"After last year obviously it spiked up and I'm not going to say I didn't like it. ... It just made me feel like, 'Man, this is football. This is gritty and this is grimy.' "

--Marvin Jones, ex-Bengals receiver on how the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh rivalry has ignited into perhaps the fiercest in the NFL

PITTSBURGH -- The latest incarnation of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Cincinnati Bengals rivalry seems here to stay, hopefully with a smaller concussion quotient.

Sure, last year's barrage of egregious hits and social media venom might never be matched. But there's little doubt both teams should be very good and very physical for years to come.

Steelers players can say the Baltimore Ravens are their bigger rival. This year, Bengals weeks are much more interesting.

This once-clumsy matchup doesn't have tradition on its side. It has been heightened by the occasional Bengals surge over the past three decades, but not many fans identify with the Bruce Coslet-Bill Cowher showdowns as a touchstone for AFC North football.

Still, the nastiness was always there, with a rapid shift to uneasiness in the past few years.

"They are not going to lay down, and you have to appreciate that about them," Steelers guard Ramon Foster said.

With the help of ESPN's Katherine Terrell and Coley Harvey, we track Bengals-Steelers from innocent beginnings to the vicious playoff game in January 2016, and what's left in its wake as the Steelers prepare to host the Bengals on Sunday.

Vontaze Burfict's concussive hit on Antonio Brown in the Steelers' wild-card win has come to symbolize what this rivalry has turned into. Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports

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Early memories

Tunch Ilkin, Steelers offensive linemen (1980-92), analyst for Steelers Radio Network: "Chuck [Noll] hated the fact we'd go over there and the PA announcer would screw up the introductions. He'd always introduce us when we weren't ready. Chuck said we will set up the introduction by taking the field before they could announce us, but they beat us to it."

Chris Crocker, Bengals safety (2008-13): "My biggest motivator was always playing against Hines [Ward], how dirty he always was. I knew I really had to raise my level of intensity. And really take it to him instead of he take it to me that week."

Marvin Lewis deserves a lot of credit for igniting this rivalry. Multiple people interviewed mentioned his sustained success as a catalyst.

Dan Hoard, Bengals play-by-play announcer: "Marvin's first Bengals' playoff team (in 2005), they won the division, they opened the playoffs at home against the Steelers. On their first offensive play, Carson [Palmer] completes a 60-something yard pass to the late Chris Henry and former Bengal Kimo von Oelhoffen crashes into [Palmer's] knee and tears his MCL and other ligaments. There have been incidents like that going back a long time. There was that, there was Hines Ward breaking Keith Rivers' jaw."

Emmanuel Lamur, Bengals linebacker (2012-15): "It's aggressive, man. It's down to the wall, it's all out, because you know how much this city hates the Steelers."

Tyler Boyd, Bengals rookie wide receiver and University of Pittsburgh product (2016): "Of all the games that have been played while I've been around campus, the only one I ever heard about consistently is the Bengals games -- Bengals-Steelers. Everybody around there knows when the Bengals are coming to town."

"The Bengals had created some animosity toward us. That's the fun part of this game. ... Anytime someone's getting used to getting beat a lot, they have to find something to get them going."

Vince Williams, Steelers linebacker (2013-16): "The physicality has always been that way. If you just look over the years, when Carson Palmer was here and I was in high school, Carson Palmer and Joey Porter, it's always been like that. The AFC North, I feel, is the most chippy and competitive division."

Momentum shift

The Steelers still try to play the big brother card, and they have ammunition: 25 wins over Cincinnati since 2000. Those scars fuel the Bengals now.

William Gay, Steelers cornerback (2007-11, 2013-16): "It was always one-sided. We were in the playoffs, they weren't. Then when they were in the playoffs, we weren't."

Wallace Gilberry, Bengals defensive end (2012-15): "It was a time when all you heard was Steelers, Steelers, Steelers when I was there. We kind of changed the atmosphere so to speak. When the little brother becomes a big brother, it started to shift. We were getting better."

