- 23 minutes ago
How Jared Verse is sparking Browns-Steelers rivalry, why this game is massive for Todd Monken's team
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00:00Now, obviously, Cam Hayward said what he said on the Rich Eisen show, which we talked about yesterday at Nauseam,
00:05and we talked about Todd Munkin downplaying this game.
00:08So, Jared Verst today was asked about whether he's excited for the Steelers game and about Cam Hayward's comments.
00:15Same as I always have been. I'm just going in there ready to dominate.
00:18Obviously, I've been waiting for this one for a good little bit, but, you know, the whole bulletin board material
00:21and thing like that, I'm just ready to go put them hands on them.
00:24I'm just going to keep it simple like that.
00:25Did you see Cam Hayward's comments the other day about what you had said after the game?
00:29I'm not worried about Cam. I'm not worried about their O-line. I'm not worried about nobody. They got on
00:33their team.
00:33We're out there to go to dominate. We're about to make Pittsburgh guys on Sunday.
00:37All right. So that would be doubling down on the bulletin board material.
00:41It's a funny question, too. It's like, did you see those comments?
00:43And it's like, not only did I see them, I'll also throw in Mason McCormick's comments as well.
00:47I saw everything and I stand by all of it. Screw Pittsburgh. I'm coming for your ass.
00:52Yeah. And this is honestly, this is what I want. I think there's this media myth.
00:57And I saw our guy and I'm not calling him out, but he tweeted it.
01:01But Anthony Aland, quote, tweeted one of the morning show's videos and was like, you know, rivalries are for fans.
01:08Tell that to Jared Verse. Tell that to Mason McCormick. Tell that to Cam Hayward.
01:11And yes, this, this, this rivalry right now, because the last 25 years doesn't have the legs that certainly the
01:18Steelers Ravens does, or even the Bengals and Ravens does.
01:22But you got to start somewhere. And the idea that Jared Verse is taking up for this, I'll be honest
01:27with you. I love it.
01:29I don't care who it is. The idea that some Brown starter is taking this up and not backing down
01:33from it. I like that.
01:34I wondered where this rivalry was going to go. Obviously with the, the, the Miles Garrett Mason Rudolph thing there
01:40for a few years after that, it kind of felt like every single time the, the matchup was built around.
01:45Basically is Miles Garrett still pissed off. Oh, looks up. Yeah. He'll be pissed off until the end of time.
01:50And then it was everybody else kind of rallying around that and kind of making that the whole story.
01:54We got a lot of guys that were not on the field at that point and have no real, not
01:59only remembrance, but no real identity with that.
02:02This is their own stuff. This is Jared Verse. This is our all 22, all the 22 year olds that
02:05we have in this team.
02:06These are the guys that are doing it.
02:07And what I think bugs me from the Steelers side of things is they've kind of sunned us a little
02:13bit here, despite the fact that the Browns have gotten back into this rivalry.
02:16And this is, this is where I can give credit to Kevin Stefanski, the win in Pittsburgh in the playoffs,
02:21his first year, basically going 500 against the Steelers in his time here.
02:26That was unheard of before 2020. So, but, but with that being said, the Steelers went out of their way
02:34to be like, no, this is still the team we've dusted with Ben Roethlisberger.
02:37Kim Hayward's been there forever. TJ Watt. I mean, this is, this is the old irascible Steelers team.
02:42They remember the one-sided rivalry and those guys specifically have never given the Browns, no matter which era of
02:51the Browns, but the last six years, they've never given the Browns their credit for pushing their way to a
02:56more respectable effort about that.
02:59And that to me is what Sunday's about. Sunday is about if you can, if you can sweep the Steelers
03:03in season, that is a way of announcing your presence with authority in this rivalry.
03:08That's why this game matters more to me as a fan and why I'll be honest with you. I'm, I'm,
03:13I'm picking up that. I feel like Jared verse is picking up on that as well.
