07-30-2016, 02:41 PM
I don't normally post in Smack Talk, but something I saw today from Ben made me laugh and I thought I would share.
In an interview with Mark Kaboly, Ben was asked about the Bengals-Steelers rivalry and this was his response:
“I want to be a good, clean rivalry. I don’t want it to be a rivalry where people are tuning in to see a fight, to see penalties. Once I first got here we had the Steelers/Ravens rivalry. You had Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Haloti Ngata and Joey Porter and Jerome Bettis. (Those games were as) a physical as a rivalry and physical as a football game that you would ever see. Everybody knew that. But it was never dirty. There may have been some pushing and shoving but that’s just guys. You never worried about cheap and dirty type stuff. I want the Cincinnati rivalry to be the same tough and physical rival that people want to see tough, physical football. You don’t want to see cheap and dirty. I don’t want it get to that.”
So, why did I find his answer amusing? Well, after all the years of the Steelers taking cheap shots at Bengals players (everyone knows the list of examples)...and the Bengals becoming much more physical with them over the past couple of seasons...all of sudden, 'playing dirty' isn't needed as part of the rivalry.
With all the whining we saw from Steeler players after the playoff game, and during the off-season, about Tez and the Bengals...it seems that they are having a little trouble when it comes to swallowing their own medicine.
In an interview with Mark Kaboly, Ben was asked about the Bengals-Steelers rivalry and this was his response:
“I want to be a good, clean rivalry. I don’t want it to be a rivalry where people are tuning in to see a fight, to see penalties. Once I first got here we had the Steelers/Ravens rivalry. You had Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Haloti Ngata and Joey Porter and Jerome Bettis. (Those games were as) a physical as a rivalry and physical as a football game that you would ever see. Everybody knew that. But it was never dirty. There may have been some pushing and shoving but that’s just guys. You never worried about cheap and dirty type stuff. I want the Cincinnati rivalry to be the same tough and physical rival that people want to see tough, physical football. You don’t want to see cheap and dirty. I don’t want it get to that.”
So, why did I find his answer amusing? Well, after all the years of the Steelers taking cheap shots at Bengals players (everyone knows the list of examples)...and the Bengals becoming much more physical with them over the past couple of seasons...all of sudden, 'playing dirty' isn't needed as part of the rivalry.
With all the whining we saw from Steeler players after the playoff game, and during the off-season, about Tez and the Bengals...it seems that they are having a little trouble when it comes to swallowing their own medicine.
