In the days leading up to the second game of his rookie season in 1994, against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Stadium, Browns right tackle Orlando Brown kept hearing about the teams’ rivalry.
“All these guys, especially the veterans, and even some of the former players, were coming up and telling me, ‘This one — this rivalry — is just different. It’s not like anything you’ve ever seen.’ And I’m saying to myself, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever.’ I’m not taking any of it seriously,” he said.
“Then the game comes, and on the first play — the very first play, man! — Kevin Henry, their defensive end, picks me up by my personal parts and drags me along the line of scrimmage! Look, I’m a big, grown man (6-foot-7 and 350 pounds, or thereabouts) and this guy has me and is dragging me! You’ve got to be kidding me! This isn’t real! Man, those guys were right.”
RELATED: A Browns – Steelers Classic
Some other stories about Browns-Steelers as the teams get ready to play on Sunday at Huntington Bank Field:
FIRST IMPRESSIONS LAST: The Browns and Steelers got into a big brawl during their game at Cleveland in 1975. It began when Pittsburgh defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene kicked Bob McKay between the legs because he thought the Browns right guard was holding him and it wasn’t being called. “Tom DeLeone had just come to our team,” former Cleveland left tackle Doug Dieken said of the center from Kent Roosevelt High School. “I knew of him because he was at Ohio State when I was at Illinois. Other than that, I didn’t know anything about me. He’s standing on the sideline, and when McKay gets kicked, Tommy comes running onto the field and clocks Mean Joe. I start thinking to myself, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to like this guy.’ “
HARD TO ARGUE WITH HIM: “When I was playing, everybody made a big deal about the guys on the New York Giants defense and how hard they hit,” former Browns running back Jim Brown said. “I get that, because our games with them were always big. But the Giants didn’t hit as hard as Pittsburgh. Those guys were really tough and physical.”
HEY, BUD, WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?: Before Bud Carson served as head coach of the Browns from 1989 to 1990, he was a longtime defensive coordinator of the Steelers in the 1970s. One time he was talking with the Cleveland media and discussed a skirmish between the two clubs. “They started it,” Carson said. He was referring to the Browns, the team he was coaching. Old loyalties die hard.
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING: In the 1989 opener, Carson’s first game as head coach, the Browns crushed the Steelers 51-0 at Pittsburgh, handing them what is still their most lopsided loss ever. After the game, Carson admitted that he was almost scared about meeting his old boss, Steelers head coach Chuck Noll, and shaking hands with him at midfield. “I mean, I wanted to win and everything, of course, but I didn’t want to win by that much and embarrass them,” he said.
CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN: When Carson got the Browns job, he tried to hire his former standout safety with the Steelers, Donnie Shell, to help coach the defensive backs. Shell was spotted at training camp sporting a “Cleveland Browns” t-shirt. “Does it feel weird wearing that?,” a reporter asked him. “Oh, man, you bet!,” he said with a laugh.
MAKING IT WAS HARDLY A BREEZE: Although they have steadfastly denied it again and again over the years, former Browns kicker Phil Dawson still maintains that the Steelers purposely opened a big door at that end of Three Rivers Stadium to create a major draft of air to try to thwart his 39-yard game-winning field-goal attempt as time expired in a game in 1999. Whatever it was and wherever it came from, a burst of air did indeed greatly affect the ball, which just barely got over the crossbar as the expansion Browns won 16-15 to avenge a 43-0 blowout victory by Pittsburgh at Cleveland in the season opener.
A COSTLY LOSS: The Browns, who had started the season 3-0 in their first-year head coach Sam Rutigliano, battled the Steelers to a 9-9 tie at the end of regulation, forcing overtime, in 1978. Pittsburgh won the toss and chose to receive, and it was clear that returner Larry Anderson fumbled the ball inside the 20, with the Browns recovering. It would’ve been a chip-shot field-goal attempt for Don Cockcroft to end the “The Three Rivers Jinx” at eight losses. But stunningly so, none of the officials saw the fumble, and ruled that Anderson was down by contact. Maintaining possession, the Steelers eventually won 15-9, scoring the game-winning touchdown on a 37 yard pass from Terry Bradshaw to tight end Bennie Cunningham on a flea-flicker play. Incensed, Browns owner Art Modell stormed down to the officials locker room following the game. He angrily pounded on the door and demanded that the referee come out and talk to him about the play. The referee advised him that he couldn’t, for he would be assessed a $10,000 fine by the NFL. Modell thought for a moment and then asked, “What can I get for $5,000?”
AND FINALLY . . . : The Steelers’ Dan Rooney was part of the large contingent of NFL owners who, in early 1996, fought hard for Modell to leave behind in Cleveland the Browns’ name, colors and history for an expansion team to take over and play, and to take his own franchise to Baltimore with a new name and colors. Modell finally agreed to do so. It took a lot of courage for Rooney to do that, because he and his late father, Art Rooney Sr., were tight with Modell. But the Rooney family is one that stands by their principles and tries to do what is right, regardless of the difficult choices that might have to be made to do it. In 1999, in their first year back in the league as an expansion team, the new Browns were in Pittsburgh to play the Steelers. A reporter turned around to see Dan Rooney quietly standing by himself in the press box watching the teams warm up before the game. The reporter introduced himself and thanked Rooney for what he had done to help the Browns, the city of Cleveland, Northeast Ohio and the fans. Rooney nodded approvingly, and then said, “Those orange helmets sure do look good back on my football field.” That quote — that tale — says everything you need to know about the importance of this rivalry to both teams and both cities.
Steve King
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