03:16Well, and I don't know that Jared verse comes with the same scars that you necessarily do, or a lot
03:20of the people listening necessarily do.
03:22I want to see how I got these scars.
03:24Yeah. But, but clearly he cares about this. Now he started, he started the fight. And so that'd be a
03:29weird thing if he started a retreat from it now.
03:31Are you saying Cleveland started it? Freddie Kitchens, you want to get your shirt up?
03:35Should I get a t-shirt out?
03:36Yeah. Cleveland started it. I actually, Cleveland would be proud to start it.
03:39That actually would be really funny if Pittsburgh fans, if they put on a Cleveland started a t-shirt.
03:42Yeah.
03:42But yeah, like clearly.
03:44But then I want, I want a picture of an AI generated slop of Mason Rudolph's forehead, forehead caved in.
03:50You know what movie Freddie Kitchens was going to see when he, when he got like caught with it?
03:54I hope it's like Hope Floats or something like that.
03:56No, I think if memory serves me right, it was like the Mr. Rogers movie, oddly enough.
04:01I swear to God, it was at a movie theater.
04:04That are, I'm pretty sure if memory, if memory has it correct, he was going to see like the new
04:07Mr. Rogers movie that was out.
04:09He just wants to let a bunch of seven and eight year olds know.
04:11I think he went, we went with his kids.
04:12Yeah.
04:12He went with his kids.
04:13Yeah.
04:14Hey guys.
04:15Hey, a kid from Parma Middle School.
04:17I want you to know that Pittsburgh started it.
04:19So we could have that going is the point.
04:21But anyway, I like the Jared versus doing this.
04:23You know, yesterday I was pretty defendant of, uh, of Todd Munkin and his role in this, but the idea
04:28that verse is taking this this way.
04:30Uh, do you heard Denzel Boston?
04:32He was talking in Meredith's update there.
04:34Like these guys are juiced up for it as they should.
04:36And this is Jared verse earlier today, talking about learning about the Brown Steelers rivalry.
04:41I think definitely it takes a little bit of time, you know, not knowing being a part of the history,
04:44at least, you know, for a couple of seasons of mine.
04:46But, you know, once you get out there, those first two drives, you kind of realize how much it means
04:48to us, how much it means to them, how much the coaches put into it, how much always put into
04:51it.
04:52And how much it means to be for the fans.
04:53It's definitely a different type of game.
04:55So what's interesting about this is, this is what I wanted Todd Munkin to say yesterday.
04:58So what Jared verse said in the first clip, which is, uh, we're gonna go out and dominate.
05:02I didn't need that.
05:04But the idea of, wow, I'm here for like six months and I already get it.
05:08I understand what it means to the fans.
05:10And oh, now I want to beat their ass too.
05:13But verse has made it personal.
05:14I understand you're talking more about the second clip than the first one, but verse has made it personal.
05:17This, this now matters.
05:18You can throw the Steelers part of this discussion completely to the side.
05:21He's actually created this for different reasons than the Steelers history or the thing that I think you want fans
05:26to be in favor of.
05:28Like this is not Jared verse doing 23 years of Brown's trauma and stacking that up.
05:33This is Jared verse running his mouth and the Steelers responding accordingly.
05:36Actually, both clips do what I want.
05:39One is him talking smack to the Steelers and responding with smack talk.
05:43This one is saying, man, that, that, that Thursday night game taught me the importance of this game and, and,
05:48and the juice that actually happens on the field between these two teams.
05:52Cause I mentioned that I felt like the Steelers kind of sunned the Browns a bit during the Kevin Stefanski
05:57era of no, there's no rivalry here.
05:58Who are these people?
05:59Right?
05:59The problem is, so did the Browns and, and Kevin Stefanski publicly.
06:04Like my, one of my biggest problems with Kevin is not, I know he put an importance on the AFC
06:10North.
06:10It's apparent because the Browns delivered with him a 500 record, mostly in the AFC North.
