And that's ok.
I can take it.
But let me try to explain.
I'm from a tiny town in Pennsylvania, as I'm sure most of you know. It's lumber territory. It's coal mining territory. It's steelworkers territory. Very blue collar.
Very hard-working community.
I remember as a kid watching the Steelers on tv with my dad. With the black and white uniforms, the decal on only one side of their helmets, the absolute bad-ass defense.
One of my first memories of the Steelers was when they were on the cover of Time Magazine.
I remember cutting all the pictures out and making my own Steelers montage that my dad hung on the refrigerator.
My friends and I would play sandlot football games and we all wanted to be the Steelers. We spent more time figuring out who would be the Steelers than we actually spent playing.
When playoff time came around, the entire town went Steeler-crazy. Posters, cardboard cutouts, non-stop football talk from strangers.
What I'm trying to say is it's forever ingrained in me.
But I've only recently come to realize how deep the love of the Steelers runs in others. Just off the top of my head, I can count 2 Steelers bars here in Sacramento. I can't even count one 49er or Raiders bar here. I'm sure they're around, but I don't know of them.
The Terrible Towel.
Yeah, it's hokey. It's played. Whatever. I've only just recently read the history of the Towel.
The Steelers' longtime announcer, Myron Cope, wanted to come up with some gimmick the fans could rally around. Originally, he came up with a Chuck Noll (long time head coach, and winner of 4 Super Bowls) mask with the Steelers emblem on it. But it was deemed too expensive to produce, so he came up with a yellow-gold towel. After the Towel took off, and everyone wanted one, he signed over all copyrights to the Allegheny Valley School, a school for developmentally disabled and autistic children. To date, the sales of the Towel have generated over 3.2 million dollars for the school, which Cope's autistic son was a resident of. Astronauts have taken the Towel into space, and one was even left on the summit of Mt. Everest.
I've met more Steelers fans in California than I can count. The Dallas Cowboys call themselves "America's Team". Well, I can't think of ONE Dallas Cowboys bar here in Sacramento. Or anywhere else for that matter. I have to think that the Steelers are the "New America's Team".
I know, I can almost hear you saying "Geez, Tom, you're talking about a game played by a bunch of millionaire crybabies". And yeah, you're right.
But, for me, it goes deeper than that.
I watched the Super Bowl at my friends Dan and Erin's house. Both are Steelers fans, and it was a LOT of fun watching with them and their friends. (edit: There was a lot of talk before the Super Bowl that no one cared about a championship game played by two small-market teams. Well, this past Super Bowl was the second most-watched program in TV history, second only to the final episode of MASH.) There was a lot of yelling at the tv, jumping around, burying our faces in our hands when it didn't look good.
A few minutes after the game had ended, I went out into the driveway and called my dad. We relived the game, talked about how we can finally breathe again. We laughed and talked about the final play.
And suddenly I was twelve years old again, cutting pictures out of Time Magazine, reconnecting with my dad over something as trivial as a football game.
When I was growing up, I was into music. I was in the marching band, and started a punk rock band. All stuff he didn't understand, I'm sure. But the one thing we could always bond over was the Steelers. The Steelers gave me a chance to be a part of something bigger than our little town. More than any other sports team could. I'm proud to be a part of Steeler Nation, and I'm grateful to my dad for introducing me to something that maybe he didn't even realize the scope of.
The Steelers were, and are, the one thing I can relate to my dad about. Or, probably more specifically, my dad could relate to me about.
So, there you go.
I'm a Steelers fan.
Always will be.
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5 comments:
I've never been into sports (unless you count extreme sports like skateboarding and bmx), but I totally understand why you like the Steelers so much. If you asked a bunch of guys at a sports bar why they like football many would just be like "cuz it's guys being all tough and fuckin each other up, man!", total jock mentality. But you've got this connection, it really MEANS something to you. And that's cool.
Heehee, you were in the marching band? What did you play? I've been passionate about music since I was little. I played cello for a few months when I was 10 (gave it up because I was sick of lugging around such a big instrument), then I played the flute and piccolo for a few years (yes, I was in the marching band my freshman year of high school). I just loved music and would play whatever was available to me. Finally got a guitar when I was about 18.
BAND GEEKS UNITE!! :)
Yeah, that's the one main point I was hoping to get across. 99% of sports fans are the "get drunk, yell a lot, and start shit" types. But there are a few of us who are into it for the right reasons. At least I think so.
I played the trumpet in band. I sucked at it. But it helped me a lot in my love of music and my later songwriting. Yeah, I can see why you'd get sick of lugging a cello around! haha!
I totally get what you're saying! My dad's side of the family are sports fanatics. My grampa was a star basketball AND football player in small town Ohio back in the day, got recruited to a training camp deal once for basketball (but he never played professionally), my dad was a state track star, my uncles all did sports. My mom told me that when she was married to my dad, my dad would have hour long conversations on the phone with his brothers about sports games. My grampa was a military guy and was a referee for military basketball games until his knees went out on him. Here in Sacramento he was the president of the military refereeing association thing. I grew up going to McClellen Air Force base for softball games my grampa refereed. I never got into baseball or football. Both games bore me. When I was little I wasn't allowed to talk during games, so I would play with my barbies while the guys yelled at the TV.(Although I always rooted for the A's and the 49ers because my dad and brother did. Some years ago my brother and I took my dad to an A's/Giants game for father's day because we got free tickets, and I practically fell asleep...I would have if I hadn't had my brother's girlfriend to talk to!)
But I connected with my dad and grampa over King's basketball. Back in the late 80s/early 90s, my grampa and dad were friends with a lady who did the King's laundry. (They lived in the same trailer park. ha.) She would get last minute tickets to games in order to fill seats since no one cared about the King's back then. I'd get to go to games all the time. I remember one time my whole family got box seats. One time my grampa broke his foot, and he's a big tall man with huge feet, and the King's laundry lady got him one of the King's players shoes to wear!
I have so many stories and memories like that.
I love basketball. I love the fast pace of it, and I love rooting for my hometown team. But my love for it comes from a connection with my dad's family. If I have nothing else to talk about with my dad or my grampa, I can talk basketball. (Well, now my grampa won't watch NBA basketball because he gets too fed up with the refereeing of it!)
Even my mom found a love for King's basketball from the time she was married to my dad. My dad collected sports cards for my brothers and me. We have binders and boxes full of NBA cards. It's something we could all share.
If only the King's could stop sucking...
Yeah, I've been to a few Kings games too. They're fun! When they win, that is. I don't see them stopping sucking anytime soon. They're missing out on all the trades that could actually help. I guess 2003 (or whenever it was) was our one big shot to have a championship team in Sac. Unless you count the Monarchs. :)
When I was a kid in a small town in Oregon, it was all about the Steelers (and the Cowboys) so, naturally, I've hated them ever since. I was lamenting to Dan and Erin a few weeks ago about how pissed off I am that I have to root for the Steelers because of you guys now. Even when they played the Seahawks a couple of years ago in the Super Bowl, I wasn't terribly bummed because I knew how much that win meant to you guys.
In defense of guys 'being all tough and fucking each other up, man' I think we have to realize that while what appears on the surface is surely something most of us detest, there is just as strong of a bond that they can have with their teams, and the relationships stemmed from those memories.
At any rate, I really liked this, Tom. Thanks for sharing.
-Bobby
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