PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - It took a while to get here…but it’s here (as of this writing at least).
Steelers-Ravens. Another edition of one of the most brutal rivalries in football.
One man that knows this matchup well from years of participation is former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden.
McFadden joined The Fan Morning Show Wednesday and recounted one of the signature moments in the 2008 AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field.
The Steelers beat the Ravens 23-14 that night to clinch a berth into Super Bowl XLIII, an eventual win over the Arizona Cardinals for the 6th title in franchise history.
Steelers’ safety Ryan Clark left his feet and hit Ravens running back Willis McGahee so hard that McFadden thought Clark knocked the life right out of McGahee on the field.
Literally.
“I thought he passed on the football field. I’m not lying. I’m not even being funny.
When Ryan Clark hit McGahee, and I knew McGahee coming out of high school being from south Florida, I thought he died.
On the football field, it sounded like a cannon. Like a cannonball being shot out of a cannon like ‘boof’.
And when it happened, everything kind of went silent for us out on the football field. If you remember the highlight, it was a fumble but people weren’t really aggressively trying to attack the fumble because we were concerned about the two bodies that were laying on the football field, one of them being Ryan Clark.
That might be one of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen in person and something I’ll never forget. But remember, at the time, there was no flag even called. That’s when it was real, legit, knock ‘em out football.
And the fans went crazy. They didn’t go crazy because a player seemed to be injured. They went crazy because that was Steeler football.
The fans went crazy because they saw Steeler football at its highest fashion being put on display.”
Not only will McFadden never forget that moment on the field, but he also told a story of something he’ll never forget from off the field during his time in Pittsburgh.
“I can’t remember what year it was, but we were playing the Ravens and we were both competitive. I remember watching the news when I came home from practice and I saw one school in Pittsburgh, it was ‘wear your favorite team jersey to school’ day. One student wore an Ed Reed jersey and they sent him home.
You know that’s one of the proudest moments of my life in Pittsburgh? Not on the football field but away from it. When I saw that, I said ‘I know I’m in the right city.’
They sent this poor little innocent child home because his favorite team was the Ravens and he had the guts to wear their jersey to a Pittsburgh elementary school and they sent him home.
I said, ‘Listen, you gotta love Steeler Nation.’”