06:17And I appreciate that.
06:18And they had a lot of smack talk.
06:19It felt more with the Bengals than it was anyone.
06:21But like you would, you would start talking about this and Kevin would just go comatose for you.
06:25And it's like, no, this thing matters.
06:27This isn't in the hearts and minds and imagination of Browns fans.
06:31This is a real thing.
06:32You're hearing it from Jared verse, but just like Jared verse, the players got really invested in that old rivalry
06:36too.
06:36I, we already went down the Mason Rudolph and miles Garrett track that every single time miles Garrett played the
06:41Steelers, it was brought up and talked about ad nauseum.
06:44And, and like, there's, I mean, again, they, they picked fights in certain instances.
06:47I brought up the Bengals for a reason.
06:48And Denzel Ward, John back and forth with Jamar Chase through podcasts is a thing that existed.
06:52Like they, they would get after it, but it never, it never fell on Stefanski.
06:56And so I don't know if that's just Munkin picking up what that was or anything in between, but the
07:00Browns always had players that were very aware of what this rivalry was and talked a lot of smack about
07:04it.
07:04I just, I'm more saying this because there've been people like our buddy, Anthony Land, who've said, you know, rivalries
07:10are about the fans.
07:11No, no, no.
07:12The players pick up on this stuff.
07:14The players actually do have stakes in some of these games.
07:17And I think it's while Jared verse went a touch farther than even I would ask saying, ah, I'll answer
07:22it on, uh, you know, Saturday or Sunday.
07:24I'm not afraid.
07:25Uh, the fact that he's, he's picking up what I think the, the fans on, on both sides, by the
07:30way, are feeling and both, both sides of the locker room are feeling like that to me is what this
07:35is about.
07:35We, we, the media has created this myth that rivalries don't happen in the NFL and that's pure crap.
07:42And you can hear it in everything Jared verse had to say, you mentioned Denzel, which is a great reference.
07:46Well, but I, but I do think this common era of media has aided in the team echoing this idea
07:53because teams want to shoot this bleep down, right?
07:56Cause there was a time where losing to your rivals, which is get you fired very quickly.
08:01So you don't want to add any more pressure.
08:02You don't want the owner to get more amped up about it.
08:04I get why teams want to organizations rather not teams, but organizations want to downplay this.
08:09Ah, not for me.
08:10Well, I mean, even has rivalries is what makes sports great.
08:13You go to that side of things, even has them.
08:15I mean, you think has them doesn't want the Steelers game more than any other game.
08:17It's a team he owned a part of.
08:19It's a team that he got his introduction to the NFL with.
08:21Of course he wants that one.
08:23Here was Ken and Anthony talking about the Steelers game and the, the, the stakes on Sunday.
08:29There are 10 players on this 53 man roster.
08:32Nick Kovach went back and found this.
08:33There are 10 players on this roster who were not alive.
08:36The last time the Browns won in Pittsburgh in the regular season.
08:39Mike Hall was five months old.
08:41All right.
08:41I was in high school.
08:43You were in college.
08:44Owen was serving our country overseas.
08:47We were all, I wasn't yet an adult.
08:50Two of the three of us were adults by that time.
08:53We have a long memory and we have no control over it.
08:55So we can be afraid of the boogeyman and all these other things.
08:59And I'm going to get into it a little bit deeper because I think that there's something
09:02patently ridiculous going on here that it's effing week eight.
09:05And we are acting like this thing is the Superbowl.
09:07And I'm not just talking about fans.
09:09I'm talking about media included.
09:10We got, we guys, we got to calm down here.
09:12Six and two is excellent.
09:14Five and three is not bad.
09:15I think Todd Munkin is handling this right publicly.
09:18All right.
09:19So the last line Ken and I just disagree with, but what I heard is trying to downplay
09:25this game and trying to take some of the stakes out of it.
09:28And I, I think I understand what's happening here, but I don't know if it's over the line
09:33to suggest what's happening here.
