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I don't own a vocabulary of $10 words, but the phrase that comes to mind when it comes to Steeler mania is conspicuous consumer..
Regardless of the color of the person wearing the jersey - the fan in the stand or the player, one thing comes to mind when you talk football in the early 90's and that was the Oakland Raiders.
Probably due to the popularity of their jerseys with the rap music crowd.
The in your face type mentality of the owner and it's players.
My stories always starts out by explaining my train of thought, growing up in a small coal patch community and how when the coal played out, the people had to leave and find other means of employment.
The people from my community had to leave - because there was nothing here - to keep them here after the mines closed. The same thing happened after the mills began to shut down around about 1981 and beyond in Pittsburgh in my opinion.
The people left, but they still called Pittsburgh HOME!
Only a small minority of those displaced workers were of the generation of the 1960 World Series crowd - due to the fact that most of the older people were established good enough in the community that when the mills closed - they didn't have to leave, they found other opportunities.
But the younger generation - which grew up in the late 60's and early 70's did.
The end of the era of the baby boomers.
Now my family was poor because of that - because we stayed and had to accept what ever the man was willing to pay us to do what ever menial jobs we could perform.
But I can remember as a child, my mom buying me a toboggan that was black and gold that said the Pittsburgh Steelers on it and it had a big black tassel on the top.
Maybe it cost three dollars and maybe minimum wage was about $2.65 a hour.
Back then it was still a lot of money.
But people made sacrifices when it came to their kids and they wanted their kids to have a little bit of something to make them fit in.
When those people moved away, Pittsburgh Steelers football was still on their minds and in their hearts and the players we had back then - other then Terry Bradshaw were second to none.
There is always going to be conspicuous consumers that will run right out and buy something - just to look cool or just to fit in or just to be a part of something. But for a real Pittsburgh Steelers fan - it has nothing to do with what you wear or a sticker on your car or a fathead on you wall - but the team and it's players and the city that they represent.
When the Green Bay Packers were winning all those games with Brett Farve -there were lot's of Green Bay Packers fans all over the country also.
It wasn't because they were from Green Bay Wis or because the loved the team - but because they were winning all the time and the other people wanted to be on the winning side.
I don't know how many time I wished I could throw my shoes at the Television set when Bill Coward and that idiot Terry Bradshaw picked other teams over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the pre game - and had to eat crow after the game.
Nothing is ever said about the mistakes they made the week before in the pre game but someone needs to hang those two idiots up by their fingernails for disrespecting Pittsburgh and it's people. Maybe they do it just to rile people up before the game.
We are the people who bought the tickets to the game and bought the sports memorabilia and all the swag and made it possible for those people to have the lifestyle they have today.
Look at all the good players the Pittsburgh Steelers refused to hire - just to keep on a couple of marque players and a coach like Bill Coward.
Dan Marino - another traitor, Joe Montana, Joe Theisman, all better quarterbacks then Terry Bradshaw and we could have had them.
Payton Manning, Eli Manning, Brett Farve - dozens of really good players that would have emulated the Pittsburgh standard for professional sports and the steel city as a whole.
There has never been anything wrong with the Penguins in my opinion, its just that there are so many other sports and things out there to compete with them that there isn't enough hours in the day sometimes to watch it all. The Penguins always puts on a good show.
The Pittsburgh Pirates has pretty much stunk since 1980 - regardless of what they done or who played for them.
Its hard to sit here and watch 9 innings of baseball on television with all the commercials and no real action on the field most of the time.
A bunch of spoiled rotten kids who only got their big break because of their political connections in baseball and not because of their accomplishments.
In a couple of years we will not have any hitting in hockey or football either because of all the sports accidents and injuries that results from them and the fact that most kids today do not want to play full contact sports because they do not want to get injured.
I bought my mom her first Pittsburgh Steelers shirt yesterday at a Walmart Super center.
The first thing my mom said to me was - you could have got it cheaper at the grocery store. That pretty much told me that she was looking at those $9.00 tee ****s at the grocery store and the $14 tee shirts at the Walmart.
