From ESPN Jeremy Fowler
"After last year obviously it spiked up and I'm not going to say I didn't like it. ... It just made me feel like, 'Man, this is football. This is gritty and this is grimy.' "
--Marvin Jones, ex-Bengals receiver on how the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh rivalry has ignited into perhaps the fiercest in the NFL
PITTSBURGH -- The latest incarnation of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Cincinnati Bengals rivalry seems here to stay, hopefully with a smaller concussion quotient.
Sure, last year's barrage of egregious hits and social media venom might never be matched. But there's little doubt both teams should be very good and very physical for years to come.
Steelers players can say the Baltimore Ravens are their bigger rival. This year, Bengals weeks are much more interesting.
This once-clumsy matchup doesn't have tradition on its side. It has been heightened by the occasional Bengals surge over the past three decades, but not many fans identify with the Bruce Coslet-Bill Cowher showdowns as a touchstone for AFC North football.
Still, the nastiness was always there, with a rapid shift to uneasiness in the past few years.
"They are not going to lay down, and you have to appreciate that about them," Steelers guard Ramon Foster said.
With the help of ESPN's Katherine Terrell and Coley Harvey, we track Bengals-Steelers from innocent beginnings to the vicious playoff game in January 2016, and what's left in its wake as the Steelers prepare to host the Bengals on Sunday.
Vontaze Burfict's concussive hit on Antonio Brown in the Steelers' wild-card win has come to symbolize what this rivalry has turned into. Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports
.
Early memories
Tunch Ilkin, Steelers offensive linemen (1980-92), analyst for Steelers Radio Network: "Chuck [Noll] hated the fact we'd go over there and the PA announcer would screw up the introductions. He'd always introduce us when we weren't ready. Chuck said we will set up the introduction by taking the field before they could announce us, but they beat us to it."
Chris Crocker, Bengals safety (2008-13): "My biggest motivator was always playing against Hines [Ward], how dirty he always was. I knew I really had to raise my level of intensity. And really take it to him instead of he take it to me that week."
Marvin Lewis deserves a lot of credit for igniting this rivalry. Multiple people interviewed mentioned his sustained success as a catalyst.
Dan Hoard, Bengals play-by-play announcer: "Marvin's first Bengals' playoff team (in 2005), they won the division, they opened the playoffs at home against the Steelers. On their first offensive play, Carson [Palmer] completes a 60-something yard pass to the late Chris Henry and former Bengal Kimo von Oelhoffen crashes into [Palmer's] knee and tears his MCL and other ligaments. There have been incidents like that going back a long time. There was that, there was Hines Ward breaking Keith Rivers' jaw."
Emmanuel Lamur, Bengals linebacker (2012-15): "It's aggressive, man. It's down to the wall, it's all out, because you know how much this city hates the Steelers."
Tyler Boyd, Bengals rookie wide receiver and University of Pittsburgh product (2016): "Of all the games that have been played while I've been around campus, the only one I ever heard about consistently is the Bengals games -- Bengals-Steelers. Everybody around there knows when the Bengals are coming to town."
"The Bengals had created some animosity toward us. That's the fun part of this game. ... Anytime someone's getting used to getting beat a lot, they have to find something to get them going."
Vince Williams, Steelers linebacker (2013-16): "The physicality has always been that way. If you just look over the years, when Carson Palmer was here and I was in high school, Carson Palmer and Joey Porter, it's always been like that. The AFC North, I feel, is the most chippy and competitive division."
Momentum shift
The Steelers still try to play the big brother card, and they have ammunition: 25 wins over Cincinnati since 2000. Those scars fuel the Bengals now.
William Gay, Steelers cornerback (2007-11, 2013-16): "It was always one-sided. We were in the playoffs, they weren't. Then when they were in the playoffs, we weren't."
Wallace Gilberry, Bengals defensive end (2012-15): "It was a time when all you heard was Steelers, Steelers, Steelers when I was there. We kind of changed the atmosphere so to speak. When the little brother becomes a big brother, it started to shift. We were getting better."