09:35Okay.
09:35Well, I guess you just got to suggest it and see if his army of people tell him what's
09:38going on.
09:39It sounds like Ken's trying to protect his own feelings on this.
09:42It sounds like we don't want to make this game to be the biggest thing in the world
09:46because they might lose, which I understand.
09:49I, I've, I've had to check myself thinking about this game, the way that I've been thinking
09:54about it all stinking week.
09:55You said yesterday, you cannot wait.
09:58You started wanting to talk about this game on Sunday after the Browns win over the time
10:01when the game ended is when I want to get after it.
10:03And so like, I've had to check myself as well.
10:06And I understand that because we're all excited for this game, there will be a heightened emotion
10:12if they don't win.
10:14I don't think we have to check our emotions going into it though, because they might lose.
10:19I think that sounds an awful lot like protecting our feelings because we don't want to be let
10:23down and we don't want people to overreact if they lose.
10:26No, this is the kind of game you should overreact.
10:27If they lose, it's okay.
10:29This is the one you can go ahead and melt down on.
10:31I also, I guess it depends what your priorities are, what you think actually matters big picture
10:35in this for myself.
10:36Why?
10:36I think it's such a big game outside of the obvious reasons we've already discussed.
10:40And I just, I just don't think people realize you're in first place clearly with a win in
10:43this game.
10:44If not, you're in third, you're going to, you're going to wake up on a Monday morning.
10:47You'll be in third place because the bangles are going to beat the Titans.
10:49So they're going to leapfrog everyone in that discussion.
10:51And then obviously the Steelers will have sole possession of first.
10:54Like, I, I don't know.
10:54I thought, I thought being in first in the AFC North this late in the season mattered, but
10:58maybe it doesn't.
10:59I, maybe I just have the wrong appeal on that because maybe Ken just wants to make it to the
11:02post season and that's all he's happy about.
11:04And he doesn't care about winning the AFC North or maybe he thinks there's enough time to maybe
11:09come back and eventually pull away and win that thing.
11:11I don't know.
11:12I agree with the overall sentiment, by the way, that if they're five and three, and this
11:16ended up being a great game, that we're going to have an outsized reaction.
11:21We're going to err on the side of bad, not we, but the, but fans are going to err on
11:25the
11:25side of panicking.
11:26Well, you're trying to make people feel better.
11:28I would imagine five and three, you're going to tell them there's a lot of time left in
11:30the season.
11:31You're still in a prime position to make it to the post season.
11:33And I agree with the sentiment.
11:34You don't have to freak out.
11:36You really don't have to freak out if they lose, but it's also okay.
11:38There's a lot at stake here.
11:40Yeah.
11:40It's also okay.
11:41If you do given the gravity of the game, I mean, I'm just, again, like you're in first
11:45place and no one's touching you and a pretty substantial lead, all things considered.
11:50If you win this game on Sunday, if not, you dropped a third immediately.
11:52Like the narrative should be on Monday with a loss missed opportunity.
11:57That doesn't mean the season will end, but it might feel like that way for a majority of
12:01our listeners in some media, because this is the moment.
12:05This is the moment that all of this has been building to.
12:08And yes, the season goes on after you have to play the saints.
12:11And yes, there's plenty of other games down the line that can make up for, I understand
12:15overall the big arch, you know, the overarching thing of it's just one game, but it's not
12:20right now leading into this game.
12:22It's not just one game.
12:23It's the only game that matters.
12:24And it seems to matter more than any other game has mattered this season.
12:29I also get greedy with things too, though.
12:31And maybe this is where we're at a crossroads in this discussion.
12:33Maybe Ken is just happy with the five wins because he didn't see that coming.
12:36And maybe he'd be happy with an eight, nine win season and just call that a day.
12:39And whatever happens, happens.
12:40I think a lot of fans feel that way.
12:42I just don't.
