CINCINNATI — In my high school freshman English class, a substitute teacher named Mr. C- fitting because Cincinnati starts with the letter “C”- asked everybody a question about the word “hate” A fellow student answered that he believes hate is learned, and I totally agree with that.
Hate is such a strong word. And coming from a family like the one I have, I’ve been taught to love your neighbor as you love yourself. And with that comes not having hate for anybody.
But when it comes to sports, there’s one team that I just downright hate: the Pittsburgh Steelers. And my hatred for them has evolved going back 15 years. Remember how I recounted in a recent blog post my first memory as a sports fan was seeing former Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer get carted off the field in the 2005 wild card playoff game? He was injured when former Steelers defensive tackle Kemo von Olhoffen slammed into his left knee and shredded it on the Bengals second offensive play of the game. The Bengals, of course, went onto lose the game.
Fast forward a month later when the Steelers went onto meet the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Having family in Seattle and the Seahawks running back at the time being named Shaun Alexander- when you’re as young as I was then, you root for players and teams whose players have the same name as you- so, of course, I was rooting for Seattle. When the Steelers won, I was like why do the Steelers have to win and be world champions?
Now fast forward to the 2006 season. Palmer was back and better than ever for the Bengals, and their first big game that season was week three at Pittsburgh. That game actually took place exactly 15 years ago today. It was the first game between the two teams since the playoff game in January. Pittsburgh drove right down the field and scored a touchdown to go up 7-0. Here we go again, right? Well, wrong, actually. The Bengals went toe-to-toe with the Steelers for three quarters but trailed 17-14 going into the fourth quarter. That’s when Palmer and wide receiver TJ Houshmanzadeh took over the game in connecting for two fourth quarter two touchdowns and the Bengals won the game 28-20 to go to 3-0 at that point in the season. Man, we’re a really good team. We can win every game especially if we can beat Pittsburgh. Yeah, that’s what I thought at the time.
Last game of that 2006 season. The Bengals are playing Pittsburgh in Cincinnati, and the following things needed to happen that Sunday for the Bengals to win the last AFC wild card playoff spot: a Bengals win, a Broncos loss, a Jaguars loss, a Chiefs win and a Jets win. Well, all of those things did happen except for one thing: the Bengals winning. You remember then Bengals kicker Shayne Graham missing a 39-yard field goal in regulation that would have won the game and then Santonio Holmes racing down the sideline for the eventual winning score for the Steelers in overtime. Game over. Season over. And of course, the season had to end against the Steelers. From that point on, I hated the Steelers and do to this day.
Now, why do I hate the Steelers? First off, maybe it’s more of a jealousy thing. The Steelers are one of the name-brand franchises in the NFL. They’re in contention every season, at least that’s how they’ve been in my lifetime. Second, I think their fanbase is one of the coolest in the NFL. The way they sell out every home game, travel to road games- it’s amazing how many Steelers fans with Terrible Towels I see in the stands when the Steelers are playing on the west coast- and the fact that being a Steelers fan is passed down through multiple generations within families. That said, it annoys me to the core when I see all the Steelers fans who show up to Paul Brown Stadium when they come play the Bengals. Yes part of that is Bengals fans not showing up in recent seasons, but still; it’s remarkable how many visiting fans there are when the Bengals host the Steelers. Finally, the way the Steelers play: it’s dirty. They pride themselves on being physical, but there’s a fine line between being physical and being dirty. The Steelers have crossed that line many times whether it be Palmer getting injured in the 2005 playoffs, Hines Ward breaking Keith Rivers’s jaw in 2008, Giovani Bernard getting knocked unconscious in the 2015 playoff game coaches Joey Porter instigating the officials to penalize the Bengals in that 2015 playoff game and Mike Munchack pulling Reggie Nelson’s hair earlier in that playoff game. Those last two instances were dirty acts performed by Steelers coaches. I though coaches are the ones who promote sportsmanship.
It’s interesting how even Ben Roethlisberger, a player Bengals fans, like myself, loathe, said after the Monday Night Football game between the two teams in 2017 that this rivalry doesn’t have the respect the Steelers-Ravens rivalry does. The Ravens play a very similar style to the Steelers. They’re physical, smash-mouth, etc. But they don’t play dirty. There is a genuine respect to the way they play on defense. Roethlisberger said that in Bengals-Steelers games that players are out there just to hit people.
About that playoff game against the Steelers. Not the one in 2005; the one 10 years later. I knew it was going to be a tough game to win, especially with then-quarterback Andy Dalton not playing due to a thumb injury sustained in the regular-season home game against Pittsburgh that year. Through three quarters, it was a nightmare. The Bengals trailed 15-0. Pittsburgh was seemingly dominating the game. They were bullying the Bengals, had knocked out Bengals running back Giovani Bernard and the Bengals looked like they had no answer. But then in the fourth quarter, they roared back and took a one-point lead with 1:56 remaining. Maybe their 25-year playoff victory drought was about to end. It sure looked like that when Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict intercepted Steelers backup quarterback Landry Jones’s pass on the ensuing possession. But we all know what happened next, and it was a rip-your-heart out type feeling after the game. And of all teams for this to happen against, the fact that it was against Pittsburgh made it 10 times worse. It felt like the Steelers had firmly cemented the fact they were the big brother to the Bengals and were always going to beat them no matter how heartbreaking it would be.
That’s been the case for most of my lifetime. Ever since I first started watching football in 2006, there have only been six seasons where the Bengals have split the two games with the Steelers and only one where they swept the two games. That means the Bengals have won six of 31 games against the Steelers since 2006. Think about that for a moment. So on top of the Steelers playing dirty, they’ve just been the better team way more often than not when they play the Bengals.
So maybe the reasons why I hate the Steelers are more reasons why I’m jealous of who they are when it comes to winning and their name-brand they have had since the 1970s. Sports are an entity we emotionally attach ourselves to, and, as a result, we tend to not think rationally. That’s why it’s easy for me to say I hate the Steelers, and maybe what happened in the 2015 playoff game and how it ended is the main reason why I feel that way. But the other reasons I’ve mentioned suggest that maybe it’s more of jealousy I feel towards the Steelers.
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 