Why such hatred toward all things Steeler?

Every once in a while, Joe Cleveland gets asked that question. Not often, though. And, it's usually from a fan of the Pittspuke Squeelers that just so happens to live around here.

No, the Steelers didn't kill members of my family or burn down my house or kick my dog or anything like that. However, I DESPISE them. I DESPISE their fanbase, the so-called "Steeler Nation." And, I DESPISE the Steeler Fan who happens to live in my own backyard (no, not one particular person, but you catch my drift).

(On a related note, any fanbase that refers to themselves as a "Nation" should be neutered. The only "Nation" I admit to is the the United States of America. I've never heard anyone refer to "Browns Nation" or "Tribe Nation" or "Cavs Nation" and I hope I never do. It takes a "Nation" of millions to hold this guy back ... and yes, that was a Public Enemy reference.)

As much as Joe Cleveland love the Browns, it's the complete opposite for the Steelers. And, it seems like that hatred has only grown and grown ever since the Browns came back to the NFL in 1999.

But why?

There was always a natural rivalry between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Both are Rust Belt Cities in the Midwest filled with blue-collar people who love the game of football. The communities are only seperated by 200 or so miles, so it's not exactly a lengthy commute to get to Cleveland from Pittsburgh or vice versa.

Pittsburgh is the closest "Major League" city to Cleveland. It's closer than in-state rival Cincinnati, and it's probably just a little further away from Columbus (who has no opposing teams to Cleveland, just the beloved Ohio State Buckeyes). It's also closer than Detroit, Indianapolis and Chicago. The close proximity only adds fuel to the rivalry.

And, because there are some spots in Ohio that are actually closer to Pittsburgh than Cleveland, there are some spots where the Steeler game would be televised instead of the Browns game. And, there are more Steelers fans than Browns fans.

When the Browns (who were formed in the rival All-American Football Conference in 1946) joined the NFL in 1950, they were an elite team. The Steelers, meanwhile, were a laughingstock. The Browns reached the NFL Championship game the first five years they were in the NFL, winning three of them. The Steelers never even made the playoffs.

In fact, it took about four years before the Steelers were able to beat the Browns in football. As Pittsburgh fans like to say now as they beat the Browns every single year, there really was no rivalry then. Back then, the Browns biggest rivals were the Lions and the Giants, and that was because those were the teams the Browns had get through every single year in order to win the NFL. Also, the Rams, because they were in Cleveland before they moved to Los Angeles following winning the 1945 NFL Championship.

It wasn't until the 1960s when there seemed to be a genuine rivalry between the two teams. The Browns reached the NFL Championship game in 1964, 65, 68 and 69 (winning it in 1964), but were pretty mediocre from 1957 (their last NFL Championship game appearance) to 1964. During that time, Art Modell bought the team, fired Paul Brown and built their team around the tremendous running of Jim Brown. Also, the Steelers began to compete with the Browns on the field.

By the end of the 1960s, the Steelers were back to being bad and the Browns seemed to be on the verge of becoming an NFL powerhouse again. The Steelers had the No. 1 pick in the 1969 draft and had just hired a former Browns offensive lineman and Colts defensive coordinator named Chuck Noll as their head coach. That season, the Steelers only won one game, even though they drafted future Hall of Famer "Mean" Joe Greene.

That's when everything changed, and the rivalry ratched up a notch.

Almost mirroring the intense rivalry between Bo Schembechler's Michigan teams and Woody Hayes' Ohio State teams (the "Ten Year War"), the Steelers and Browns games grew more intense as the Steelers suddenly got good. Meanwhile, the Browns were slipping into mediocrity. Browns fans weren't used to being beat by the Steelers, and they didn't like it very much.

In 1970, Three Rivers Stadium opened in Pittsburgh, and the Browns failed to win a game there for the first 16 years that facility was opened. They finally won there in 1986, actually starting a run of four consecutive years of beating the Steelers on the road. And, for good measure, the Browns did squeak out a win there in their return season of 1999, just two years before Three Rivers was closed and the Steelers moved to Heinz Field.

It was during the 1970s that, legend has it, Joe Cleveland's impression of the Steelers was ingrained forever.

