PITTSBURGH — The NFL's best rivalries since 2000 are either dead or dormant.

Tom Brady-Peyton Manning — otherwise known as Patriots-Colts — was great theater but has long since faded.

Seahawks-49ers was a throwback throw-down for a few years there. Just vicious stuff. Two coaches you'd like to punch in Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll. Two violent defenses. Major stakes. But it didn't last.

Eagles-Cowboys? Sure, from a historical perspective. But they have only played once in the playoffs since the year 2000, a forgettable blowout wild-card game. The best moment in that series, besides Terrell Owens celebrating on the Cowboys' midfield star, occurred off the field at the 2017 draft in Philadelphia.

That was when Cowboys legend Drew Pearson taunted the booing locals by saying, quite loudly, "I want to thank the Eagles fans for allowing me to have a career in the NFL!" He then pumped his fist and declared he was representing "the five-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys and Hall of Fame owner Jerry Jones!"

Pearson didn't mention that the Cowboys hadn't even been to a conference championship game (still haven't) since they beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl 22 years earlier.

Steelers-Bengals was the nastiest thing going for about five years. You had Vontaze Burfict spitting in people's faces and knocking Antonio Brown senseless. You also had JuJu Smith-Schuster burying Burfict with an all-time revenge blow and standing over him like a triumphant boxer.

Packers-Bears, Raiders-Chiefs, Rams-49ers, Bills-Dolphins and others endure as longstanding and sometimes interesting rivalries.

But there is one that stands far above the rest, if we're talking about the 21st century (and we are): Steelers-Ravens, which renews Saturday in Baltimore with a big prize at stake: The Steelers can clinch the AFC North with a victory.

Multiple factors have combined to make this the NFL's best modern-day rivalry ...

— Winning programs. Beginning with the year 2000, a year in which the Ravens featured an all-time defense and won the Super Bowl, the teams have combined for 37 winning seasons, 17 division titles and four Super Bowl championships. The longevity factor sets it apart.

— Same coaches. Familiarity breeds contempt, but also respect. In this quarter century, these franchises have employed all of four coaches: Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin, Brian Billick and John Harbaugh.

— High stakes. Rarely is nothing on the line for either when the two meet. Division titles are often in play, and they have met four times in the playoffs. The Steelers smashed the defending Super Bowl champs in 2001, 27-10, and twice used the Ravens as a springboard to the Super Bowl (2008, '10).

— Memorable games: Oh man, from Antonio Brown's "Immaculate Extension," to Santonio Holmes' controversial goal-line catch, to Charlie Batch's last stand, to Ryan Mallett shocking a good Steeler team, to multiple last-second finishes against Lamar Jackson, to the greatest game in Acrisure Stadium history (2008 AFC championship), these matchups rarely disappoint and sometimes stay embedded in our memory banks forever.

— Pure, unadulterated vitriol, on and off the field. You know the stories: Joey Porter climbing on the Ravens' postgame bus, looking for a fight; Bart Scott threatening to kill Hines Ward; the Ravens putting a bounty on Ward's head; Ray Lewis snapping Rashard Mendenhall's shoulder blade like a piece of kindling.

I still remember walking up to Trevor Pryce, the Baltimore Ravens' massive defensive end, after the Steelers drilled his team on national television one night in 2007. It was the coming-out party for a relative unknown named James Harrison. All he did was record nine tackles, 3.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, a recovered fumble and a brutal takedown of Ed Reed on a punt return.

I asked Pryce about it. He said he knew it wasn't the Ravens' night "when a little 5-9 linebacker gets four sacks. That will never happen again in his life."

I immediately walked down the hallway to the Steelers' locker room and relayed that quote to Harrison.

His response?

"Who's Trevor Pryce?"

This matchup is also proof that it's still possible to play a violent brand of football in the modern-day NFL. Lewis wondered about that way back in 2011, before a big game (what other kind is there?) against the Steelers.

"We're almost illegal now, the way we play," Lewis said, speaking of both defenses. "I don't know if you'll see the legendary, physical-type teams (anymore), because everybody wants to see the scoreboard lit up."

Well, put it this way: The last time the Steelers and Ravens played, which was about 10 minutes ago, the final score was 18-16.

Any former Steelers player will tell you that Ravens games are just different. Who could forget some of the biggest hits in this series and the quotes that followed?

You have to start with the one Ryan Clark put on Willis McGahee in the AFC championship game. It was downright frightening.

I remember Ward administering several haymakers, including one that nearly broke Reed in-half. That was the one that had Scott threatening to kill Ward.

I asked then-Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor about that hit.

"Hines always tells us he's trying to knock somebody's soul out of their body," he said.

That kind of sounded like Scott, after he blasted Ben Roethlisberger with maybe the hardest hit Roethlisberger ever absorbed.

"It felt good to hear the air leave his body," Scott said.

Steelers tackle Willie Colon was watching from the sidelines that day.

"One of the worst hits I've ever seen," he said years later. "But that's what this series is about — one shot after another."

After another ... after another ... after another. With no end in sight.

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