What it means to me to be a Steeler fan

I'll start of by saying it's 2AM so forgive my rant.

While running at the gym tonight I started thinking about what it meant to me to be a Steeler fan. I have been a fan since the 70's and some of my earliest memories were visiting Three Rivers and watching history in the making. Other than where I'm from, I was born to be a Steeler fan. For as long as I can remember the Steeler's orginazation has been about hard working blue collar football. From Mean Joe to Jack Lambert we have been about defense, playing the game the right way. Our players our coaches and our announcers represented what is great about us. When the local ecomony turned for the worst and the mills started to close it seemed the Steeler fan base would be spread throughout the country and lost.

It wasn't, instead the Steel nation seeds were planted and grew. As I grew up and became an adult I started attending home games; at least one a year at Hinez Field. Then a couple of years ago my friends and I started attending road games and that's when it hit me, the Steel Nation had grown up and was flourshing. Every town we visited Cleveand, NY, Dallas, San Fran Tenesse, and San Diego all had one thing in comon, LOCAL STEELER FANS. We found the Terrible Towel, Steeler Jerseys, flags and even Steeler bars in every location. Then I revisited Hinez and watched a video that was playing in the stadium prior to the game. It showed Steeler fans and bars in every city that there is an NFL team. Heck the Terrible Towel even left this world visiting the space station. We were in countries near and far from mexico, Europe and Austrilia (I can't spell so sue me). Dallas can be America's Team but we are the peoples team, the worlds team. Rich or poor we don't care just work hard and wear your Steeler gear with pride.

Being A Steeler fan is about loving this game, cheering our players and doing it the right way. Some teams are known for hiring thugs criminals and players with talent but no ethics. We are known for hiring players with high character, players that blue colar and willing to play smash mouth football. Aside from our SIX champinships we are a team, a town and a nation that sticks together.

I have introduced my daughter to the Nation and she is a true fan (43 and 86 are her favorite players). As I watch her grow she is learning from this disappointing season. Her passion for our beloved team isnt shaken after a loss and she reminds me that we are the Steelers and we will be back. As we finish the forth quarter of this season we need to remind our players, do your job, work hard and play with Steeler pride. The splash plays are nice but do the little things and we will be fine.

We have 3/4th of the fourth quater reamining and it's time to suck it up. It's time for some Renegade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We need a stop and we need to play our way. To borrow for Jack Lambert I say, If I had it do all over again you beter believe that I would be a Steeler fan! We can do this; Here we go Steelers!!!!!!!!!!

 

Steelcop,

Very well said, I'm with you during the 70's. We didn't know at the time we were watching history in the making, and part of the growing Steeler Nation.

 

Not bad for 2am very good job sir

 

in one world : pride

 

Very well said. The Steelers are a blue collar team. They work hard and play hard. There's pride and passion. We impose our physical play on the opposition and make them remember their trip to our house. We run the ball well and we play good defence. That is Steelers football...

And this is why these past few years have been so damn depressing. We aren't any of those things anymore which is why some of us on this site are so negative. Even when we've won lately, it hasn't been because of any of those things I listed above. We don't do any of those things anymore and haven't for years now. It's frustrating to watch a team with no identity and no link to past Steelers teams. That's also why I don't like Tomlin. People love to throw out that the Rooney's don't fire coaches, but when was the last time we had a coach that caused us to lose our identity?

I won't go any further, but I will say we need the real Pittsburgh Steelers back. All we have is a shell of our former team. Lets get back to playing Steelers football, although I'm concerned that with this coaching staff and some of these players, that's impossible.

 

Awesome post Steelcop! We need more of this around here.

 

Not to mention Goodell's vision of "tackle" football" means no physical contact, or is it no physical contact on HIS favorite players..............it seems to vary week to week.

 

Being a Steeler fan to me means expecting to win the Superbowl at the beginning of every season

 

Again I mostly agree with you. The things we're so used to seem to be fading. The running game in the NFL in general is not the same as it once was. Tomlin at times doesn't seem like Steeler material, but he has a chance to right the ship over the next few games or maybe seal his fate. Either way I'll never give up on the Steelers, I'll never say things like we should throw in the towel, never say we should just lose out for better draft picks, never say I'm done with the Steelers, never turn the game off and I'll never leave a Steelers game early ever. Being a fan of this team means you don't do these things PERIOD. We need more around here with the attitude that Steelcop has.

 

Nice post Sc..
Many steeler fans know the roots of this great organization and admire its rich tradition i can remember as a kid (70's) my dad and uncle sat in front of the tv cheering on sunday after sunday..as the seasons past my 3 brothers and i got more involved and became fans. Players were dedicated and was honored to wear the B&G playing there A$$ off wearing blood mud and snow through thick and thin ...they were men of steel. Players today run to the sideline when getting a nose bleed where's the toughness? In resent years i've see more and more players bouncing around the leagues going for bigger contracts.. yet less contribution to the organization. Today its.."Show me the money" I just wish we had more Hines Ward's on this team... a vet leader and a dedicated player one that was willing to take less just to be with his team. I know in my threads i sound neg. towards my team but will always be a steeler fan though at the same time i'm a realist.... they need to get back to traditional STEELER FOOTBALL..from the front office down to the players More and more I'm seeing a decline in this organization and its a sad commentary.. a slap on the Rooney's face if you will. I would just like to see Pittsburgh get back to a team that other's once feared.

