The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers are rivals in the National Football League (NFL), and their rivalry is known as the Patriots-Steelers rivalry.
The Patriots and Steelers are the two most illustrious teams in the Super Bowl era. Although the two teams have played against one another on occasion since the 1970s, they did not develop into a full-fledged rivalry until the late 1990s, when they started to contend for the championship.
The rivalry would reach new heights during the 2000s and 2010s when both teams, led by quarterbacks Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger for the Patriots and Steelers, respectively, posted winning seasons and several playoff appearances during this time period, with both teams making it to the Super Bowl and taking home more than one Lombardi trophy.
The two teams faced off against each other in three AFC championship games during the 2000s and 2010s, with the Patriots winning all three games.
The Steelers showed they were a reliable postseason challenger throughout that time period despite the Patriots’ dominating rule over the NFL from 2001 to 2019, making three Super Bowl trips and winning two of them.
However, the 2000s saw the Steelers have more postseason success than the 2010s did. The Patriots-Steelers rivalry was named by CBS as the eighth-best NFL rivalry of the 2000s in 2020.