12:43I, and you know, I, I constantly get greedy with things and I constantly want more and
12:47I'm constantly moving the goalpost.
12:49I do that all because you have to reevaluate where a season is.
12:52You start off five and two, you get to go and have post-season conversations.
12:55You get to think this team is better than maybe some people in the national media do.
12:59I think this is like, if you're expecting something to happen within your family, a traumatic
13:03loss, and you try and get through the five stages of grieving before the person actually
13:08dies.
13:09It's like, guys, it doesn't work that way.
13:10You can't do, I know, I know like my dad, I'm going to get really morbid real quick.
13:16My dad was terminally ill for most of my life and I thought I could get it.
13:20Guys, I didn't.
13:20It hit me square in the face and I've been dealing with it for 13 years since.
13:25I'm now comparing my dad's death to a game.
13:28I understand.
13:29There's a difference, but I think my point is we can't, we can't get ahead of emotions
13:34that we haven't already had because the game hasn't happened yet.
13:37Now you led me towards death where Coach Riz over the weekend told me, he was talking
13:40about his dad.
13:41He loves his dad and he's very proud of his relationship with his dad and, and his dad
13:45meant the world to him, obviously.
13:46And he told me his, you know, his dad had Alzheimer's.
13:48And so like the last six months, like his dad, he'd show up to the hospital and his dad
13:51wasn't really, didn't really know who he was.
13:53He had to like do that.
13:54And he told me, he's like, he basically, he mourned twice.
13:56Yep.
13:57You know, he mourned, he mourned like that, that, the early part of Alzheimer's and him
14:00going.
14:01And then obviously when he actually did pass, I just, cause I'm playing with the analogy
14:05you gave me.
14:05I know.
14:06I let us there.
14:07No, sorry.
14:07I'm sorry to bring people down here on a Thursday.
14:09It's Steelers week.
14:10My bad.
14:10No, no, no.
14:11This is on me.
14:12This is on me.
14:13Are we, are we, is Ken doing that in this equation?
14:15Is he doing, is he doing like a preemptive morning and then, and then we'll see what happens
14:19with the second part of it.
14:20And I really am hoping that this is not coming off as bashing Ken, cause that's not what I'm
14:26trying to do.
14:27I'm just trying to point out like, it is okay to look at this game and say, it's a huge
14:31game.
14:31It's okay to look at this game and say, I have definitive expectations of this game.
14:36And this might be the first game we can walk in thinking, Hey, the Browns should win.
14:41Not doesn't matter what Vegas says.
14:42Doesn't matter what anybody, the national media, who's going to pick them and who's not going
14:46to pick them.
14:46None of that matters.
14:48You should have a little swagger right now at five and two.
14:51It's okay to have expectations.
14:52And if, and if, and if they don't win, it's okay to freak out a little bit.
14:57All right.
14:58And no amount of preparing ourselves, no amount of preparing ourselves is going to stop that
15:04torrent.
15:04Cause here's the thing.
15:05They could also win because I guarantee you, we're not going to be like, well, you know,
15:09it's just one game guys.
15:11We're no one's going to be pumping the brakes on, on Monday.
15:14If they win, why should we do that?
15:16If they lose a game of this, I mean, just mathematical proportions.
15:21I like that point at the end.
15:22It's a good, it's a good point.
15:23And one we should just keep bringing up.
15:25You don't get to celebrate and act as if it's the Superbowl after the win.
15:28If before the game, you're trying to tell everybody, it's not the Superbowl.
15:31Like, like you have to, if you're going to treat the game, like it matters a great deal
15:35for reasons X, Y, and Z, if you win, then you should come with the same pressure attached
15:39to whether or not you lose.
15:41Should we be protecting our feelings with this Steelers game?
15:44Are you?
15:44I'm not.
15:45I understand.
15:46I might be very mad on Saturday, on Sunday, given the outcome of this game.
15:50I also understand.
15:51I might be very, very happy giving the outcome outcome of this game on Sunday.
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