Ilkin: "When Marvin [Lewis] got there and the Bengals got really good again, that's when things changed, intensity wise."

Doug Legursky, Steelers center (2009-12, 2015): "With the Ravens, through the years it's more of a personal grudge match. With the Bengals, there's some of that, but there is an underlying respect with guys like Geno Atkins and Domata Peko. We've always respected them."

Marvin Jones, Bengals receiver (2012-15): "I actually saw it really turn into what it's become last year. ... It was always heat of the game, but it never got too frisky and stuff like that. It was just always a good, ground-and-pound AFC North game. But after last year obviously it spiked up and I'm not going to say I didn't like it. ... It just made me feel like, 'Man, this is football. This is gritty and this is grimy.' "

Hoard: "The Steelers stomped them about three out of every four times back then. How good could a rivalry be when one team wins most of the time? But now that it's highly competitive and the two teams have kind of gone back and forth about which teams are going to finish above the other in the standings, now it's on."

When Terence Garvin broke Kevin Huber's jaw and cracked a vertebrae in his neck in 2013, it seemed to mark the flash point of the rivalry taking a turn. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

In a series rife with football brutality, Bengals punter Kevin Huber might have suffered the worst. A hit by former Steelers linebacker Terence Garvin broke Huber's jaw and cracked a vertebrae in his neck on a kickoff coverage sideswipe in 2013. Consider this a turning point.

Huber, Bengals punter (2009-16): "That's probably the hardest I've been hit in my life. ... He sent me a text a couple of days later. I think I was in surgery. I think I sent him a text back but nothing after that. I didn't expect him to send anything anyway."

Garvin, Steelers linebacker (2012-15): "I feel like the rivalry just grew, it grew over time to not like each other. [The hit] was just a piece of it and another part of the whole saga."

The explosion

During the 2015 regular season, Bengals-Steelers featured non-threatening headlines such as social media spats, fines and pregame shoving matches. Only the playoffs could elevate the hatred. The AFC wild-card matchup in Cincinnati was rainy, messy and exhausting for everyone involved. The Bengals were in position to win with a 16-15 lead and less than two minutes to play. But a Jeremy Hill fumble and personal foul penalties by Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones secured the Bengals' streak of 25 years without a playoff win.

Antonio Brown, Steelers receiver (2010-16): "The Bengals had created some animosity toward us. That's the fun part of this game. ... Any time someone's getting used to getting beat a lot, they have to find something to get them going."

Landry Jones, Steelers quarterback (2013-16): "It just seemed like a bunch of bodies were flying out there [that day]. It was hard to know what was really going on. Both teams were really good and it was just heated."

When Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier delivered that upper-body shot on Bengals running back Gio Bernard, the buildup was unavoidable. Though Shazier wasn't trying to injure Bernard -- he was adamant about that after the game -- Bengals players looked furious as their teammate laid on the turf. This game had no chance of ending smoothly.

Gilberry: "We were heated about that. Any time you see your guy on the ground, you're not going to like it. But that game was just physical all the way around."

Ryan Shazier's hit gave Giovani Bernard a concussion and knocked him out of the wild-card game in the third quarter, setting the stage for the chaotic ending. Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports

Gay: "It's a game full of men who got their manhood and pride out there and playing for our families. I don't think it got carried away."

Gilberry: "I can see how in the moment things got a little too heated. Looking back, some of that stuff was too much. But football is physical. No one's going to apologize for that."

The Bengals were in control, until the avalanche hit. Ninety-six seconds of real time elapsed between the Burfict interception and the unraveling after a Hill fumble and 30 yards of penalties by Burfict and Jones. That's according to Hoard, who actually clocked it after the game. He couldn't sleep.

