One of the NFL’s oldest rivalries has also turned into one of its most lopsided ones. Nothing better reflected that than a conversation between Ben Roethlisberger and Landry Jones on the home sidelines near the end of another Steelers win over the Cleveland Browns.
Roethlisberger congratulated Jones on winning his first NFL start and both got a chuckle since the former did the heavy lifting in the Steelers’ 30–9 win over the Browns on November 16, 2015, at Heinz Field.
A sprained ankle sent Jones to the sidelines early and Roethlisberger entered the game a week after spraining his foot in a win over the Oakland Raiders. All Roethlisberger did despite a bum wheel was throw for 286 yards in the first half on the way to a 379-yard, three-touchdown masterpiece.
“Maybe the most expensive backup in the NFL,” Jones joked about Roethlisberger after the game.
Roethlisberger’s showing reinforced how costly a decision the Browns made in 2004 when they passed on the native Ohioan in the draft and instead took Miami (Florida) tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. with the sixth overall pick. Roethlisberger is 19–2 against the Browns from 2004 to 2015 and has 20 victories against Cleveland if you count the one he delivered as Jones’ “backup.”
The pivot each franchise took in the 2004 draft has also defined a rivalry between two working-class cities that are separated by about 150 miles of turnpike. Since Roethlisberger’s arrival the Steelers are 21–3 against the Browns and their average margin of victory during that span is 15.6 points, a staggering figure in a league that promotes parity.
The Browns, meanwhile, have made the playoffs just once since the NFL returned to Cleveland in 1999 because of a revolving door at quarterback. And who else but the Steelers beat them in a 2002 postseason game after the Browns squandered a 24–7 third-quarter lead?
The Browns are now on their ninth head coach since 1999 and even Bill Belichick couldn’t win in Cleveland before former owner Art Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore. Adding to the sting of their string of futility to the Steelers: Their last five head coaches, prior to the 2016 hiring of Hue Jackson, have been fired following season-ending losses to Pittsburgh.
The Browns have had their moments against the Steelers, most notably in 2009. The Browns upset the Steelers 13–6 to drive a stake through Pittsburgh’s hopes of defending its Super Bowl title.
The winds whipping off Lake Erie made for an even colder December night than usual in Cleveland, adding to the Steelers’ misery after they bottomed out that season.
But games like that have been too few and far between for the Browns, diminishing the significance of the AFC’s oldest rivalry and one that has been nothing if not manic.
Cleveland owned Pittsburgh prior to the Steelers’ emergence in the 1970s. The Browns beat the Steelers 14 of 17 times from 1962 to 1970 and when Pittsburgh committed to building through the draft it did so because of the success of franchises such as Cleveland.
The Steelers dominated the ’70s, winning 16 of 20 meetings against the Browns. Then the series settled into the one period of parity it has enjoyed.
The rivals played 33 times from 1980 to 1995, with the Steelers winning 17 games. Each team won 16 regular-season games against its rival during that span and 10 times the Browns and Steelers split the season series.
Former Steelers offensive lineman Tunch Ilkin played during that period, and he still has vivid memories of his first game at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium.
“The place just reeked of history,” Ilkin said of the 1980 game. “Jim Brown and Paul Brown and all of the great players of the Browns. Not only did it reek of history but it reeked of urine because the plumbing in that facility was terrible.”
Ilkin quickly learned that plumbing issues were the least of his concerns when Pittsburgh visited Cleveland.
He had played college ball at Indiana State and was not quite prepared for the raw hatred that came with the Steelers-Browns rivalry. When Ilkin went to take his helmet off during a break in pre-game warm-ups, veteran defensive end Dwight White told him to keep it on. Soon after that, Ilkin said, a battery went whizzing by his head. Another time, Ilkin said, a dog biscuit hit him in the head during a timeout. He looked around, seething, until fellow offensive lineman Craig Wolfley defused the situation.
“Wolf looks at me and goes, ‘This isn’t Slap Shot. What are you going to do? Climb into the stands and find the guy who hit you with a dog biscuit?’ We all started laughing,” Ilkin said. “They hated us. It was just this intense rivalry. It was nasty, guys fighting.”
It had been that way before Ilkin joined the Steelers.
In 1976, Browns defensive tackle Joe “Turkey” Jones dumped Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw on his head, something that might earn a player a suspension if it happened today.
The year before, defensive tackle Joe Greene kicked center Bob McKay—and in the last place any man wants a cleat to connect—near the end of the Steelers’ 42–6 win in Cleveland. Browns offensive lineman Tom DeLeone went after Greene and punches were thrown, leading to the ejection of DeLeone and Greene.
The two were later fined, as was McKay.
“They interviewed Joe maybe 15 years after and he went on to blame it on me and Dwight White,” said former Browns offensive tackle Doug Dieken, who played for Cleveland from 1971 to 1984. “He said, ‘I got so tired of listening to Dieken and Dwight scream at one another that I just lost it.’”
Dieken added with a laugh, “I told Joe, ‘You’ve got a lot of guts blaming me for that.’”
Dieken, Cleveland through and through, is now color analyst for the Browns’ radio broadcasts. He has gotten to know some of the players he once despised because of their Black and Gold attire and said the blood and guts that once defined Steelers-Browns are part of a bygone era.
“You hated them for that 60 minutes on Sunday,” Dieken said. “But once you retired and got a chance to know them, hey, they were just like us except they got four more Super Bowl rings than we did.”