She knew how much they cost and she wouldn't spend the money to buy herself one - even though she has money and could easily do it.
I really couldn't afford to do it, but since she has cancer and you never know how long you have to live, I figured why spend the money later on flowers when someone cannot appreciate it when you can spend it now on a simple black tee shirt and she can get some enjoyment out of it.
So did I buy it for me or did I buy it because Pittsburgh was going to the Super Bowl - NO.
I bought it because I knew that it would make her happy and even just for a moment - I could somehow repay her for what she did for me when I was a kid and she wanted me to fit in with the other children in school.
Regardless of if they win or loose - I will still be a Pittsburgh Steelers fan again next year come August when the team starts its summer camp and pre season just as I have always been a Pittsburgh Steelers fan - since the day I was born and until the day I die as long as they do not hire any more idiots like Terry Bradshaw or Bill Cowher.
Last edited by Honest Bob; 01-28-2011 at 01:35 PM..
Rhondee, I think H Curtis is referring to the Cowboys as "America's team" not the Packers.
Uh, yeah,I know that. What I was trying to convey is that Steeler fans are infiltrated into just about every geographical location. The Steelers may not be known necessarily as America's most favorite or most popular team, but the fierce loyalty of Steeler fans spread far and wide and not being confined to a particular geographical locale, is such that they have banded together to create their own "Steeler Nation".
All right! Here is another example of the Steeler mania I saw on the news today.
St Clair Hospital's baby ward had all the newborns in their bassinets wrapped in Terrible Towel receiving blankets and each newborn had a Steeler stockinette cap complete with a little black and gold tassel on top.
I know it might be difficult for people to understand, however, Packer fans are just as nutty and nostalgic as steeler fans. This story shows a side people outside of Green Bay Just can't grasp. Keep in mind this was written in 1997. Not much has changed.
The stadium has been sold out since, I believe 1972. Not many cities could say that. Living in other cities in different parts of the US, I can tell you there are more Steeler fans than any other team. Do you remember the Super Bowl in Arizona? It was a home game. Tampa? Home game. When the Steelers are losing they still sell out the stadium. When the so-called America's team is in the crapper, there is no one in the stadium. Big difference. The only other team that seems to have such a tradition like the Steelers are the Packers. It is ironic the two are going to meet in the Super Bowl and it is going to be huge. Not sure if we will have a home field advantage down there this time. I suspect we will outnumber the Packer fans, but nothing like other Super Bowls. They have good fans.
The team has sold out every home game (including post-season games) since the NFL merger in 1970, with the exception of two replacement games during the 1987 strike (but both were sold out before the strike).Denver Broncos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1970, Denver had an MSA population of 1/2 that of Pittsburgh, and didn't catch up to Pittsburgh until 2005.
The stadium has been sold out since, I believe 1972. Not many cities could say that. Living in other cities in different parts of the US, I can tell you there are more Steeler fans than any other team. Do you remember the Super Bowl in Arizona? It was a home game. Tampa? Home game. When the Steelers are losing they still sell out the stadium. When the so-called America's team is in the crapper, there is no one in the stadium. Big difference. The only other team that seems to have such a tradition like the Steelers are the Packers. It is ironic the two are going to meet in the Super Bowl and it is going to be huge. Not sure if we will have a home field advantage down there this time. I suspect we will outnumber the Packer fans, but nothing like other Super Bowls. They have good fans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhondee
Uh, yeah,I know that. What I was trying to convey is that Steeler fans are infiltrated into just about every geographical location. The Steelers may not be known necessarily as America's most favorite or most popular team, but the fierce loyalty of Steeler fans spread far and wide and not being confined to a particular geographical locale, is such that they have banded together to create their own "Steeler Nation".
Going along with these two quotes...
..."Steeler Nation", in my humble opinion, is a phenomenon that's festered over 40 years. This is my self-generated thesis.
It took hold in the '70s, when they won all those Super Bowls. Previous Steeler fans, more poud Pittsburghers (as well as people in and/or from the surrounding towns) galvanized their fanship and loyalty--and a good many bandwagoners probably got swept up in Steelermania along with that. Somehow, I think the craze with Myron Cope's Terrible Towel probably helped facilitate that--it was a tangible rallying cry, something people could take hold to and have fun with together...and that probably helped attract more frontrunners and bandwagoners, because they wanted in on the fun, too.
