The Browns–Steelers rivalry or Turnpike Rivalry is a National Football League (NFL) rivalry between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The rivalry originated during the 1950 season, following the AAFC–NFL merger, which placed the Browns and Steelers in the same conference, the NFL American Conference (later referred to as the NFL Eastern Conference starting in the 1953 season). This alignment led to the teams facing each other twice each year. Since the AFL–NFL merger, the Browns and Steelers have been competing in the AFC North (previously known as the AFC Central until 2001).
The rivalry, which has featured 149 meetings, is the oldest and most frequently played matchup in the American Football Conference. The two divisional opponents share a natural rivalry due to geographic proximity and similarities between the cities. It is sometimes referred to as the Turnpike Rivalry or Turnpike War because travel between the two cities primarily involves the Ohio Turnpike and Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The Steelers lead the overall series, 83–66–1. The two teams have met three times in the playoffs, with the Steelers holding a 2–1 advantage.
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 away games. The city of Youngstown, Ohio is roughly located halfway between the two cities, is split roughly 50/50 between the two teams and was within the 75-mile blackout radius for both teams before blackouts were abolished in the mid-2010s. The Youngstown television market is a secondary market for both teams because of its proximity to both cities, meaning that road games for both the Browns and Steelers are by NFL rule to be shown in Youngstown. Both teams have such strong fan bases that neither typically had blackout issues, although the final two games of the 1995 season were blacked out in Cleveland (the last two prior to the original Browns' move to Baltimore). WKBN-TV broadcasts both teams; when they play at the same time the station chooses one game, and gets many calls from disappointed fans of the other team.
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, Eaton Corporation was founded in Cleveland and has long had significant operations in Pittsburgh. Forest City Enterprises owns billions of dollars of Pittsburgh-area real estate. The Cleveland branch of the Federal Reserve includes Pittsburgh in its territory. 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; KeyBank would later acquire First Niagara outright.
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 is from 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 to 1988. Cowher was born and raised in Crafton, a suburb 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 to 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 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 to 2003. Former Steelers Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians held the same position with the Browns from 2001 to 2003.
History of the rivalry
1950s and 1960s: Browns dominance
The Browns and Steelers first met in 1950, the Browns' first NFL season after dominating the All-America Football Conference. The Browns continued their dominance in the NFL as they appeared in six straight NFL Championship games from 1950 to 1955, winning the NFL title in 1950, 1954, and 1955. During that time the Steelers were among the NFL's worst teams.
The Browns won the first meeting on October 7, , 30–17 as they forced six Steelers turnovers. Later that season in Cleveland, the Browns won in a blowout, 45–7. The Browns would win the first eight meetings before the Steelers would finally beat their rivals in . The Steelers won 55–27 in a game in which Ray Matthews had 150 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
The Browns continued their dominance throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, marked by several strong rushing performances by Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown. The Browns would hold a 31–9 series advantage through the first two decades of the rivalry.
1970s: Steelers Super Bowl run
After the NFL merged with the former American Football League (AFL) in 1970, the Browns and Steelers were placed in the Central division of the newly formed American Football Conference (AFC). The Browns and Steelers, along with the Baltimore Colts were placed in the AFC with the former members of the AFL to allow each conference to have the same number of teams. The NFL tried to move the Steelers to the new conference, but then-Steelers owner Art Rooney initially refused. However, Rooney reconsidered after then-Browns owner Art Modell volunteered the Browns to shift to the AFC, partly because the NFL had offered $3 million as an incentive to move but also because of the potential for an intrastate rivalry with the AFL's Cincinnati Bengals. The financial boost combined with the prospect of losing his most lucrative division rival quickly persuaded Rooney to join Modell in the AFC in order to continue their own rivalry, although the team did lose its in-state rivalry with the Philadelphia Eagles as a result.
In the 1970s the Steelers began 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 suffered a neck injury from the play, and the footage of the sack has since become immortalized in NFL Films as part of the rivalry.
The Steelers opened Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 and won their first sixteen meetings with the Browns at that venue. During the 1970s, the teams each won five of the ten meetings in Cleveland. The Steelers ended the 1970s winning seven straight meetings and capped the decade by winning Super Bowls XIII and XIV to go along with their Super Bowl wins earlier in the decade (IX and X).
1980s and 1990s The teams exchanged victories throughout the 1980s. In the first meeting of the decade, the Browns, led by quarterback Brian Sipe, overcame a 12-point deficit to stun the Steelers 27–26. The Steelers would defeat the Browns later that year in another close game. The 1980 Browns, nicknamed the "Kardiac Kids", would make the playoffs that year for the first time since 1972 after Pittsburgh dominated the AFC Central with four Super Bowl wins in the late 1970s.
The Browns ended a 16-game losing streak at Three Rivers Stadium with a 27–24 victory in 1986. This was the first of four straight Browns wins in Pittsburgh from 1986 to 1989. In the 1989 season opener, the Browns defeated the Steelers 51–0 in Pittsburgh. This is the largest margin of victory in the rivalry and the worst loss in Steelers franchise history.
While the two exchanged victories in the '70s and '80s, by the 1990s the Steelers became the dominant team in the rivalry. Since the Browns' last series sweep in 1988, the Steelers achieved an overwhelming 39–11 mark against the Browns, enough that in 2007, the Steelers took over the lead in the all-time series (which they currently lead at 82–64–1) for the first time. This included six straight wins from 1993 to 1995 that featured a 29–9 win in the 1994 divisional playoff game, the first playoff meeting between the two rivals. 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 another Pittsburgh area native.
After the 1995 season, the rivalry took a brief hiatus due to the Browns relocation to Baltimore. 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, Steelers 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 rival, most Steelers fans consider their rivalry with the Baltimore Ravens the spiritual successor to this rivalry due to Art Modell moving the franchise to Baltimore and renaming them "Ravens". The consistently poor Browns' teams since their expansion in 1999, along with the one-sidedness of the rivalry since then is also a factor in the rivalry having diminished in the views of football fans.
1999–2003: Browns rejoin the NFL The name "Browns" returned to the NFL in attached to a new expansion team. They played their first game against the Steelers at the new Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Steelers dominated the game 43–0 in a game in which the new Browns could only gain two first downs. However, in the return fixture in Pittsburgh later that season, the new Browns would defeat the Steelers 16–15 on a last-second Phil Dawson field goal.
The Browns and Steelers would again split the series in 2000, with each team winning in their home stadium.