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Thursday’s match-up in Pittsburgh marks the second pre-season game for the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers, and both starting units will certainly want to impress in this intrastate contest. This isn’t Montana we are talking about; it’s Pennsylvania, a state that prides itself on its rich football history. Heck, George Blanda is from Youngwood, Pennsylvania. Who’s more football than George Blanda?

One of my favorite movie characters is Marcellus Wallace, from Pulp Fiction, and one of my favorite lines in the movie is Wallace’s, “F*&% pride! Pride only hurts, it never helps.” Pride runs deep in the players who suit up in the National Football League. These men are driven to be the best, so when one team is labeled a Dream Team before the season begins, you’d better believe pride becomes a factor, for both teams.

“Obviously the best Olympic team we ever had,” said two time Super Bowl winner and Steelers safety Ryan Clark when asked about how he feels about the hype surrounding the Eagles and all of their free agent signings. “They (Andy Reid) have done an amazing job finding guys who are willing to come to one place to play for a common goal.”

The goal the Eagles are chasing would be the team’s first Super Bowl title. Head coach Andy Reid, entering his 13^th season with the club, has only one head coach ahead of him in the history of football who has taken that long to finally win his first. That would be former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach (and Pennsylvania-born) Bill Cowher, who accomplished his goal after his 14^th season of coaching. The Steelers have been the Super Bowl three of the last six years and know that pride has had to do with every one of those visits to the title game.

It’s pretty easy for both sides to downplay the game by giving the standard, “It’s only pre-season” response or by saying their opponents “have done a wonderful job with what they have.” That’s all polite and politically correct. However, deep down, where the fire burns for each guy to be the best, there is little doubt (at least in my mind) that when those first string guys suit up on Thursday night, it won’t just be a ho-hum preseason affair.

Clark summed it up best saying, “You can’t say it’s a measuring stick because you don’t have four quarters of good on good,” because the starters will only see action for such a short amount of time, adding, “These guys can have the limelight and pressure of calling themselves the Dream Team.” Was that a little bit of pride surfacing?

Marcellus Wallace might have been on the right track, but he missed the point: pride does in fact help, even as it hurts. and that’s why if one of the first-string units goes above and beyond the other in this pre-season battle for the Keystone State, the loser will go home feeling the sting of defeat.

Historically, the Eagles hold the advantage in this match-up (47-26-3). The last time these two met was in 2008, and the Eagles got the better of the Steelers, beating them 15-6. You might remember a swarming Eagles defense forcing nine sacks, a safety, and three turnovers. Pride remembers those things.

Maybe I’m reading between the lines but when talking with Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ike Taylor during the Nnamdi Asomugha sweepstakes, I could not help but think to myself, ‘Was he referring to the Eagles?’ when he said, “I don’t know if I’ve seen a Pro Bowl shutdown corner win a Super Bowl. Nine years with three Super Bowls,” Ike said. “We must be doing something right.”

Pride will surface as the players exit the tunnel onto Heinz Field. With all the hype surrounding the Eagles, the Steelers going to be looking to make a statement when they take the field Thursday night, even if the starters have just a few plays to di it, they’ll be cranking up the intensity. Coming out on top in a grudge match like this, even if it “doesn’t count,” could go a long way to bolstering (or deflating) pride as the teams look forward to the regular season.