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For everyone who grew up watching football in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens were must-see TV. Not just for the razor-thin outcomes but the brutality of the game. As the oldheads would say, \u201cwhen football was football.\u201d Games where receivers like Hines Ward turned into linebackers.<\/p>\n
While the stakes are just as high this time around, the way the game will be played is a little different than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to watch Hines Ward all the time,\u201d WR George Pickens said via the team\u2019s Twitter account of Steelers-Ravens games of yesteryear. \u201cWe can\u2019t do some of the stuff Ward used to do now, but I used to watch him all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
New NFL rules to promote player safety have taken some of the teeth out of games like these. Many changes were due to Ward and the Steelers. Bone-crushing crackback blocks are outlawed thanks to Ward breaking LB Keith Rivers\u2019 jaw while the NFL dialed in defenseless-player rules after James Harrison turned the Cleveland Browns into an infirmary.<\/p>\n
One of Ward\u2019s biggest moments in the Steelers-Ravens rivalry didn\u2019t come on a catch. In Pittsburgh\u2019s 2007 blowout win, Ward de-cleated FS Ed Reed on a block, sending him woozy and off the field.<\/p>\n