Future Hall of Famer was ‘scared’ to play Bengals
When you think of the Cincinnati Bengals' rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's easy to come up with a word to describe it. Physical. For a long time, AFC North football has been known as smash-mouth, hard-nosed football. A big part of that comes from many classic clashes between the Bengals and the Steelers. But […]
When you think of the Cincinnati Bengals' rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's easy to come up with a word to describe it. Physical. For a long time, AFC North football has been known as smash-mouth, hard-nosed football.
A big part of that comes from many classic clashes between the Bengals and the Steelers.
But long-time Cincinnati rival and future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger has a different couple of words to describe the rivalry, however. Nasty. And scary.
"When you played Baltimore, you knew it was going to be a physical football game… Clean, just physical," said Roethlisberger in his own podcast Footbahlin. "But when we played Cincinnati, there was a stretch of games there, years then when you played them, you almost didn't want to play."
"There were times I was almost fearful to play because I was afraid I was going to get hurt because of something dirty. Something cheap."
As much as you love the Bengals, it's only fair to say he's got a point. The days of Vontaze Burfict are gone but not forgotten. His hit on JuJu Smith-Schuster is only one of many, many other examples.
It's a bittersweet comment for Bengals fans. On one hand, you love to hear about a divisional rival being scared to play your favorite football team. On the other, not even diehard fans can argue the fact that Burfict's dirtiness didn't belong in the NFL.
Roethlisberger's comments also serve as a reminder that this is a very different rivalry now.
The Bengals no longer have a "dirty" identity and Big Ben is out of Pittsburgh.
In the meantime, Cincinnati has become one of the prime contenders in the NFL. They get a chance to prove why on Sunday in a game in which they're 6.5-point home favorites.
You can catch the full podcast episode below.
Featured image via Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
