The Pittsburgh Steelers have had many ferocious and intense battles throughout their history, many of which have come against their familiar AFC North opponents. Ben Roethlisberger had a very successful playing career within the division, posting a 71-24-1 record in his 18-year career against the AFC North. Despite his success, he took many hard hits and suffered a lot of minor and nagging injuries in these games. These injuries could have been more severe had it not been for Baltimore Ravens Hall Of Fame linebacker, Ray Lewis. Roethlisberger spoke about this on the most recent episode of his podcast, Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger.
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Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 18 seasons.
Roethlisberger has played many close games with the rest of the AFC North, in both the regular season and the playoffs. He has individual records of 26-2-1 against the Cleveland Browns, 24-10 against the Cincinnati Bengals, and 19-11 against the Ravens. Over the course of his 18-year career, he was known to dominate the division, winning the North eight times. Although there were clear rivalries amongst the teams, there was also a mutual respect between players.
The Steelers And Ravens Mutual Respect
Examples of this mutual respect include the relationship between Troy Polamalu and Ravens safety, Ed Reed, who are widely considered two of the best to play the position in NFL history. They were both the best safeties in the league during their playing careers and their teams clashed at least twice a season.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelers safety Troy Polamalu had one amazing career in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger described the mutual respect between players by explaining a situation that happened between himself and Lewis on his podcast, and discussed how Lewis saved him from suffering a severe leg injury.
"I remember one time I was holding onto the ball and there was a pile up and I kind of got my leg bent under me. It was one of those ones where if a few guys keep going something bad was going to happen. I remember yelling and he [Lewis] started pulling guys off of me and helping make it so it wasn't so bad, and I respected that."
Roethlisberger could have suffered a significant knee injury or even a broken leg, however Lewis realized what was happening and was able to help out during the situation so the two of them could still compete for the rest of the game. Roethlisberger attributed this to always wanting to play against your opponents at their full strength.
"He took the approach, and I think a lot of competitors would do the same thing, where I want to beat you. I want to beat that team, but I want to beat them with their best out there. If you want to beat the Chiefs, you want to beat them with Patrick Mahomes, not without him."
Unfortunately for Roethlisberger and Lewis, Roethlisberger was beat up a lot of times in his career. He had missed six games against Baltimore because of injury-related reasons and, in those games, the Steelers struggled to win because they were not at their full strength without their franchise quarterback. Regardless, despite the on-field rivalry between the two players, they both had and showed mutual respect towards one another while competing. Roethlisberger had prefaced this story about Lewis by explaining how they would always help one another up after a play.
Baltimore Sun
Steelers Jerome Bettis meets Ray Lewis
Both Lewis and Roethlisberger found a lot of success in their football careers. Both were always at the top of the NFL at their position, and both were able to win two Super Bowls. Lewis was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2018, and Roethlisberger is expected to be inducted during his first year of eligibility in 2027.
The two have combined for many great games, including the 2008 AFC Championship which the Steelers won by a score of 23-14 after Polamalu returned an interception for a touchdown with just minutes left to play. The Steelers would go on to beat the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl that year, capturing their sixth Lombardi Trophy. Lewis wound up retiring after the 2012 NFL season, in which the Ravens won their second Super Bowl.
What do you think about this story between Lewis and Roethlisberger Steeler Nation? Let us know in the comments below!
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