The Pittsburgh Steelers are employing some gamesmanship against the Browns as the teams get ready for Sunday’s regular-season opener at FirstEnergy Stadium.

 

Man! Can you imagine that?

 

It may be only the 10,000 the time or so that this has happened in a series that dates back all the way to 1950.

 

The current example concerns the Steelers’ effusive praise of cornerback Joe Haden, who signed with them after the Browns cut him last weekend. They called him “a top-five corner” – still.

 

Yes, we all love Haden. Great looks. Great smile. Great young man. And, for the first five of his seven seasons in Cleveland, a great player as well.

 

Who wouldn’t love all that in a football player? It’s the reason why, for a time, he was the face of the franchise.

 

The look, smile and personality are all still there.

 

But it’s been several years – not since the end of the 2014 season, really – that Haden was considered a great corner or the face of the franchise.

 

Injuries and Father Time made sure of that.

 

It happens – to everyone. Corner is a young man’s position, and Haden is no longer a young man. He turned 28 the day before tax deadline day this year.

 

The Steelers are trying to get into the Browns’ heads and make them believe that they stole a talented, productive player from them and will now use him against his former teammates. They are trying to make the Browns think that coming to Pittsburgh, which has had a lot of success the last 45 years, is, for a new player, like dipping an empty Gatorade bottle into the Fountain of Youth.

 

That’s all well and good, and you’ve got to like the spunkiness of the Steelers. But everyone in Cleveland knows that just isn’t true – not even close.

 

Certainly, Haden could rise up and play the game of his life against the Browns on Sunday. I don’t think that will happen, but even if it does, then it won’t last long. The Steelers will eventually learn what the Browns already know.

 

And come to think of it, when it the game is gamesmanship, especially at cornerback, the Browns have it all over the Steelers. Although the Browns were goofy enough to select Justin Gilbert in the first round, at No. 8 overall, of the 2014 NFL Draft, the Steelers were even goofier for trading a draft choice to Cleveland for him a year ago.

 

Yikes!