Games between AFC North rivals often come with a different level of physicality. That can most often be seen in matchups between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. Those two teams have a fierce rivalry, and they’ve played in some classic games over the years. However, their competitiveness also made their games hard to officiate, according to former NFL referee Gene Steratore.
“Steelers-Ravens, not because I’m from here, toughest regular season matchups for me,” Steratore said recently on The Pat McAfee Show. “I was part of that Monday night game with Hines and Ed Reed and Rashard Mendenhall fractured his shoulder on the second play.
“We went into overtime, and I flipped a coin, and it didn’t flip over, and it hit the ground. I left my ref hat on the bed the day before at my home. Coach Tomlin knew I left my ref hat on the bed, and he wanted to let me know that as we went into overtime.”
Steratore was a referee in the NFL from 2003-18, so he got to see many of the best games between the Steelers and Ravens. Both teams were Super Bowl contenders for most of those years, and that meant their games were even more important. That likely added pressure to officiating crews.
The game Steratore is referencing came in Week 4 of the 2008 season. While it was early in the year, that game carried a lot of importance. It was the first of three meetings between the two teams that year. With Tom Brady out for the year, the AFC looked wide open.
The Steelers won that game 23-20, but it wasn’t easy. Like Steratore mentioned, the game went to overtime, and his coin flip to determine possession failed. Despite that, the Ravens won the coin toss, and they opted to take the ball first.
Fortunately for Steelers fans, Pittsburgh’s defense stepped up, then Ben Roethlisberger drove the team down the field and allowed Jeff Reed to hit the game-winning field goal.
Like most games, there have been plenty of other questionable moments when the Steelers have played the Ravens. However, considering the level of violence and high stakes that are usually associated with those games, the referee’s decisions tend to get put under a microscope. Bad calls happen, though. The key is for teams to play well enough to not allow those calls to determine games.