Hoard: "Those were the 96 happiest seconds of my life. It was such an incredible feeling of exhilaration that they'd done it, they don't have to hear about the monkey on their back anymore, and 96 seconds later it was gone."

A.J. Green, Bengals receiver (2011-16): "It went from the happiest day of my life to the worst day of my life in about 10 seconds."

Burfict's helmet shot on Brown in the open field and Jones' penalty for scuffling with Steelers assistant Joey Porter elicited different reactions, from confusion to concern to judgment.

Ilkin: "I kept saying what a bonehead [Jones is]. They just self-destructed in front of everyone."

Jones: "I was numb. That's all I can say."

Gay: "I was on the sideline just waiting on the refs to say something or no, see where the game goes. I knew we still had some time on the clock. It wasn't 0:00. We still had a chance. There are rules all the way back to Pop Warner. Can't run on the field. ... A lot of guys on our side I know we're checking on AB. It wasn't more so running out to do anything. It was checking on a brother that was down."

After losing nine of their past 12 to the Steelers, the Bengals didn't need to pave the way for a 10th. Especially one this painful.

Dave Lapham, Bengals offensive lineman (1974-83), Bengals color analyst: "At that point I'm like everyone else, like wow, we got the ball, short field, we're in pretty good shape. I'm thinking this could really unfold. But everything that went on as guys were going absolutely nuts and running into the locker room, first thing that went into my mind was something Paul Brown said many, many times before: 'Act like you've been there before.' I remember him telling us that all the time. 'Calm down, the game's not over. Act like you've been there before.' So that kind of came into my head and then the [Hill] fumble."

Legursky: "Once the game is over, we all look at it the same way -- [Burfict] gave us 15 yards. It was a learning lesson. Don't make the same mistakes other teams make. I don't think people really had an opinion of [Burfict]."

Eric Thomas, Bengals cornerback (1987-92): "It seems like every time the game means the most, this team never seems to come out on top. And it's somewhat of a stigma. They've got to find a way to get past that. The Steelers are a fine franchise, they aren't a great team. And there's a difference between the two. You look at the Steelers' history, which is fantastic, but you look at the Steelers teams over the last five or six years, and the Steelers haven't been that good."

The aftermath

Those invested in the rivalry are left to wonder how to write the next chapter. Steelers players seem indifferent, as if their security as six-time Super Bowl champions doesn't allow vulnerability. Others are more upset with the excessive force.

Cam Heyward, Steelers defensive end (2011-16): "We're about winning. We're not into all the other stuff. We're about the scoreboard."

Michael Johnson, Bengals defensive end (2009-13, 2015-16): "Not only are they fun to play in, but I believe it's fun for the fans to watch as well because it keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you're watching that game, you're going to get your money's worth."

Officials are likely to keep a close eye on Sunday's game, and Bengals fans are hoping Adam Jones won't need to plead his case this time around. Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Lapham: "When you're on the field it's like, 'I want to kick your butt. I hate you,' from a sports standpoint. But in real life it's like, 'OK, man, there's sports, and then there's life.' And it's like, you can go into the same room as a guy without having an altercation. This has gotten to a real unique spot because these guys can't even stand to look at each other. And I'm starting to worry that the respect, you know, the one thing that I always liked about playing sports at any level, especially the professional level, was that respect level you had for your professional peers. And man, I'm starting to wonder if that respect level is getting destroyed a little bit."

Away from the field, some Bengals and Steelers are friends. They will clock in Sunday at 1 p.m., then keep in touch outside of work. Until it's time to turn the physicality up another thousand decibels.

Huber: "There will be big hits this week. It's going to happen. But keeping guys safe is the biggest thing we've got to do."

Gay: "Rivals are down to the fans. That's all they be. It's not as deep as it is for fans. You have fans who are from the city. But on a team you have guys who are from Florida, from Ohio, from Texas, all over the place. ... It's not the first time you'll see that, not the last. People can make it more than what it is, but at the end of the day both teams are trying to win."