The Story of TJ Houshmandzadeh Behind the Terrible Towel; says Steelers ‘deliberately hurt’ Carson Palmer

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While the Pittsburgh Steelers’ rivalry with the Cincinnati Bengals has cooled considerably since its simmering heyday, some old feuds never die.

Former longtime Bengals wide receiver TJ Houshmandzadeh revealed – at least from his perspective – some lingering sour grapes on the Steelers’ 2005 win in Cincinnati. Bengals franchise quarterback Carson Palmer was limited to two offensive shots in the game after he was hit in the left knee by Kimo von Oelhoffen after posting what was a 66-yard pass to Chris Henry.

The Steelers defeated the Bengals, 31-17, on their way to winning Super Bowl XL four weeks later.

Von Oelhoffen’s coup indirectly led to an NFL rule change that prohibited defenders from pouncing on a passer below the knee. He was reprimanded in Cincinnati – and, apparently, is still a point of contention.

In an interview with Lindsay Patterson of the Cincinnati Enquirer this week, Houshmandzadeh referred to the success by saying of the Steelers, “If they hadn’t deliberately hurt Carson, in my opinion they wouldn’t have beaten us in the playoffs. .

Houshmandzadeh was speaking against the backdrop of questioning what has become an infamous aspect of the Steelers-Bengals rivalry from Pittsburgh’s perspective. A month before the Palmer-von Oelhoffen playoff game, the Bengals beat the Steelers at Heinz Field to take the lead of AFC North. They would win their 19-year-old first division title the following week.

After the win in Pittsburgh, however, Houshmandzadeh celebrated in part by taking a Terrible Towel and playfully wiping his shoes.

The incident drew attention in Pittsburgh, and it was said that the erasure cursed Houshmandzadeh and the Bengals because they lost to the Steelers in the playoffs and Palmer was injured.

Houshmandzadeh told Patterson that he “(don’t regret it) at all.”

“For me it was fun,” he says. “(The Steelers) all saw it as disrespectful, but it was fun.

In another interview Houshmandzadeh did this week, he admitted that the Steelers weren’t the only ones who viewed the use of the towel by Bengals players as disrespectful. Houshmandzadeh told the Extra Points Pod that Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis told Houshmandzadeh it was disrespectful for a Bengals player to have one on him.

Houshmandzadeh said he paid a Steelers fan $ 100 for his Terrible Towel as they climbed into the team’s hotel elevator together on their way to the game. Houshmandzadeh slipped it into the back of his pants during warm-ups, but after Lewis told him not to, Houshmandzadeh said he put it in the back pocket of the Bengals receivers coach of the time, Hue Jackson.

Houshmandzadeh had two touchdowns in the Bengals’ 38-31 win over the Steelers that day. When the game was over, he retrieved Jackson’s towel and fled the field waving it.

“And just before we got to the tunnel – it wasn’t planned; it was impromptu – I just sat down and (started wiping his shoes with the terrible towel), ”Houshmandzadeh said.

“It was a good game for me!”

While the Steelers are set to face the Bengals for the first time this season at 4:25 p.m. Sunday, the incident was relived this week after the official Bengals Twitter account posted a short video clip of the towel wiping under the caption “Steelers Week” with an angry emoji face.

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Chris Adamski is a writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .

Categories:
Sports | Steelers / NFL



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