As a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan, I grew up learning to hate the Pittsburgh Steelers. I had to hate their colors, their emblem, Three Rivers Stadium, and anything else that was Steeler-related. I hated Franco Harris, Terry Bradshaw, and I especially hated Jack Lambert (how could a guy from nearby Kent State University play for the nefarious Steelers?).
Chuck Noll? Hated him! Art Rooney? Hated him, too. I was, of course, too young at the time to fully comprehend this intense malice — it was enough just to be told by my elders that as a Cleveland Browns fan, it was my sworn duty to be a devout hater of anything Pittsburgh born and bred.
So I hated throughout my youth and well into my adulthood.
Then, something strange happened. Art Modell packed up the Browns one night, drove them to Baltimore, and Cleveland was left without a team. Suddenly, the rivalry that fed the thirst for Pittsburgh blood was gone and, remarkably, my hatred of the Steelers subsided, as well.
Of course, as any self-respecting football fan knows, the Browns returned to Cleveland a few years later (a completely-rebuilt expansion team, hiding beneath the historic nickname and colors), and the Browns/Steelers legend was to be revitalized.
Seven years later, the rivalry continues to lie dormant. The average Browns fan, however, continues to hate Pittsburgh with tireless ferocity. Which, I suppose, makes me a bit of an aberration as a Browns backer. My hatred, you see, has disappeared, almost as mysteriously as the Browns did a decade ago.
Much to the chagrin of my comrades, who are dying a bit more with each Steeler playoff victory, I find myself actually rooting for Pittsburgh in this year's postseason. In fact, I'm quite unabashed in my newfound role of Black and Gold cheerleader, recently telling my friends and family that I hoped Pittsburgh would defeat Indianapolis and even advance to the Super Bowl.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not one of those ridiculous converts, who have grown so tired of watching Pittsburgh throttle Cleveland every year that they simply decided to turncoat completely. No, I am still a Browns fan through and through. I love Cleveland, even though I curse much of what they do. I root hard for them weekly, finding myself completely miserable and depleted by their hapless efforts. And I'll do it again next year and the next.
So, why am I pulling for the once-hated Steelers? It's difficult for even me to understand. The long and short of it is I simply can't find any reason to hate. I'm not a kid anymore. I don't need to blindly follow the orders of big brothers telling me it's just the way we do things as Browns fans.
I also don't see an existing rivalry. A rivalry implies the chance that your team will win occasionally. They are geographic in nature, which these battles continue to be, but when there is complete dominance by one team, the rivalry dies. Can anyone in his right mind believe that the Steelers feel that they have a rivalry with the Browns? More likely, they look at the schedule and check off two sure-fire victories each season.
Finally, if there was anything I understood about the rivalry as a kid, it was that many of the old, aforementioned Steelers were built for hating. Lambert was mean and nasty. Bradshaw just didn't come off smart enough to be a winner. Noll always looked calculating and arrogant. And Harris was always running out of bounds, just before getting waxed by a charging defensive back. All of this, plus the fact that the Browns won once in awhile, made for a legitimate rivalry and some real hatred.
The Steeler team I see now is nothing like this. Bill Cowher can be annoying with his sideline antics, but he is a decent, hard-working coach and a good family man. He's got the longest tenure of any coach in the NFL with one team (an astonishing 14 years), which certainly merits respect and admiration.
Ben Roethlisberger, fresh out of Miami of Ohio, is calm and cool and has all the makings of a great quarterback. Jerome Bettis is soon-to-be a Hall of Famer and is one of the kindest guys in football. Then, there is rookie Troy Polamalu. Not that I'm a religious man, but this guy prays after every down, and he doesn't do it to draw attention to himself. He is both a spiritual man and a fierce competitor. Browns fans would love to have him in Cleveland.
Many detractors say Cowher can't win the big one. He's already won one championship game, and the win over Indy was truly awe-inspiring. To me, he's an easy guy to root for. When the Steelers played Dallas in the Super Bowl in 1996, Cowher's young daughter told him that win or lose, he'd always be a hero to her.
He lost on that day. A decade later, I'm sure Cowher is still a hero to his daughter. This year, I hope he'll be a winner, too.
