Steelers Dismissed With Massive Disrespect On Jacksonville Radio: "Not As Big As Texans Or Titans Games"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have ruled the AFC North since the division was formed in 2002. They have won nine of the 21 possible division titles. The Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals have won six division titles each during that period. The other team in the division, the Cleveland Browns, are unwrapping their Pro Football Focus division title trophies that go nicely with the phantom PFF sacks stat they made up for Myles Garrett. Steeler Nation cannot confirm the rumor that the PFF Lombardi Trophies will arrive after the Browns are eliminated from playoff contention.

Before the creation of the AFC North, the Steelers played in the AFC Central. In 1995, the Jacksonville Jaguars joined the division, and Tom Coughlin designed the expansion team specifically to beat Pittsburgh. Incredibly, it worked. The Jaguars beat Bill Cowher’s Super Bowl XXX squad, 20-16, the first time the two teams met. Jacksonville has handed Pittsburgh some bitter losses in the 27 times they have met, including two shocking upsets in the AFC playoffs in 2007 and 2017.

In the latest example of presentism gone wild, the tenor has changed in Jacksonville after Doug Pederson’s Jaguars stormed back from a 27-0 deficit to Brandon Staley’s Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC Wild Card game. The Jaguars and their fans rightly believe they are an AFC heavyweight. The Steelers, who were once the Jaguars' biggest rival, are an afterthought this week. This is a point that Mike Dempsey and Tony Smith made all too clear on Jaguars Today on 1010XL on Wednesday.

“Against Pittsburgh, the Jags have always been on even footing from the beginning of the franchise. They have always been on equal footing with the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Smith opines. “They have won playoff matchups up there. We can go to the list of guys that have had monster games against the Pittsburgh Steelers. There is a history of the Jags being successful against the Pittsburgh team.”

The Steelers have an opportunity to even the series history between the two franchises at home in Week 8. The Jaguars currently lead the series 14-13, but to hear Dempsey and Smith talk about it, the Steelers might as well be the Cleveland Browns when it comes to any inkling of this being a rivalry game.

“When the schedule got announced, and you started circling the four or five, kind of turning point, pivot games in the season, all those games were talked about a ton. Pittsburgh, not so much.”

The Steelers have become a bad joke to at least the Jaguars fans and sports talk radio hosts. The franchise that measured its success against Pittsburgh as its primary benchmark is one game over .500 against the black and gold. The radio hosts and Jaguar fans consider the 2023 Steelers a little more than a speed bump on their way to an AFC South division title.  

“I don’t think you need the, 'Oh, it’s Pittsburgh, we don’t like the Steelers, we don’t like the fans, we don’t like the environment, the sense of entitlement, whatever it is,'” Dempsey chimed in. “You might not like the Pittsburgh Steelers if you even think about the Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ve got another team that we are capable of beating. It’s kind of like they are in business trip mode.”

The radio hosts were getting out over their skis a little bit, dismissing Pittsburgh as just another team and diminishing the rivalry. Dempsey and Smith have worked in Jacksonville sports radio for a long time for several stations. The disregard for TJ Watt, Kenny Pickett, and the Steelers as opponents is shocking.

“If the Denver Broncos were 4-2 and you are playing them this week, it would have all the same conditions,” Dempsey concluded. “Here is a team that maybe you need to have a tiebreaker over during the postseason. Maybe they win their division. Who knows? In terms of the actual importance of the game, it’s bigger than the San Francisco game because it’s a conference game. It’s not going to be as big as the next Houston or Titans game coming up.”

Comparing a game against two sub .500 teams like the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans as a bigger game for Jacksonville than the Steelers is frankly insulting. The Jaguars have spent nearly three decades chasing the Pittsburgh franchise model with to-be-kind, mixed results. The Jaguars' only relevant victories in their history can be chalked up to the Steelers and an upset of the Denver Broncos in the 1996 playoffs. 

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During the regular season, Mike Tomlin is 5-2 in his career against Jacksonville. The Jaguars have beaten Tomlin’s Steelers twice in AFC playoff upsets, but ultimately trail Pittsburgh in the nine most recent meetings 5-4. Jacksonville has been one of the worst teams in football over the same period. 

Tomlin has only coached one game in his entire career the Steelers did not have a possibility of making the playoffs. The Jaguars have made the playoffs three times during the last 16 years, but PFF has yet to make up a stat for them to explain that they actually won the 2017 Super Bowl. 

Things are looking up in Jacksonville with Trevor Lawrence at quarterback, but they have yet to transform into a model franchise. They are two years removed from the Urban Meyer scandals and have never advanced to a Super Bowl since the franchise’s inception in 1995. The Steelers have been to four Super Bowls during that time, going 2-2.

Art Rooney II should pay close attention to the Jaguars media dismissal of the Steelers as a rival. It should be a canary in the coal mine that the franchise is not respected and seen as little more than mired in mediocrity. Pittsburgh is a laughingstock to the Jacksonville Jaguars and is no longer considered a real rival by fans and local media. 

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Does the Jacksonville media’s dismissal of the Steelers as no longer a rival infuriate you or validate how far a once mighty franchise has fallen? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq. 

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