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          Groin kick, mystery phone call started Jaguars-Steelers rivalry

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          • Michael DiRocco, ESPN Staff WriterNov 14, 2018, 01:00 PM
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              Michael DiRocco is an NFL reporter at ESPN. DiRocco covers the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously covered the University of Florida for over a decade for ESPN.com and Florida Times-Union. DiRocco graduated from Jacksonville University and is a multiple APSE award winner. You can follow DiRocco on Twitter at @ESPNdirocco.
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          JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An alleged death threat and a kick to the groin are pretty much guaranteed to get people angry.

          The first was a prank, but the second, well, it's certainly plausible.

          Either way, those two things are what ignited the Jacksonville Jaguars-Pittsburgh Steelers rivalry, and although it cooled off for a decade, it flared again after the Jaguars' sweep last season. That makes Sunday's meeting at TIAA Bank Field (1 p.m. ET, CBS) pretty interesting, despite the Jaguars' surprising 2018 free fall.

          "If you didn't get up for any other game -- excluding the Titans in that -- you had to get up for the Steelers," former running back Fred Taylor said. "... It's a rivalry built on respect."

          Maybe now, but it certainly didn't start out that way.

          Jaguars offensive lineman Brian Demarco accused linebacker Greg Lloyd of kicking him in the groin during one of the 1996 meetings and vowed to return the favor. In 1997, Lloyd hammered an unsuspecting Keenan McCardell after the first play of the Oct. 27 meeting because he was angry McCardell left him a phone message in which he introduced himself and said, "I'm going to kill you."

          McCardell denied making the call and suggested a Steelers staffer might have done it to motivate Lloyd. Then-Steelers coach Bill Cowher said he had no idea who made the call.

          Cowher, by the way, has his own moment in the rivalry from earlier that season. He stepped onto the field and nearly hit Jaguars defensive back Chris Hudson as Hudson was running down the sideline with a blocked kick to seal the Jaguars' 30-21 victory on Monday Night Football.

          Anyway ... three years into the Jaguars' existence, they had managed to anger one of the most respected and storied NFL franchises.

          Looking back

          Here are some other highlights (or lowlights, depending on your allegiance) from the series:

          • When the NFL expanded to 30 teams in 1995, realignment put the Jaguars in the AFC Central with the Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Houston Oilers and Cincinnati Bengals. The Jaguars and Steelers split the annual meetings every season but one -- 1999 -- when the Jaguars won both en route to an NFL-best 14-2 record. The NFL expanded again in 2002, and the Jaguars were moved into the AFC South.

          • Taylor holds the single-game rushing record in Pittsburgh, running for 234 on Nov. 19, 2000, in the Jaguars' 34-24 victory. O.J. Simpson is the only other player to rush for more than 200 yards at Three Rivers Stadium. Steelers running back Willie Parker has the only two 200-yard games at Heinz Field (which replaced Three Rivers Stadium in 2001).

          • Each team hired opposing coordinators. Tom Coughlin hired former Steelers defensive coordinator Dom Capers, and Cowher hired former Jaguars offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride in 1999.

          • The Steelers won in overtime in 1997 on Jerome Bettis' 17-yard touchdown catch off a shovel pass from quarterback Kordell Stewart. A key play in that game was Lloyd's stuff of running back James Stewart for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Pittsburgh 2-yard line.

          • Jaguars mascot Jaxson de Ville has drawn the Steelers' ire twice. In 1998, he went onto the field to stomp on a stuffed doll representing Stewart near the Steelers' offensive huddle. During a game in 2014, de Ville carried a sign that said TOWELS CARRY EBOLA, a jab at the Terrible Towels that Steelers fans wave at games. The Jaguars issued an apology several days later, and Curtis Dvorak, the man inside the mascot costume, was disciplined internally.

          • Steelers kicker Jeff Reed, playing in his first game with the team, kicked six field goals in Pittsburgh's 25-23 victory in 2002.

          • Quarterback David Garrard's fourth-down scramble set up Josh Scobee's winning field goal in the Jaguars' 31-29 victory in an AFC playoff game in January 2008. That was the last time the Jaguars made the playoffs until last season.

          Still heated

          Which brings us to Sunday's matchup ...

          The Steelers (6-2-1) are surging after five consecutive victories, and the Jaguars (3-6) are a mess after five consecutive losses, but the rivalry is as hot as ever.

          The Steelers won five of the eight regular-season meetings from 2002-16, but the Jaguars won 30-9 in Heinz Field last season, intercepting Ben Roethlisberger a career-high five times. That started a run of eight wins in 10 games by Jacksonville, and the team made the playoffs for the first time in a decade. The Jaguars beat Buffalo in the first round of the playoffs, earning a return trip to Pittsburgh.

          The Steelers, who had talked late in the regular season about meeting the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, were eager for another shot at the Jaguars. Safety Mike Mitchell stood outside the Jaguars' locker room before the game and told Jaguars players they would know his name (a reference to cornerback Jalen Ramsey saying earlier in the week that he didn't know who Mitchell was).

          The Jaguars won 45-42, marking the second time that the Jaguars won twice in Pittsburgh in one season. They also did it in 2007, and they are the only non-division opponent to do so.

          With their season on the ropes after five straight losses, the Jaguars are hoping a win against the Steelers will spark another playoff push.