Steelers

So Long #86

March 20, 2012

While he wore the jersey for 14 years, she proudly wore hers for 3. (more than half of her life). It was her first jersey and I always thought it suited her personality well.

As we listened live to Hines bid his tearful goodbye to football this afternoon, we were sad to see him go but as my 7 year old pointed out, “thankful he’s not going to play for the Ravens.”

We’re going to miss seeing his smiling face on the practice fields at training camp this summer.

As he retires, his jersey, it seems time to retire hers as well. As she pointed out after the announcement, “I’m going to need a new shirt so I have a new guy to cheer for and it has to be a Steelers guy because I won’t cheer for a Raven.”

From our part of Steelers nation where we proudly wear our black and gold in a land of purple, thank you, Hines Ward. Thank you for all you brought to the game. Thank you for your leadership both on and off the field. Thank you for giving us something to cheer for, for so many years. We’ll miss you and look forward to the day we can wave our towels for you again at your induction into the Hall of Fame in Canton.

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An End of Summer Tradition

August 11, 2011

in Circus Shots,Steelers,Traveling Circus

Of the 32 years I’ve been a Steelers fan, I only had the joy of being a hometown fan for only 8 of those years (5 of which I was 5 and under so it doesn’t really count in my book). My sophomore year of college, I moved to PA for 3 years. I was thrilled to get to watch the Steelers on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, this was during the Kordell Stewart, Tommy Maddox era, which wasn’t exactly the Steelers golden era of football. I truly enjoyed watching The Bus in action each and every week. Those were his glory days for sure!

Now, thanks to Direct TV’s NFL season ticket we get to watch our boys in black and gold every.single. week!! But, we still don’t really get that hometown feel.. especially living in the Baltimore area …When I step onto my back deck I am greeted with the icky colors of purple and black ALL OVER my neighbors yard.

So, we’ve begun making the trek to Latrobe, PA in August to watch the Steelers training camp at St Vincent’s College. It’s our little taste of life as a hometown fan. Since it is part way between my parents house and our place, we ended up finding a campground truly in the middle, making a weekend out of it and spending Saturday in Latrobe watching practice. I always feel like Adam Sandler in “Fever Pitch” as we pack up to go and “check out the team.” As if they needed us to scope out the new players. This year Scott was especially excited to check out Baron Batch… a rookie RB he had read about that week who was apparently getting noticed on the practice field.

Scott and I have now been 4 times… we’ve taken the kids 3 times… and even still, I get this rush of excitement as I look out and see the players in person. It’s so different than on TV, they are so much bigger and it’s fun to watch them interact with each other.

This year was especially fun b/c my oldest daughter was SO EXCITED about going. She’s been asking all summer if we were going to go.. and since there was so much up in the air with the lock out, we honestly didn’t know if there’d even be a training camp to go to. When we told her we were going, she packed her bag literally a week ahead of time. She had her camera, Steelers pants, tee shirt, sweatshirt, hat, jersey, and her sign to hold up for the players, all packed into her Steelers drawstring bag. I had to remind her to throw in a few pairs of underwear and socks too. She couldn’t wait to see “the real Steelers players” play a game. Smile Yes, it warmed this Steelers lovin’ Momma’s heart!

As we were walking back to our car I spotted Heath Miller sitting in a cart while Mike Wallace was signing autographs. My parents had just given the youngest circus member his official Steelers jersey that morning… it was none other than 83 Heath Miller… so in true paparazzi style, I grabbed my baby and ran over to the now growing group of people surrounding his golf cart. And then I froze. He was literally right in front of me (just a few teenage boys begging for autographs between Heath and I) and instead of saying, “Hey Heath can you pose for a picture with my baby, he’s wearing your jersey!” Instead, I said absolutely nothing. As if I was waiting for Mr. Miller to look over and say, “Look, he’s wearing my jersey, want to pose for a picture?” And so instead of getting a nice posed picture with this starting TE (who by the way is SUPER TALL in real life)… instead I stood there until the driver started the cart and then I rushed over and stuck my baby by his side while Scott snapped a picture. Classy, huh? I then kicked myself the whole way back for not opening my mouth and at least asking.

Oh well… we got to see the Steelers play, we got to see 2 of them up close, and we all had a good time!! The circus house is abuzz with talks of football season. The first preseason game is tomorrow night against the Redskins!

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Thanks for a Great Ride

February 8, 2011

in Steelers

Well, it’s over… another great football season has has come to an end. While the ending wasn’t quite as sweet as I wanted, it was to be honest, a WHOLE lot better than I thought it would be when the season started. I never dreamed in August that we’d be having a Steelers party in February.

Looking back, it was a great season. We had a ton of fun cheering for our boys in black and gold. We had several family gatherings at our place to watch the game. I went on a date with my dad to Pittsburgh to watch a game at Bettis’ Grille 36. We even orchestrated our schedule so that we were in hotels for the 2 games that occurred during our family vacation. It was quite fun parading around our Disney Hotel in our Steelers jerseys. Scott and I went to an actual home game with my dad in December. And, we had a fabulous play off run, culminating with a Superbowl Party!

