Ed Puskas: No lesser of two evils when it’s Ravens vs. Steelers

Just about everywhere I went last week, inquiring minds wanted to know what I thought.

Baltimore or Pittsburgh?

Ravens or Steelers?

Rosanne Barr or Rosie O’Donnell?

Michigan or Notre Dame?

Brussel sprouts or lima beans?

AMC Gremlin or Ford Pinto?

My answer was always the same:

Why can’t there be a third option?

You know, like Heinz Field collapsing into a giant sinkhole in the middle of Saturday night’s AFC wildcard game.

As a lifelong fan of The AFC North Team That Never Makes The Playoffs — otherwise known as the Cleveland Browns — people seem to want me to pick between two evils when the Ravens and Steelers play.

It doesn’t work that way for most Browns fans, who hate both Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

(Disclaimer: Yes, I understand “hate” is a strong word and it can have extremely negative connotations. I’m using it here not so much in a literal sense, so please spare me the righteous indignation.)

Most Browns fans simply can’t suspend the “exuberant dislike” — better than hate? — they have for either the Ravens or Steelers long enough to actually root for one or the other for three hours.

The Ravens have Ray Rice. Well, they had Ray Rice. They even defended him and said he’d be a good guy who promised he’d never again knock his fiancee unconscious in an elevator. Then a video surfaced and the Ravens — and the NFL as a whole — quickly backtracked.

Backtracked? They all but backed the team bus over Rice in their haste to distance themselves from him.

Then there is Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs, one of the dirtiest players in the league. And just for good measure, Ray Lewis. Yes, he’s retired, but for our purposes we’ll still count him against the Ravens.

All this, and we haven’t even broached the subject of Baltimore’s complicity when Art Modell moved the old Browns there after the 1995 season.

But wait. The Steelers aren’t exactly without negative role models.

Ben Roethlisberger is married with children now, but it wasn’t all that long ago that he was almost as well-known for his off-the-field exploits — including some that were alleged to have been illegal — as any on the field.

And then there is James Harrison, a player repeatedly fined for illegal hits on the field. Colt McCoy’s ears are probably still ringing from a nasty hit delivered by Harrison in 2011.

Harrison has been in NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s office so often, he probably has a toothbrush there. Not that they’re chummy. Harrison has openly mocked Goodell’s attempts to discipline NFL players more than once.

Le’Veon Bell’s breakout season has all but wiped the memory of his summer arrest — with the long-gone LeGarrette Blount — from the memory of most Steelers fans.

I know Merril Hoge hasn’t played a down for the Steelers since 1993, but his persistent trolling of Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel is so over the top, it should count against Pittsburgh.

So you can see how a Browns fan would be conflicted about a Ravens-Steelers playoff game.

If only they both could have lost.

Write Vindicator Sports Editor Ed Puskas at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @EdPuskas_Vindy.com