On ESPN’s First Take today, panelists discussed which NFL rivalry was most similar to a college rivalry. The Steelers were mentioned twice, with Courtney Cronin choosing Steelers-Bengals and Damien Woody choosing Steelers-Ravens.
Cronin chose Steelers-Bengals due to the hatred between the two teams and the changing dynamics of the rivalry.
“We know what happened with Vontaze Burfict and Antonio Brown a couple years ago, Kimo von Oelhoffen slamming into Carson Palmer and tearing his ACL and MCL. These two franchises absolutely hate each other,” Cronin said. “But this one screams bad blood to me. For all those years you had automatic offense with Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, and now there’s a changing of the guard that’s happened, and it’s already trending in the direction where Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals are gonna claim they have the upper edge in this rivalry going forward. You know you are down for the dogfight when each of these teams take the field.”
Woody then said he would go with the Ravens and the Steelers due to the similarities between the two organizations.
“They’re two blue-chip, elite coaches, two blue-chip organizations, their brand of football is very similar. They’ll smack you down, play great defense,” Woody said. “Those two organizations, they don’t like each other, they have a healthy respect for each other, and it feels like year after year after year they just continue to give us good football.”
Woody also said he believes the Steelers will be better than expected in 2023.
“The Pittsburgh Steelers, in my opinion, are a team not a lot of people are talking about, they’re going to be a sneaky good team this year with the way they finished at the end year.”
Both selections are valid. Collegiate rivalries can be between two teams that absolutely hate and can’t stand each other, or they can be between two teams that have mutual respect. While in my opinion, Steelers-Ravens is the better rivalry, there’s at least some mutual respect between the two organizations. Both have won Super Bowls and play a similar brand of football. Everyone knows when the two play, it will be a dogfight.
In recent years, Steelers-Bengals has become more of a rivalry, but it’s more in the sense where there’s pure hatred and nastiness on the field. After the 2015 AFC Wild Card game where Pacman Jones and Burfict cost the Bengals a win with boneheaded penalties, the Steelers seemed to dominate the rivalry. That’s changing with Burrow now in Cincinnati, as the Bengals have won three out of the last four matchups.
And there’s no love lost between the two franchises. As someone who went to college in Cincinnati, I can attest that Bengals fans absolutely HATE the Steelers and Steelers fans aren’t all that fond of Bengals fans, either. There isn’t a ton of love for the Ravens, but at least there’s a little bit of respect between the two. That respect isn’t quite there yet with the Bengals, and probably won’t be until they can prove they win a Lombardi or consistently compete with Pittsburgh on the big stage.
While there may some respect among AFC North foes, it goes out the window during divisional games and, at least when the Steelers are involved, you can expect gritty, hard-fought games. It’s what makes the division so fun to watch and so competitive. I can’t wait to see how the Steelers fare in 2023, and their performance in divisional games could determine how their season plays out.
