Back in the 1980s, the AFC Central was like big-time wrestling, only that it was real.

The division’s four teams — the Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Oilers — had a real dislike for one another. They all took turns beating up on each other as they took turns getting into the playoffs and making deep runs. Even the head coaches got a little chippy.

Indeed, it was tremendous theater.

And, four decades later, it looks like it might be more of the same in the division ‘s predecessor, the AFC North.

The Athletic came out with its NFL power rankings post-free agency, and three familiar faces are bunched together in the top 10. The Ravens are sixth, the Browns are right on their tails at seventh and the Bengals are right behind them in eighth.

The Steelers? They are 22nd, but they won’t be there once the regular season gets going. You can bet on that. They made the playoffs last season.

It should be a lot of fun this fall.

On another note, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament begins in earnest on Thursday and Northeast Ohio has a representative in the Akron Zips, who, after punching their ticket by capturing the Mid-American Conference Tournament title with a one-point victory over arch-rival Kent State, play that afternoon in Pittsburgh against Creighton.

The Zips are led by MAC Player of the Year, center Enrique Freeman. He is college basketball’s version of Roy Hobbs, the fictional baseball slugger played by Robert Redford in the movie, “The Natural,” who came out of nowhere to lead the once-floundering New York Knights to the pennant. Freeman was not recruited at all coming out of tiny St. Martin de Porres High School High School in Cleveland — not even by nearby Akron, Kent Cleveland State — and came to the Zips out of an open tryout of UA students.

It is an incredible story.

Who in Browns history has done the same basic thing, coming out of nowhere to become a good player? We’ll look at that next.

Stay tuned.

Steve King