The Cleveland Browns would like to forget about their early history with the Pittsburgh Steelers. While Pittsburgh was making Super Bowls left and right, Cleveland was fighting with the Detroit Lions for the title of worst franchise in the NFL. Also during that time, Ohio native Ben Roethlisberger always had his way with his hometown team. Roethlisberger vs. Cleveland was basically a guaranteed win for him, especially when playing at then-Heinz Field. Nothing went right for the Browns in that "rivalry" up until around 2018.
Winslow Townson / AP Photo
Browns fans wear bags on their heads during a brutally bad season.
Despite that, the Browns at least had a legendary left tackle in Joe Thomas. He made an appearance on New Heights and was asked about all the quarterbacks he remembered playing with. He brought up the very first passer he played with and his very short tenure with the team.
"We had Charlie Frye, who was the starter Week 1," Thomas said. "I should have just retired after Week 1. Charlie Frye was our starter; he was also the captain, and he was the hometown hero. We play the Steelers at home, my first NFL game, going against James Harrison -- who will be in the Hall of Fame soon -- That was tough enough, but we were getting our a** kicked. He got sacked, Charlie did, like [5] times in the first half. At halftime, they benched him. Derek Anderson comes in, doesn't do much better."
Thomas didn't do a horrible job shutting down James Harrison in that game, as he only had 0.5 sacks in the game. However, the rest of the offensive line did not pull its weight, as the Browns gave up six sacks in the game, five of them on Charlie Frye in the first half. The Steelers bulldozed Cleveland in that contest by a final score of 34-7, as Head Coach Mike Tomlin got his first career win in blowout fashion.
Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers' Mike Tomlin on the field before facing the Cleveland Browns in Week 12.
Thomas continued on to talk about the aftermath of that huge loss to the Steelers in Week 1.
"Monday after the game -- mind you, this was our starting quarterback and our captain, and I came from Wisconsin where we had a lot of success," Thomas explained. "If you have a quarterback and he's your captain, he's your dude. He's your ride or die. You would do anything for that guy, and you're spending all offseason trying to build comradery and relationships and see the same things that he does -- on Monday, they traded him to the Seattle Seahawks for like a sixth-round pick, so I was like, 'What the f*ck is this NFL stuff?'"
The trade to send Frye to the Seattle Seahawks was officially processed Tuesday, but that is still wild. While Frye did have an abysmal half, his inability to deal with the Steelers' elite defense caused the Browns to just ship him off for a late-round pick. It wasn't all Frye's fault, as Pittsburgh recovered three fumbles defensively, with none of them coming from Frye himself.
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Later on in the year, the Steelers defeated the Browns 31-28 to complete the sweep. Those two wins helped them to propel to 10-6, which was the same exact record as the Browns. Because of the sweep, Pittsburgh had tiebreaker and won the division. Meanwhile, the AFC was absolutely stacked for a few years around that time, which meant that 10-6 was not enough to make the Wild Card Round either. They missed the playoffs because they couldn't beat the Steelers.
Alysa Rubin / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers' defense gets ready for a play against the Cleveland Browns.
Of course, the Browns have never recovered from that never-ending quarterback carousel. To this day, they are still looking to add more names to the infamous jersey of shame, with guys like rookie Shedeur Sanders and former Steeler Kenny Pickett competing for the starting role. As a wise man once said, "The Browns is the Browns."
What do you think about the Steelers' defense torturing Frye, resulting in him getting traded? Let us know in the comments or on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.
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