Turn over to the next decade, the '80s...what was it, right around the turn of the decade from the '70s to the '80s that most of the mills and whatnot started shutting down or declining or something like that? Anyway, a lot of people had to relocate to find work...but that Steeler fandom/loyalty, hard-core, bandwagon or otherwise, went with them wherever they went. They had kids. More Steeler fans by birthright. I think that spread took care of whatever growth occured in the '80s and '90s...20 or so years for Steelerism to take hold and spread like the roots of an oak tree all across the good ol' U.S. of A. Fast forward to last decade...the Steelers began to dominate again, and with dominance and winning, the hardcore fanbase became that much more hardcore, and by that point all those Steeler fans who had spread out all over the country by that point, committed and hardcore, as well as bandwagoners who by that time had become hardcore, showed up even more...and with that, probably attracted even more bandwagoners and frontrunners. Then the Steelers win SBXL and SB43 three years apart. People love a winner...more get swept up in the craze.
Which brings us to the present. 2011. Here the Steelers are, tying a record for most Super Bowl appearances (the Dallas Cowboys have also appeared in eight Super Bowls), and a chance to beat their own record for SB wins...let's just say insanity has set in amongst Steeler Nation. Now, no matter where they are, hardcore and bandwagon fans stand up, swish around those Terrible Towels, and let themselves be seen, their voices be heard, many to the point of hoarseness I might add...all in fervent burning support of their beloved Steelers. (Damn...maybe I should write a book. )
Anyway...about the traveling fans: I really don't think that many fans travel to Steeler road games so much as fans already living in or near those road sites just show up for for those games...along with those do travel. It adds up. Spread that out over a thirty-something-year timespan, an I believe that's how the Steeler Nation as we know it today came to be so large and so dense. (And, sometimes, so arrogent and annoying--but I notice that mostly from the bandwagoners anf frontrunners. I can understand it from ther hardcore base though, being that I lived in the city of Pittsburgh for four years, so I was surrounded by it, got right up close and rubbed elbows with it They ain't convert me though--Buccaneers 'til the day I die. lol)
Now what do I have to back up my thesis? This...I done been sent all around this country. Literally everywhere I have been, I've seen no shortage of Steeler fans. I can usually separate the hardcore from the bandwagon really quick (by bringing up Rocky Bleier--for some reason it works every time). I know for a fact both Jacksonville and Tampa have sizeable populations of Pittsburgh-area transplants. I belive Denver and Seattle do, as well. I'm sure there's other places--such as out here in Indiana. To the point of Jacksonville, there's parts of Duval so heavily populated by Pgh natives some have taken it to calling it "Pittsburgh South"--I think that mindset spilled over into the Jacksonville Jaguars braintrust as well, with a/ all the former Steelers they brought in (Troy Edwards, Carnell Lake, and Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala just to name a few), and b/ by trying, unsuccessfuly save for the 2007 season, to model their team's play and attitude after the Steelers. (And as somewhat of a Jaguars fan, I can say that with absolute certainty--hell for a period of time I took to calling them the "Steelers South".)
Anyway...all this is just my own two rusted Lincolns on the matter. Fell free to add to it, or to rip it into pieces.
Location: Pittsburgh (via Chicago, via Pittsburgh)
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all *insert team name here* "Nation's" are a result of mass bandwagon jumping when a certain franchise starts doing well... I've never met more Pens "fans" than the year they won the cup. Then when they didn't the following year, many of them disappeared. Same with the Steelers. I'd say Packers fans are just as much of a "Packer's Nation" as we claim to be here and around the country.
Yeah the crowd seems pretty equal when we play in Baltimore
Yeah and that is IN Baltimore. That is what people don't seem to understand. Got to a Jacksonville game. Tampa. It is crazy how many Steeler fans. Even in Cleveland it was amazing how many Steeler fans were at that last game up there.
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