Mark Barnes is a novelist, regular contributor to fantasy football site 4for4.com, and NFL football radio analyst. He appears weekly on ESPN radio in High Point, NC and on WBAL in Baltimore, MD, where he discusses pro football and fantasy sports. Mark's novel, "The League," is the first-ever published work of fiction with a plot based on the dangers of a multi-million-dollar fantasy football league. Learn more about "The League" and Mark's work at NFLStory.com.
January 23, 2006
jim:
I got to say that, while I don’t exactly “hate” the steelers, You won’t be seeing me cheering for them anytime soon.
January 23, 2006
buckeyedan:
BLASPHEMY, FOUL AND VILLIANOUS WRETCHED FIEND !! BURN THE HERETIC I SAY !!!!
MARK BARNES ………….. I HEREBY DECLARE YOU UNWORTHY TO EVER AGAIN DON THE COVETED ORANGE AND BROWN, OR TO SPEAK THE HEINOUS LIE THAT YOU ARE A BROWNS FAN !!!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wash my eyes out and find the pepto bismol !!
January 23, 2006
Tony:
this Browns fan agrees with you. i’m rooting for Pittsburgh mainly because they represent my division—i’d root for Cincinnati for the same reason (Baltimore, of course, is exempt from the same-division” rationale of course); i like rooting for MAC quarterbacks; and, if they win, at least the team that beat us 41-0 were the Super Bowl Champs.
January 23, 2006
Tony:
of course, i only meant 1 of course.
January 24, 2006
Josh:
Good grief… you’ve missed the point entirely. You’ve gone and tried to make sports logical. What logic is there in spending scads of cash to watch men run around a field chasing a ball while obeying invented rules? Football is illogical. Professional sports are illogical. And sports fans are illogical. And yet we watch… we watch because for those few hours on Sunday all of reality is suspended and the fate of the entire universe balances on whether 11 men can transport an oblong ball over an imaginary line. And in that universe anybody can be your enemy, because that universe transcends any particular coach or player of the moment. In the Browns universe, the Steelers are our most hated enemy and they will always be our most hated enemy. Period.
January 24, 2006
Kevin Beane:
“They are geographic in nature, which these battles continue to be, but when there is complete dominance by one team, the rivalry dies.”
It most certainly does not. Especially not in the cyclical, parity-laden NFL where in just a few years, the Browns and Steelers teams will scarcely resemble the Browns and Steelers teams of now. Rivalries are timeless, and they prosper because they are fun and historical. Ever hear the phrase “throw out the record books for this one?”
January 24, 2006
SPV:
If you are a true BROWNS fan, whick mark obviously is not, you will always hate the squeelers and everything that has to do with pukesburgh.
January 24, 2006
Jeremy Chapman:
Blasphemy! You are now excommunicated from the Cleveland Browns. You know people get beat up for saying much less in Cleveland. Go buy your Steelers gear and never look back you bandwagon pansy. We don’t want you anymore.
Just look at the footage of what the Steelers fans were doing to Cleveland stadium during the Christmas eve game. If that’s not enough to stir the hatred you have no idea of what the concept of rivalry is. You know, you sound a lot like my wife. “It’s just a game, why do you get so angry”. It only takes a pair of testicles to realize how wrong you and my wife truly are.
January 24, 2006
Tad:
I grew up in squeeler territory, now live in Maryland, and I have rightfully trained the fruits of my loins to hate everything pukesburgh! Hell, I refuse to purchase heinz ketchup because it hails from that hell-hole. squeeler fans have enjoyed a position of patrinization for far too long. I love it when they are brought down to earth,to the reality that they,like any other team, are beatable, on any given Sunday. It’s the blatently superior smug expression that I’d like to wipe from every squeeler fan’s face. They’ve won enough, Ive suffered enough, and may they never see the holyland again! Who decided that they have the right to win another superbowl? Not me. I have seriously questioned my faith in God because he couldn’t possibly allow death and destruction and squeelers winning the superbowl into this world. But it’s happened before. Let’s talk about the draft! GO BROWNS!
