| http://www.authenticspittsburghsteelers.com/cheap-ramon-foster-jersey , but respect the Baltimore Ravens I might not be the elder statesman of the BTSC community, but I’m close. My football memory reaches back as far as Johnny Unitas, Sonny Jurgensen, Len Dawson and George Blanda. I remember when a game against Baltimore meant facing a quarterback from Louisiana (Bert Jones) and a running back from Penn State (Lydell Mitchell). They were Terry and Franco, only less so. The Baltimore Colts won their division three times during our glory years. But they were never a rival.I go back far enough to remember when we had only one real rival — the Oakland Raiders. Five times in the 70s we met them in the playoffs. Twice they sent us home. Three times we sent them home. Though I admired several of their players, I had no respect for the team. They were cheaters before the Cheatriots, the “criminal element” that marred the game.We had some tough-fought games along the way with the Cleveland Browns. But during those years, the Browns never made it to the playoffs. As such, though they were in our division Youth Jon Bostic Jersey , they weren’t really in our league. True rivalry was something the Browns, like today’s iteration, could only aspire to. When Art Modell packed up and moved the Browns to fill the hole left by the Colts’ departure for Indy, it was just weird at first. It only got weirder when Cleveland was awarded an expansion team not long after. How then did the rivalry come to pass?Because the Ravens have been good. Like the Raiders of years past, how we did against the Ravens served as a bellwether for how our season would go. We’ve played them four times in the playoffs, sending them home three of those times. Of course, during that same time span, the Patriots have also been quite good, and we’ve met them a time or four in the playoffs. But that rivalry isn’t quite so intense.Which brings us to why we respect the Ravens. They http://www.steelersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-ben-roethlisberger-jersey , like the Patriots, have been quite good for a long time. They, like the Patriots, have been frequent opponents come playoff time. But they, unlike the Patriots, play the kind of game that any Yinzer can respect. They play hard hitting, old-school football. You can, in fact probably should, hate big hitters like Ray Lewis Le'Veon Bell Jersey , Ed Reed, and Terrell Suggs. But you have to give them their due. They come to play. They bring along their want. They’re a team that, like our Steelers, thrives less through technical prowess and more through a hunger to win. The Patriots are Apollo Creed — the Steelers are Rocky. But the Ravens are Clubber Lang.The sum of the matter? We hate them because they are the Ravens. We hate them because they are the Browns. We hate them because they’ve ruined a season or three for us. But we respect them because they’re an awful lot like us — just a little bit less so. Here’s hoping on Sunday night we’ll notch the first of three victories against the Ratbirds this year. Ramon Foster can still hear the sound of his right knee buckling underneath him.It's the first time in the Pittsburgh Steeler guard's two-plus decades playing football he'd ever heard one of his joints go "pop pop pop."Lying on the field at Saint Vincent College after the ugly collision during the opening week of training camp last month, Foster feared the worst."A lot of things go through your mind," Foster said. "You don't want to go through your whole entire career and end it on an injury or have to go to (injured reserve). I've always been a gamer. I've always been a guy that shows up."Something that Foster will continue to do for the AFC North champions now that the right knee that bent backward so awkwardly has mostly healed. The nine-year veteran practiced with his teammates on Monday for the first time since he hyperextended and suffered a bone bruise in the knee on July 28.The 32-year-old is optimistic he'll be available when the Steelers open the regular season at Cleveland on Sept. 9, though a lot of it will depend on how the knee responds to practice.Though he feels good, Foster is also being cautious. He doesn't want to rush back at the expense of his long-term health."This season is challenging," Foster said. "My goal is to be 100 percent right so I don't have to take a week off at some point for general soreness. We'll see how we feel (Tuesday)."Foster is the longest-tenured member of one of the NFL's top offensive lines. He created a role for himself after making the team as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and is entering the final season of a three-year deal he signed in 2016. He shrugged when asked if the injury ended any chance at signing a new contract before the regular season starts."We're at a point now where if it happens Authentic Maurkice Pouncey Jersey , it happens and if not, it's up to me to have a great season," Foster said. "The way the market is now, we'll see how it goes."Foster is simply relieved it's even an option and is well aware of how narrowly he avoided a more harrowing outcome. When coach Mike Tomlin reviewed the play during a film session with the entire team, he paused at the moment Foster's right knee bent backward awkwardly."My foot was in the ground barely turning," Foster said. "Nobody said they could look at it, so for me to be practicing today is truly a blessing."Foster has spent the majority of the past month in the trainer's room recuperating, a process he said he "hated every minute of."Still, he understands it's a small price to pay. Enormously popular with his teammates Youth Artie Burns Jersey , Foster noted an uptick in chatter when he lined up on Monday."The thing I always say to myself is, 'When I'm done, I don't want to be a guy that is just someone they forget about,'" Foster said. "Clearly I've made my mark on some guys because they said practice wasn't the same. It was fun to be back." Custom New England Patriots Jerseys |