Ilkin: "When Marvin [Lewis] got there and the Bengals got really good again, that's when things changed, intensity wise."
Doug Legursky, Steelers center (2009-12, 2015): "With the Ravens, through the years it's more of a personal grudge match. With the Bengals, there's some of that, but there is an underlying respect with guys like Geno Atkins and Domata Peko. We've always respected them."
Marvin Jones, Bengals receiver (2012-15): "I actually saw it really turn into what it's become last year. ... It was always heat of the game, but it never got too frisky and stuff like that. It was just always a good, ground-and-pound AFC North game. But after last year obviously it spiked up and I'm not going to say I didn't like it. ... It just made me feel like, 'Man, this is football. This is gritty and this is grimy.' "
Hoard: "The Steelers stomped them about three out of every four times back then. How good could a rivalry be when one team wins most of the time? But now that it's highly competitive and the two teams have kind of gone back and forth about which teams are going to finish above the other in the standings, now it's on."
In a series rife with football brutality, Bengals punter Kevin Huber might have suffered the worst. A hit by former Steelers linebacker Terence Garvin broke Huber's jaw and cracked a vertebrae in his neck on a kickoff coverage sideswipe in 2013. Consider this a turning point.
Huber, Bengals punter (2009-16): "That's probably the hardest I've been hit in my life. ... He sent me a text a couple of days later. I think I was in surgery. I think I sent him a text back but nothing after that. I didn't expect him to send anything anyway."
Garvin, Steelers linebacker (2012-15): "I feel like the rivalry just grew, it grew over time to not like each other. [The hit] was just a piece of it and another part of the whole saga."
The explosion
During the 2015 regular season, Bengals-Steelers featured non-threatening headlines such as social media spats, fines and pregame shoving matches. Only the playoffs could elevate the hatred. The AFC wild-card matchup in Cincinnati was rainy, messy and exhausting for everyone involved. The Bengals were in position to win with a 16-15 lead and less than two minutes to play. But a Jeremy Hill fumble and personal foul penalties by Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones secured the Bengals' streak of 25 years without a playoff win.
"After last year obviously it spiked up and I'm not going to say I didn't like it. ... It just made me feel like, 'Man, this is football. This is gritty and this is grimy.' "
--Marvin Jones, ex-Bengals receiver on how the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh rivalry has ignited into perhaps the fiercest in the NFL
PITTSBURGH -- The latest incarnation of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Cincinnati Bengals rivalry seems here to stay, hopefully with a smaller concussion quotient.
Sure, last year's barrage of egregious hits and social media venom might never be matched. But there's little doubt both teams should be very good and very physical for years to come.
Steelers players can say the Baltimore Ravens are their bigger rival. This year, Bengals weeks are much more interesting.
This once-clumsy matchup doesn't have tradition on its side. It has been heightened by the occasional Bengals surge over the past three decades, but not many fans identify with the Bruce Coslet-Bill Cowher showdowns as a touchstone for AFC North football.
Still, the nastiness was always there, with a rapid shift to uneasiness in the past few years.
"They are not going to lay down, and you have to appreciate that about them," Steelers guard Ramon Foster said.
With the help of ESPN's Katherine Terrell and Coley Harvey, we track Bengals-Steelers from innocent beginnings to the vicious playoff game in January 2016, and what's left in its wake as the Steelers prepare to host the Bengals on Sunday.
Vontaze Burfict's concussive hit on Antonio Brown in the Steelers' wild-card win has come to symbolize what this rivalry has turned into. Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports
.
Early memories
Tunch Ilkin, Steelers offensive linemen (1980-92), analyst for Steelers Radio Network: "Chuck [Noll] hated the fact we'd go over there and the PA announcer would screw up the introductions. He'd always introduce us when we weren't ready. Chuck said we will set up the introduction by taking the field before they could announce us, but they beat us to it."
Chris Crocker, Bengals safety (2008-13): "My biggest motivator was always playing against Hines [Ward], how dirty he always was. I knew I really had to raise my level of intensity. And really take it to him instead of he take it to me that week."
