Browns–Steelers rivalry

The Browns–Steelers rivalry is one of the most storied rivalries in the NFL. With 118 meetings and counting, it is the oldest rivalry and the most storied in the American Football Conference (AFC), surpassing any other rivalry in the conference by at least 5 contests. The two divisional foes have a natural rivalry due to the commonalities between the cities, their proximity, etc. It is sometimes called the Turnpike Rivalry because the majority of the driving route between the two cities is via the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes.

Similarities between the cities
The rivalry was primarily fueled by the close proximity between the two cities, as Cleveland and Pittsburgh are roughly 135 miles apart. Many fans make the two hour drive by car to road games. Also, the city of Youngstown, Ohio is roughly located at the halfway mark between the two cities and is within the 75-mile blackout radius for both teams. The Youngstown television market has dual rights to both teams. Both teams have such strong fan bases that neither typically has blackout issues since the current rules were implemented in, although the final two games of the 1995 season were blacked out in Cleveland (the last two prior to the Art Modell's move to Baltimore); one of these games was against their in-state rivals the Cincinnati Bengals. The Youngstown area fan base remains roughly split 50/50 between the Steelers and Browns.

Businesses
In recent times, Pittsburgh-area businesses have entered the Cleveland market by buying out local Cleveland-area competitors such as Giant Eagle, Dollar Bank, Howard Hanna Realty, and PNC Financial Services acquisition of National City Corp. Among other reasons, some Clevelanders didn't like the idea of a Pittsburgh-based bank buying National City because of the rivalry between the Browns and Steelers. PNC and Giant Eagle are official team sponsors for both teams. In addition, natural expansion has occurred with companies with Western Pennsylvania roots with Vocelli Pizza and Altoona-based Sheetz making successful expansions into the Cleveland market.

Conversely, Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams has locations throughout Pittsburgh and nationally is one of the top competitors to Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries. Two former Cleveland-based businesses, Picway Shoes and Revco, had locations throughout Pittsburgh before being bought out by Payless ShoeSource in 1994 and CVS/pharmacy in 1998, respectively. National City Bank itself had expanded into Pittsburgh in 1995 through its acquisition of Integra Bank and actually caused antitrust problems when PNC bought National City in 2008, being forced to divest 61 National City branches in Western Pennsylvania. Although First Niagara Bank ultimately bought 57 of the branches, Cleveland-based KeyBank was one of the banks that was considering buying the branches and expanding into Pittsburgh.

Republic Steel, which was based in Cleveland, was the company that suggested to the Steelers that the team use the Steelmark logo on its helmets in 1962. The logo later became the Steelers primary trademark, and is arguably better known with the logo than the steel industry itself.

Coaches and players
The teams have also had various prominent players and coaches with roots in the other team. For instance, former Steelers head coach Chuck Noll was born in Cleveland and played linebacker for the Browns. His successor as head coach, Bill Cowher, also played linebacker and special teams for the Browns, and was an assistant coach for the Browns from 1985-1988. In the 1980s and 1990s however Cowher was considered a native Pittsburgher playing and coaching for Cleveland, having been born and raised in the west hills suburbs of Pittsburgh. Former Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer is a native of Pittsburgh area suburb Canonsburg, along with his brother Kurt Schottenheimer, who was the Browns special teams coach from 1987-1988. Another Browns head coach, Bud Carson also had as his hometown a northern suburb of Pittsburgh and was a longtime Steelers coordinator under Chuck Noll.

Steelers Hall of Famer Jack Lambert is a native Ohioan and attended Kent State University, as did Akron, Ohio native James Harrison. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hails from Findlay, Ohio. Former Browns fullback Tim Manoa attended Penn State. Former punter Chris Gardocki played for three years for the Steelers, including the Super Bowl XL championship team, after playing five seasons with the Browns from 1999-2003. Current Steelers Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians held the same position with the Browns from 2001-2003.

History of the rivalry
The Browns and Steelers first met in 1950, the Browns' first NFL game after dominating the AAFC. Early on during this period, the Browns were one of the NFL's elite teams and dominated the rivalry. The Steelers did not win the first game against the Browns until 1954.