I don't know how true this story is, because I was only 4 or 5 at the time, and it was relayed to me by other family members. But, one summer day, my parents took me and my infant brother to Sea World. They decided, for whatever reason, to dress us in identical Pittsburgh Steelers shirts.

I guess we went on one of those ferry boat rides where the fake cowboys shoot air rifles at the fake Indians. As we settled in, the driver of the boat was saying the dos and don'ts of the ride over the loudspeaker. He said the following:

"Please be sure to keep your hands and feet inside the boat at all times and please refain from jumping into the water. Steeler fans, however, can be tossed overboard."

Everyone started laughing, as did I. Until I realized people were looking at me, who was wearing a Steeler shirt.

I don't know if that started it, but ever since then, I DESPISED that team. You can blame Sea World, I guess.

Like I said, I don't know how true that story is. I never asked my parents about it. But, part of me wants to believe that story to be true. Maybe my parents were trying to teach me that liking the Steelers was no good, and we live in Cleveland, so we should love the Browns. And, no, I don't believe my parents were being cruel. They loved me and still do.

But, as I became more and more aware of football, you start to realize that, as a Browns fan, you don't like Pittsburgh and you don't like Cincinnati. And, I HATED both teams with a passion. I also hated the Houston Oilers and the Denver Broncos, but not as intensely and, in the case of the Broncos, for different reasons.

What makes Joe Cleveland cringe and sick is sudden crop of Steeler Fans who live among us in Northeast Ohio and have always lived among us. Where did they all come from, and why?

The Steelers I first heard of were the Super Bowl dynasty of the 1970s, but when I began to follow football, the Steelers were a joke. The Browns were getting into the playoffs regularly and beating the Steelers. Chuck Noll had lost it, and the team never seemed to find a competant replacement for Terry Bradshaw (Cliff Stoudt, Mark Malone, David Woodley, Bubby Brister, Todd Blackledge ... I laugh just thinking about it).

I believe locals began to shed their allegiance for all things Brown and Orange in three different stages.

The first stage is when the Browns passed over Bill Cowher, a popular former player and assistant coach, for Bill Belichick in 1991. Modell didn't believe Cowher was "ready" to be a head coach and may have held a grudge because Cowher followed Marty Schottenheimer out the door when Marty left the Browns to coach the Kansas City Chiefs. The next year, Noll finally retired, and the Steelers hired Cowher. I think some Browns fans were miffed that Belichick (who wasn't very popular among the fans) was their coach and Cowher was with the Steelers. Cowher immediately turned the Steelers into winners as well, while the Browns seemed to be mired in mediocrity under Belichick. So, they may have started to follow the coach they wanted all along and root for the Steelers.

The second stage is when the Browns were moved to Baltimore in 1995. Supposedly, there were some in Pittsburgh who were decidedly against the move. They lamented the loss of their fiercest rival and claimed "it would never be the same" with the team in Baltimore (they were wrong, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. They are from Pittsburgh). Steelers owner Dan Rooney was one of the few who lobbied for the NFL to keep the team in Cleveland and block Modell from moving. The Steelers and the Bills were the only two teams to vote against the move. With the Browns gone, some Browns fans began to adopt other teams to root during the three years the NFL wasn't in Cleveland, and Pittsburgh became a popular choice.

The Steelers had reached the Super Bowl in 1995, so you had the bandwagoners. Browns fans wanted to see the newly christened Baltimore Ravens suffer, and the Steelers played them twice a year. And, Pittsburgh was the closest NFL city to Cleveland, so a lot of Steelers games were shown on the TV.

The third stage was after the Browns came back in 1999. That first game was against the Steelers. And, we all know that the Steelers dominated the Browns, 43-0, in front of a National TV Sunday Night audience. I think some Browns fans could never fully embrace the new team and were also tired of the losing. Meanwhile, the Steelers consistantly qualified for the playoffs. More and more bandwagoners shed their Browns gear for Steelers gear.