January 24, 2006
Norman Salem:
Well, OK, the browns have been bad since their 1999 return. And I must agree that it has not been much of a rivalry lately. But you must be too young to remember the old days of Lambert and prior. Anyone who lived through those days knows why we hate the Pittsburgh Steelers and will never change. It is unfortunate that we have lost a generation….. a generation that has not seen a good Browns team…
January 24, 2006
Ty:
I hate Pukesburgh as much as the next person but the football side of me is saying WOW to the last two weeks for them.
And then I see Jerry Porter and it reminds me of how much I hate pukesburgh.
January 24, 2006
Harry McDickerson:
What a flaming waste of reading time. Perhaps you will sprout a pair of testicles some day soon???…Perhaps.
January 24, 2006
Rick:
I will never ever root for Sucksburgh. I’m sick of everyone talking about Worthlisberger. Every time he gets hit, he’s grimacing and he’s 6’5” for crying out loud. Joey Porter needs to keep his mouth shut, who is he to be running his trap like that anyways? Most of all, I’m sick of these Sucksburgh fans. I work in Grove City, PA where there are a bunch of Steelers fans. The thing is they are all closet fans. They never wore their Steelers garbage until after they beat Indy. Any game they lose, they always claim they never watch it, but they just happened to catch the playoff wins. The city of Pittsburgh, the team, and the “fans” are all a joke. I hope they choke against Seattle.
January 24, 2006
JCev150:
My goodness, this article literally made me ill when I read it. TRUE Browns fans hate the Stillers because the are the enemy…. no matter how bad the Browns happen to be right now, it’s a Cleveland/Pittsburgh thing. The geography should tell you as much. We could be called the Cleveland Whatevers and I would still hate the Pittsburgh Whatevers. This is their time right now. They have a good team and when we get to where we need to be the rivalry will get better also. So for now, we have to stomach their annoying fans until we get a team that will beat them once in a while. My two favorite teams are the Browns and whomever Pittsburgh plays. It should be that way for every Browns fan. I hope Seattle wins 55-0.
January 24, 2006
DStraub:
I think there is more to this than anyone has mentioned yet. Rooting between possible results is very complex. What is worse - Pittsburgh winning again or Seattle or Indianapolis getting in and winning the Super Bowl for the 1st time. That makes us one of a smaller list to be mocked for not having achieved that honor. I was glad to see Indi fall. I was ECSTATIC to see Denver get crushed. I was very bothered that it had to be by the dirty Squeelers, but it was the lesser of evils. I also like Bettis and Polamalu and WARD and even Worthlisberger… I sure wish we had a set of classy players like that. They have some turds; we have Winslow - maybe he will have learned something and become a man soon. We can’t be children all our lives while rooting. Despite the years of pain they have inflicted on every Browns fan, I look at their team right now, and feel respect. I hope that it will be much sooner than later that we can kick their butts 51-0 or something and go to the Super Bowl, and get some kind of similar respect despite our intense differences… that is football. These guys, who can’t ever admit something positive about an enemy, are over the top and are the ones without testicles. Real men are smart, and can admit that even their enemy can teach us, so that we can improve. So why should we root for Seattle? I don’t know who I am going to root for this Super Bowl. It is lose/lose… but I will still watch and enjoy the game, because both teams have achieved something great this season, as much as that hurts me to say, as a die hard Browns fan.
January 24, 2006
Craig:
What an abomination! Browns “fans” rooting for the Steelers, this jerk must be too young to remember “Dirty Jack” Lambert repeatedly hitting Brian Sipe out of bounds to separate his shoulder (thus ending the Browns Super Bowl dreams). I remember another image too, that of “Mean Joe” Greene standing over Doug Dieken and viciously kicking him in the groin, followed by Tom Deleone picking Greene up and bodyslamming him to the turf! Oh Sweet Revenge!! This is what it means to be a Browns Fan and Steeler Hater!!!!
January 24, 2006
delta:
I will always remember the support for the Browns fans from the Steelers fans and the Rooney family when Modell did the dasterly deed ten years ago. And yes the Seahawks right now are my second favorite team (as is who ever is playing the Squeelers), but now it’s a respectfull hate.
