Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers Rivalry Is Dead

As a native of northeast Ohio and alum of The Ohio State University, it is my duty to raise my children to be loyal Browns and Buckeye football enthusiasts. To use the term "fan" would be inappropriate in this area.

Here in Ohio, we are not fans, we are die-hard. We live and die by these teams, we bleed the teams' colors, we eat, sleep, work and breathe our football.

At least I do.

My fatherly duty dictates that I make sure my children understand we do not support the state up north or the black and gold to the east. Eat your vegetables, be good to your fellow humans and do NOT root for those two teams.

These are the rules when you are lucky enough to be part of a bitter rivalry like Alabama-Auburn, Yankees-Red Sox, North Carolina-Duke and so on.

Unfortunately, my children may never know what this rivalry used to mean. The Browns and Steelers in particular are no longer a rivalry match-up. In order for a rivalry to exist, both teams must contribute by winning.

The Ohio State and Michigan Rivalry isn't much better. The Buckeyes have dominated this decade, while the other team dominated the 1990s.

For those of us who continue to support our beloved Browns in these hard times, we still hate the Steelers' nation. In fact, the hatred is as bitter as it has ever been.

I will never forget the last game the old Browns played before shipping off to Baltimore. The camera caught a fan holding a sign reading how we dislike Art Modell, the owner of the Browns at the time, and before the television was switched to a new shot, he turned the sign around to read, "But we STILL hate the Steelers."

But I wondered aloud, do the Steelers' fans still bitterly despise us? Do they even consider us a legitimate threat?

I mean, why would they? They have won 456,243 games in a row against us.

So I polled a number of Steelers' fans that are friends of mine. I know, I know, "friends?" Love the sinner and hate the sin, right?

Most of the Steelers' fans that I asked said that the Browns were no longer a rival. But some of the ladies still spewed hatred for the Browns, claiming them as the main rival. They talked so much smack that I wondered if a legitimate discussion was possible.

Maybe I shouldn't have loaded the question with a "Go Cards!" just before the Super Bowl.

All kidding aside, the ladies felt that the Browns will always be hated. One mentioned that any given Sunday, a team can jump up and bite you even if they are as lowly as the Browns. She said that Steeler fans in general knew better than to overlook teams even in the midst of a 456,243 game winning streak.

As a group, they all felt the level of competition has been so low that the Ravens, who put up a stiffer test and have won their share of division titles and a Super Bowl within the last decade, have become the chief rival.

I got the vibe from the ones who I spoke to face to face that it was an attempt to talk some smack of their own without saying anything. They knew the unspoken hurt more than the spoken.

Of course, one fan had to twist the knife a bit more by bringing up the opinion that the Ravens are the "real" Browns ( I know a Bengal fan who likes to bring that up from time to time) anyway.

My sample was only 10 to 15 people, so I also asked them if the opinions of Steelers' nation as a whole was similar to theirs, and they all replied with a resounding, "Yes!"

So my fears are recognized. The rivalry is dead within the legions of black and gold. A rivalry can't be one-sided. Therefore, as much as we may look at those pompous, arrogant fans across the border (and filling central Ohio faster than flies on....), they could care less about us.

Mr. Mangini, PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!