What's sad is the local Steeler Fan acts as if they've followed the team forever. They brag about how the Steelers never change coaches (umm, they did hire a new coach four years ago, but whatever) and about how the Steelers have more Super Bowl championships than every other team. They brag about how the Rooney family is the "standard of excellance" for NFL owners. And, even though most of them dissed the hiring of Mike Tomlin when it happened, they can't stop bragging about their head coach.

Newsflash, it's all because of winning. Steeler fans would be screaming for Tomlin's head if the team didn't reach two Super Bowls in the last four years (including this year's). They talk up Bill Cowher as great, even though his teams continually choked in the playoffs before they finally were able to win a Super Bowl just two years before Cowher retired. They wondered why the Steelers would draft a MAC quarterback with a long last name until Ben Roethilsberger was forced into action as a rookie and he won every single game he played. They can forgive Roethlisberger's many transgressions as long as he continues to win.

People don't realize that Art Rooney was a joke of an owner when he first famously bought a share of what was called the Pittsburgh Pirates after a successful day at the horse track (seriously, look it up). Rooney was always broke and had to merge with other NFL teams twice in the 1940s to keep his franchise afloat. At one point, he was bought out by Bert Bell, but after Bell became the NFL commissioner, Rooney got his controlling interest back.

The Steelers reached the playoff a grand total of ONCE between their formation in 1933 and 1970. And, they lost that playoff game. They never won an NFL title during that span, nor played for one, for that matter.

The Steelers had a young Johnny Unitas in training camp, and CUT him. Unitas wound up catching on with the Baltimore Colts and became one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL. The Steelers, meanwhile, sucked.

The Steelers would grab great players on the downswing of their careers. Bobby Layne and Marion Motley immediately come to mind. Both were legendary players with the Lions and Browns, respectively, but stumbled and bumbled around as Steelers before they mercifully retired.

The Browns, actually, have more professional football championships than the Steelers do. The Browns have eight compared to the Steelers' six. If you want to count the Cleveland Rams' 1945 NFL title, the City of Cleveland has had NINE football championship teams, compared to the Steelers' six.

But, all that matters is what has happened from 1970 to now. The Steelers have had three head coaches during that span, reached eight Super Bowls, have won six (and, hopefully, that number stays that way in two weeks) and have won countless division championships. They've reached the AFC Championship game 14 times, winning eight.

The Browns, meanwhile, have only won five division titles, reached the playoffs 11 times, reached the AFC Championship game three times (losing all three) and no Super Bowls. They've been to the playoffs once since the team returned in 1999 and twice since 1990. Both times, they met (and lost to) the Steelers in the playoffs.

They also haven't won a division title since 1989. Oh yeah, and the Browns have only beaten the Steelers four times since they returned in 1999 (twice at home, once at Three Rivers and once at Heinz Field).

You do the math as to why there is a sudden proliferation of Steeler fans around here. Funny part is, real Steeler fans (i.e. people who live in and are from Western Pennsylvania) are ANNOYED at the bandwagon Steeler fans that live in Northeast Ohio. "Follow your own damn team," they say.

For a time, my biggest rival was the Baltimore Ravens, but that was because they were the old Browns owned by Art Modell. A loss to the Ravens bothered me more than a loss to the Steelers. In fact, I actually rooted for the Steelers against the Ravens in the 2007 AFC Championship game. This year, I rooted for the Ravens. I still despise them, but not as much as I despise the Steelers.

I think the sudden crop of Steeler fans around here have added to my hate. You don't see a lot of Ravens fans living around here, nor Bengals fans for that matter. Fans of other teams that live around here (like the Cowboys, Eagles, Jets, Packers, etc.) don't play the Browns every year, or share a divsion with them, so they don't bother me as much.

My new second-favorite team is whoever plays the Steelers every week. On my birthday this year, the Browns lost, but so did the Steelers. For me, it was a wash.

Joe Cleveland is what his name says he is -- a fan of Cleveland teams. I've never allowed Steeler garb to be worn on my person since that fateful day at Sea World, and I never will again. I was born here, I live here and I plan on living here for many, many more years until the day the Good Lord takes me away (hopefully in at least 40 more years). So, I root for the teams that represent me and my area. Pittsburgh doesn't represent me, and they never will. Cleveland does.

So, Go Packers, and remember that Cleveland Rocks!