his partner, Kym Johnson, samba-ed his way to the season 12 championship.
Kirstie Alley and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy came in second, followed by Chelsea Kane and her partner, Mark Ballas.
All three couples earned perfect scores in the final episode Tuesday night. When the viewer votes combined with judges' scores were tallied, it was Ward who emerged as the new champ.
Hines knows what it's like to be a champion, but said this victory feels a little different.
"The Super Bowl, it takes all of my teammates. It takes all 53 guys to come together. But this dancing competition came down to just Kym and I," he said.
Ward said he owes the victory to his partner, hard work and the fans.
"I knew he was going to light up the room every single week," Johnson said. "His talent is amazing. His footwork is incredible, his determination is great. He's just got the whole package."
Ward, Alley and Kane shared their plans now that the dancing competition is over.
"I'm going to go and eat all of the fast food I possibly can and hopefully go to sneak away to the islands for the weekend and just reflect on the whole year," Ward said. "I just want to reflect, sit back and appreciate the friendship. I got a new friend now and I think our friendship will last for a long time."
Alley said she's thinking of getting back into acting.
"I've done enough movies to know at the end, you wake up the next day and you're like 'Where am I going? Is that it?" Alley said. "I know how it's going to be at the end. It's going to be a relief for 48 hours and then what?"
Kane's plans were centered on her diet.
"I'm going to have to start thinking again about what I eat because it's been like, 'Oh, we're dancing 12 hours a day. Yes, I will have another bagel and some pasta and that chocolate cake,'" she said. "I can't decide yet if I'm excited or if it's going to be depressing after I wake up and it's like, 'There's no rehearsal. Hey, Mark? You want to hang out?'"
"Dancing With The Stars" returns in September.