The rivalry would carry over to the newly-formed American Football Conference in 1970 as the two teams and the then-Baltimore Colts joined the former American Football League (AFL) teams in the conference as part of the AFL-NFL merger. The newly-merged league needed to move three teams from the "old" NFL to the AFC so that the two conferences had 13 teams even. (The rest of the "old" NFL teams joined the newly-formed NFC.) The NFL tried to get the Steelers to the new conference, but then-Steelers owner Art Rooney initially refused. Then-Browns owner Art Modell volunteered the Browns to shift to the AFC after he was offered $3 million as an incentive to move. That financial boost made it easy to convince Art Rooney to join him in the AFC in order to continue their own rivalry. In addition, a potential intrastate rivalry with the Cincinnati Bengals (due to his lingering feud with Paul Brown at the time) could be developed (though like the Browns, the Bengals currently view the Steelers as their biggest rival).

However, in the 1970s the Steelers had begun to even the playing field with the Browns, led by head coach Chuck Noll, a Cleveland native and former Browns linebacker. By then, the rivalry between the two clubs was more hostile and personal, as evident in the 1976 matchup at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, when Joe "Turkey" Jones tackled Terry Bradshaw with a pile-driving sack. Bradshaw would suffer a neck injury from the play, and the footage of the sack has since become immortalized in NFL Films as part of the rivalry.

While the two would exchange victories in the 1970s and 1980s, by the 1990s the Steelers would become the dominant team in the rivalry. Since the Browns' last series sweep in 1988, the Steelers have an overwhelming 29-8 mark against the Browns, enough that in 2007 the Steelers took over the lead in the all-time series (which they currently lead at 60-56) for the first time. During most of this time, Bill Cowher was head coach of the Steelers. Cowher, a native of the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton, also played linebacker for the Browns (though unlike Noll, Cowher mostly played special teams), and also served as an assistant in Cleveland under Marty Schottenheimer, himself a native of another Pittsburgh area suburb, Canonsburg.

The Steelers also have a 2-0 record against the Browns in the playoffs, with both games taking place in Pittsburgh.

The rivalry took a brief hiatus from 1996-1998 due to the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy. When the league was voting on the Browns relocation, Steelers owner Dan Rooney was one of only two owners to vote against the move. In tribute of Cleveland losing the Browns, Steeler fans wore orange arm bands to the final game at Three Rivers Stadium as a sign of mutual respect and sorrow for losing a great rivalry. While Browns fans still consider the Steelers as their main archrival, a small number of Steeler fans consider their rivalry with the Baltimore Ravens the spiritual successor to this rivalry due to Art Modell moving the his franchise to Baltimore and establish the expansion Ravens, even though the recent one-sidedness of this rivalry in favor of the Steelers has influenced this thinking as well. Nevertheless, it is still heated between both teams and one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL.

Jinx

 * The Three Rivers Jinx. When the Steelers moved to Three Rivers Stadium in 1970, they defeated the Browns 16 straight times before the Browns finally broke through with a win in 1986. The Browns eventually went on to post a miserable all-time mark (5-24, .172) at the stadium from 1970-2000. At Heinz Field (opened 2001), the Steelers lead 10-1. Since the 1970 merger, the Browns are 6-34 at Pittsburgh. Before that, they had won 16 of their first 20 visits (1950-1969).


 * Likewise, the Steelers posted a less-than-spectacular record (14-32, .304) at the Browns' old facility, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, from 1950-1995. At Cleveland Browns Stadium (opened 1999), the Steelers lead 9-2. Since 1974 (their first Super Bowl season), the Steelers lead 18-15 in Cleveland. Beforehand, the Steelers had lost 19 of 24 on the road (1950-1973).

Records

 * The greatest defeat in Steelers history occurred on the season opener (September 10) of the 1989 NFL Season in Pittsburgh when the Browns won 51-0. Nearly ten years to the day (September 12), when the Browns returned to the league in the 1999 NFL Season, the Steelers defeated them in their first game back 43-0, still the revived Browns' worst loss as well as the Steelers' most lopsided defeat ever of the Browns.


 * The game is the most played rivalry in the AFC and fifth most played in the NFL. Among the top 5 NFL rivalries however the win-loss difference of 4 games (2 regular season games) arguably makes it the most contested in the league.