January 24, 2006
Starfire:
Worthlisberger? Pukesburgh? Grow up. How old are you people who spout such immature tripe?? Yeah, I’m a Steelers fan, and I appreciate Barnes’s thoughts on the subject. Most of my friends are Browns fans, but all of them are smart enough (and man enough) to recognize greatness, and respect it; just as I do. The Browns were the team of the ’50s like the Packers were of the ’60s and the Steelers of the ’70s. I was at the last Browns home game vs. the Steelers in ‘95 after Art Modell stabbed the faithful in the back, and most everyone around me (Browns AND Steelers fans) commisserated with each other at the consequences, in one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Bottom line is, I’m smart enough (and secure enough in my manhood—don’t lecture me about having cojones) to admit Jim Brown was the greatest running back of all time. Some of the moronic tripe above in response to Barnes’s column by so-called football/Browns fans shows the intellectual lack of maturity as the idiot who ran out on the field on Christmas Eve and got body slammed (deservedly so) by James Harrison. Get over it—Pete Franklin is gone, so it’s time to get past your third-grade gobbledygook and become a REAL football fan, not just an idiot blinded by your supposed loyalty to your team…
January 25, 2006
spv:
What starfire does not understand is that the Browns are not a threat to the squeelers. Not yet. Just wait until the Browns compete again and his hate will grow. I would be willing to bet that starfire hates baltimore, because baltimore has beat up on pukesburgh over the years. Squeeler fans look at the schedule and circle two wins guaranteed right away. Wait until this changes and the Browns start winning. By the way a real football fan, a true football fan will never respect their ultimate rival.
January 25, 2006
Vinnie:
I hope the Steelers win too just like I hope to get Gonorrhea.
January 25, 2006
starfire:
I’ve watched football since 1970, so I’ve seen more than enough professional football over time, and can admit (without resorting to juvenile crap like calling your team the Clowns, or calling your quarterback something asinine like Charlie Small-Frye—who is going to be a good quarterback in this league if given a chance). I can easily remember several years in the ’80s where the Browns WERE better than the Steelers were. Can you be so objective in acknowledging same with the shoe on the other foot?) Or, are you only capable of orgasming over things like what I’m sure is the all-time favorite play of frothing-at-the-mouth Browns fans, where Turkey Jones dumped Terry Bradshaw and would have broken the neck of a lesser man—a “clean” play in your minds, I’m sure…
Point is this, I can honestly say that, while I can rant and rave with the best of them during the three to four hours my team is playing ANYBODY—-not just the Browns—I am also intelligent enough (and adult enough) to admit when my team gets its butt kicked, while not loving them any less, nor having to resort to sand-box antics that most people leave behind once they achieve double-digits in age…
January 27, 2006
Kris M:
Rivalry??? You don’t know the meaning of the word. Try GB and Chicago. Both teams have had years in a row where one team dominated, yet it is THE greatest rivalry in NFL history. Always will be. Get a grip.
Good luck with the Gonorrhea Vinnie.
January 28, 2006
Eric B:
The fact that the Steelers are going to their 6th Super Bowl is reason enough for the hatred. I don’t hate Pittsburgh. The Steeler fans were thoughtful and kind when our Browns were taken from us.
I will, however, always despise the black and gold of pittsburgh almost as much as the maze and blue of another team whose name we do not mention. The rivalry is between the teams, not the cities.
Let me ask you this. Do you think the fans of the team we do not mention thinks there is no more rivalry with Ohio State because the Buckeyes have been so dominant the last five years? Hmmmmmm
Keep writing!
E
January 28, 2006
Vinnie:
Kris M is really feeling it. How could someone know the true meaning of that great rivalry? I have the impression that he worked for the Staley Starch Company in Decater, IL or the ACME Packing Company of Green Bay, WI back in the early 1920’s. Someone had to clean the toilets.
February 5, 2006
Bill:
The Steelers get more lucky breaks than any team I’ve ever seen and they get by with a lot of crap, like holding, offsides and def. pass interference. Ever since the ball fell out of the sky into Franco’s hand they have led a charmed life. Their opponents on the other hand get all the bad breaks. I’m just ready for them to have a run of luck like everyone else.