Of Rush Limbaugh and a long-ago Browns-Steelers matchup

By STEVE KING

If you ever listened to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, especially in the fall, then you know he was a big fan of the Browns’ arch rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He said he took a liking to the team while working at a Pittsburgh radio station during the Steelers’ great run during the 1970s. Limbaugh, who died the other day of cancer at the age of 70, loved the NFL in general and would talk about it — and the Steelers — often during his three-hour programs each Monday-Friday.
One such time was on Sept. 10, 1990, just two years after he began his 32-year run as a syndicated talker. The NFL regular season — or almost all of it — had kicked off the previous day, including with the Browns hosting the Steelers at Cleveland Stadium.
The story line heading into the game was that a good number of the Browns defensive starters had held out for all of training camp and the preseason in a contract dispute. It was finally settled the previous weekend, with all of those players signing. Despite having had no practice reps since the spring minicamps, all of them were pressed into duty. Indeed, if head coach Bud Carson had sat them, then he might not have been able to field a defense — at least a competent one.
How would they play, though?
Very well, thank you.
The missed practice time made no difference — at least that week — as, in a defensive struggle, the Browns proved to have a better one by leading the club to a 13-3 victory.
The Steelers scored their only points on a Gary Anderson field goal in the second quarter to lead 3-0 at halftime. But the Browns took charge after in the second half, getting the game’s only touchdown on a 30-yard fumble return by cornerback Anthony Blaylock and then two Jerry Kauric field goals of 28 and 47 yards to defeat Pittsburgh in the opener for the second straight year.
The Browns held Pittsburgh to 49 yards rushing — in 26 attempts, for an average gain of just under a yard a try — and 210 yards overall. They intercepted quarterback Bubby Brister twice — by safety Thane Gash and linebacker Dsavid Grayson — and sacked him three times, including twice by emerging third-year tackle Michasel Dean Perry, who had begun thriving the previous year when Carson took over and switched the defensive scheme from a passive 3-4 to an aggressive, attacking 4-3.
“I forgot how good Michael Dean Perry is, Limbaugh said somberly.
The 1990 season, of course, turned out to be a disaster for the Browns, as they finished with a franchise-eworst 3-13 record, but in the opener, they looked — at least defensively — just like the team that had made it to the playoffs in each of the previous five seasons, with three trips to the AFC Championship Game in the last four years.