Marvin Lewis deserves a lot of credit for igniting this rivalry. Multiple people interviewed mentioned his sustained success as a catalyst.
Dan Hoard, Bengals play-by-play announcer: "Marvin's first Bengals' playoff team (in 2005), they won the division, they opened the playoffs at home against the Steelers. On their first offensive play, Carson [Palmer] completes a 60-something yard pass to the late Chris Henry and former Bengal Kimo von Oelhoffen crashes into [Palmer's] knee and tears his MCL and other ligaments. There have been incidents like that going back a long time. There was that, there was Hines Ward breaking Keith Rivers' jaw."
Emmanuel Lamur, Bengals linebacker (2012-15): "It's aggressive, man. It's down to the wall, it's all out, because you know how much this city hates the Steelers."
Tyler Boyd, Bengals rookie wide receiver and University of Pittsburgh product (2016): "Of all the games that have been played while I've been around campus, the only one I ever heard about consistently is the Bengals games -- Bengals-Steelers. Everybody around there knows when the Bengals are coming to town."
"The Bengals had created some animosity toward us. That's the fun part of this game. ... Anytime someone's getting used to getting beat a lot, they have to find something to get them going."
Vince Williams, Steelers linebacker (2013-16): "The physicality has always been that way. If you just look over the years, when Carson Palmer was here and I was in high school, Carson Palmer and Joey Porter, it's always been like that. The AFC North, I feel, is the most chippy and competitive division."
Momentum shift
The Steelers still try to play the big brother card, and they have ammunition: 25 wins over Cincinnati since 2000. Those scars fuel the Bengals now.
William Gay, Steelers cornerback (2007-11, 2013-16): "It was always one-sided. We were in the playoffs, they weren't. Then when they were in the playoffs, we weren't."
Wallace Gilberry, Bengals defensive end (2012-15): "It was a time when all you heard was Steelers, Steelers, Steelers when I was there. We kind of changed the atmosphere so to speak. When the little brother becomes a big brother, it started to shift. We were getting better."
Ilkin: "When Marvin [Lewis] got there and the Bengals got really good again, that's when things changed, intensity wise."
Doug Legursky, Steelers center (2009-12, 2015): "With the Ravens, through the years it's more of a personal grudge match. With the Bengals, there's some of that, but there is an underlying respect with guys like Geno Atkins and Domata Peko. We've always respected them."
Marvin Jones, Bengals receiver (2012-15): "I actually saw it really turn into what it's become last year. ... It was always heat of the game, but it never got too frisky and stuff like that. It was just always a good, ground-and-pound AFC North game. But after last year obviously it spiked up and I'm not going to say I didn't like it. ... It just made me feel like, 'Man, this is football. This is gritty and this is grimy.' "
Hoard: "The Steelers stomped them about three out of every four times back then. How good could a rivalry be when one team wins most of the time? But now that it's highly competitive and the two teams have kind of gone back and forth about which teams are going to finish above the other in the standings, now it's on."
In a series rife with football brutality, Bengals punter Kevin Huber might have suffered the worst. A hit by former Steelers linebacker Terence Garvin broke Huber's jaw and cracked a vertebrae in his neck on a kickoff coverage sideswipe in 2013. Consider this a turning point.
Huber, Bengals punter (2009-16): "That's probably the hardest I've been hit in my life. ... He sent me a text a couple of days later. I think I was in surgery. I think I sent him a text back but nothing after that. I didn't expect him to send anything anyway."
Garvin, Steelers linebacker (2012-15): "I feel like the rivalry just grew, it grew over time to not like each other. [The hit] was just a piece of it and another part of the whole saga."
The explosion
During the 2015 regular season, Bengals-Steelers featured non-threatening headlines such as social media spats, fines and pregame shoving matches. Only the playoffs could elevate the hatred. The AFC wild-card matchup in Cincinnati was rainy, messy and exhausting for everyone involved. The Bengals were in position to win with a 16-15 lead and less than two minutes to play. But a Jeremy Hill fumble and personal foul penalties by Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones secured the Bengals' streak of 25 years without a playoff win.