As we left my parents house early Monday afternoon, we had the thought to try and catch the team as they arrived in Pittsburgh and give them a hearty welcome home. But, as much as we googled, we couldn’t find any information on their homecoming. Man, I would have loved to been there to clap and cheer as the Steelers got off the plane. Let em’ know we love em’ and we’re still proud of em’. We weren’t quite ready for the season to be over, so we decided to drive a slightly longer way home and take the kids through the city. For the first time, Scott and I realized that while we have been to the city of Pittsburgh several times, the kids have not. So we drove them to Heinz Field. And we walked up to the gates and showed them where our beloved Steelers call home.

I’ve been to the gates a few times and inside three times. Still it gives me a little thrill to stand there and gaze out at the stadium. It was a quiet, rainy day in Pittsburgh and as we walked around, I couldn’t help but think how different the atmosphere would have been had things gone differently last night. But, you know what, we walk away from this season with our heads held high. Our boys played well. And we can’t wait to cheer them on again next fall!

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We ARE ready for some Steelers Football!!!

February 6, 2011

in football,Steelers

We’ve been playing the song on repeat for weeks and now the day is here. Pittsburgh isn’t going to the Super Bowl anymore they are AT the Superbowl! And we are ready to cheer them on for their 7th Superbowl victory!

Even our dog Maggie is sporting the black and gold today!

GO STEELERS!!!!!!

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And Visions of Super Bowl Victories Dance in Their Heads. . .

February 2, 2011

in sisters,Sleep,Steelers

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Muted Celebration

January 16, 2011

in football,Steelers

I’ve never known what it was like to be part of the home town team. Though I was born in Pa, I’ve lived in rival MD since the age of 5, not counting 3 of my 4 years of college. I got my love of football from my dad and my dad brought me up a Steelers girl. I now pass this legacy onto my four children. I just love this pic of our newest Steelers fan, I had to find a reason to sneak this in.

But, I gotta tell you, it isn’t easy living behind enemy lines. I like to think it makes us stronger. We don’t go with the flow, we stand our own. We proudly sport our black and gold in this land of purple. It really doesn’t bother me in the week leading up to the game. I will gladly talk trash with my neighbor, hang our flag in front of our house and wear my jersey all over town – in fact, I kinda like it.

But, once the game starts, it is a different story. And it really hit me this year. During the second quarter of the game on Saturday, I was literally sick to my stomach. We went into half time down 14 points facing a tough Ravens defense. The game was far from over but we had to admit it wasn’t looking good. And the thought of going to church the next morning, seeing all my friends in purple, made me ill. The Steelers just had to pull through.

I hate losing in the play offs. Hate it. I hate it in part because I can still taste the bitter loss against the Patriots in the AFC Championships in 2002. It forever changed the playoffs for me. We had home field advantage. We were on top of the world and I was sure, SURE we were Superbowl bound. That loss stung. It stung bad. I remember Scott and I sitting in our apartment shell shocked and speechless. His dad had come over to watch with us. When the game was over, he just politely slipped out to leave us to wallow alone. He then sent a condolence card later that week. I am sure that sounds melodramatic to some, but we were so sure, SO SURE we were going to win and just like that our dreams crashed when our season was over early. We didn’t want to chit chat. We didn’t want to listen to our friends gloat. We lost, it stunk and we needed time to get over it. (Scott and I had a conversation post season discussing whether we have perhaps let Football have too strong a roll in our happiness).

Because of that, and b/c we lost again to the Patriots in 2005, I can’t go into a play off game cocky. I am always guarded. I know anything can happen and nothing is certain till it is over. I refuse to count my chickens until they hatch.

And because I know how awful it feels to lose, I also try to be respectful of the losing team. I told my son last night, (after we rebounded in the second half to win the playoff game against the Ravens) that we can be happy about our win (and trust me, it is still very loud here at the circus), but when we go to church tomorrow, we can not gloat. Talking trash is fine before a game, but after a game it is just rude. We will not gloat. (My son – who can trash talk with the best of them – said “Ok mom, I won’t rub it in. I will be nice. I’ll say, the Ravens did well. It is so good that they made it to the play offs.”) Ok, so it’s amazing how patronizing that sounds coming from a 6 year old… I then suggested he just not bring it up AT ALL.

How great it must be to live with home field advantage. It stinks that I had to coach the kids not to talk about the game. It stinks that I felt like we couldn’t wear our celebration loud and proud today. Even though we were bouncing on the inside, I felt like we needed to mute our celebration so as to not be rubbing our happiness in our friends faces. And I thought to myself, “Man I wish we lived in Pittsburgh.” I wish we could walk cheering and singing and sporting our colors after a Ravens game. I wish we could be free to fully celebrate when we beat our rival, holding nothing back. (in hindsight, perhaps that’s part of what made this 2009 trip to PA a bit more special).

As we march forward in the play offs, I want to win next week for so many reasons. I want to win b/c I want to go the Superbowl, I want to win b/c I hate losing, I want to win because it probably means we got to avenge our 2002 loss to the Patriots, and I want to win so I can celebrate, and party and dance in the street waving my towel and holding nothing back.