 

Being a Steeler fan to me means that football season never ends. We follow their every move 365 days a year. We even know a lot of the guys that are on our PRACTICE SQUAD for crying out loud! We know our history. We show up at other stadiums and make other teams fans look like amateurs. We don't just WATCH the games. We DISECT them. We hold our orginazation to a higher standard than even the LEAGUE ITSELF expects it to reach. As someone else said we EXPECT to win the Super Bowl EVERY year. I really think we transcend the average "fan" and go to the level of "obsession". I am very proud to be a Steelers fan and lots of people jazz me about liking them so much but every time they need a question answered about football who do they come to? Analysts have even said that Steeler fans are the most "knowledgable" and I'd say that's true. There are just regular guys on here that can break down schemes as if they were on the team. When I was on the way back from the Titans debacle in October the people kept calling in to the radio saying how amazed they were at all the Steelers fans. That is a HUUUUUGE honor for me to hear that. A guy behind me even told me "you guys have great fans". There is no doubt that we are the best in the NFL and honestly I think Steelers fans are the best in the WORLD! Period.

 

I mostly agree. I will never value draft picks over a potential playoff spot. I will never wish for the Steelers to lose. I will never give up on this team. I disagree about turning off the game though. Near the end of the SD game, I turned it off. For the first time in my life, I turned off a Steelers game. Why should I continue to watch that game when the players and the head coach quit on the team? Tomlin basically said he gave up on winning that game. He decided to kick the extra point instead of going for 2 points because he wanted to save those plays for the future. That is quitting, so if the head coach is going to give up on winning the game and if the players are going to play with absolutely no passion, why should I not turn to a game where the team is actually playing to win? I'll be back watching next week, but I couldn't stomach the rest of that game. Our players were awful and the coach quit on the team.

 

It has nothing to do with Goodell. The rules regarding tackling haven't changed one bit. SF still plays violent football. Seattle plays violent football. Houston, at times, plays violent football. Our problem isn't the rules, our problem is a lack of passion, lack of leadership and lack of execution. Blame it on Goodell if it makes you sleep better at night, but I can assure you he isn't the problem.

 

exactly , the team that remind me more a "old" steelers football is sanfrancisco , average qb good oline few skill offensive players and great violent defense , we are different now but with few things we can be better than them .

 

James Harrison used to play "Steelers" football and look what happened there. Way too many players hesitate now instead of hitting someone. You can bet that possible fines and suspensions are going through their minds. I jumped on the Steelers wagon in the early 70s too but, those guys wouldn't make it in todays NFL. Too tough.

 

Patrick Willis evolved his game and lowered his target area. Ray Lewis evolved his game and lowered his target area, on top of getting lighter so that he would be able to drop back into coverage more often. If you watch SF play they regularly blow other players up. They play violent football. James Harrison refused to alter his style of play and when he get dinged for it, he publicly attacked the commish and refs.

Harrison is his own worst enemy. That hit on Colt McCoy that got him suspended was very clearly helmet to helmet. There's no reason he couldn't have lowered his target and destroyed McCoy's ribs.

 

at the risk of a long post that is truly off topic for this thread I will do my best to keep this short ....

I am really fed up at how the league puts 100% of the onus on the defender to lower his target area when making a hit , simply stated it does not always work no matter how hard you try to conform as a defender because you are attacking a moving target that is trying to avoid the incoming hit and they have some level of culpability on where that blow is delivered in many cases yet share no responsibility after the fact ....

Defender lowers his shoulder before impact that is targeted at center mass and at the last second the offensive player lowers his head and shoulder and the next thing we know 2 helmets collide and out flies the yellow flag and at the start of the week in comes the fine and is always on the defender ... how is this the defenders fault ...

the defender has a narrow window of a target zone , lets say it is a QB who is moving outside the pocket but still behind the LOS , that Defender can not go high with his hit and he is not permitted to go low either , leaving only center mass as a target area .. if the QB lowers his body angle the defender has no target area large enough to encompass the hit without a flag and potential fine ... and if moving directly at one another at full speed you can not stop either ( not that it is even an option ) ..yet it is the defenders problem to deal with ... sometimes they are dealt a hand of cards you can not even play with ... that is today's life in the NFL

mind you this is all done in the name of player safety yet because of this we have seen a record amount of rib injuries this season because of this lowering of the target area so its not achieving its goal of player safety the injuries have increased they are just of a different variety ... there is new helmet technology that the league could force players to use if safety was the real issue but they are slow to come around to using that sort of logic

 

D, I'm with you 100%. I don't know that it's off topic. It still addresses the hard hitting defense that the Steelers (and the 9ers) are known for. Speaking of the 9ers, I really like them too. Mostly because of their tough defense but, does anyone really think that the great Ronnie Lott could make it in today's NFL?

 

You mean the team that lost and tied a game to the Rams this season? Yeah we need to be like them.

 

Jeez...... The Rams are at least a .500 team. But you're right, losing to TN, Oak, Cle and SD is much, much more preferable that losing and tying the Rams.

 

And that is the point exactly. "Safety" is NOT the real issue. At least not PLAYER safety. It is PROFIT safety they are really concerned about. I love how they try to put it as if Goodell really gives a rip about Harrison's health. I think that Goodell wants to make the owners as much money as possible and then in turn he will get to keep being the emperor and then in turn he will make more money for himself. I understand that it's a business and that's fine. But why will they not just be men and come out and say "ya know I wanna make as much money and possible and more people would rather watch a game w/ James Harrison as opposed to Jason Worilds so I'm gonna change the rules to try and keep Harrison on the field longer BUT to make more money." Why can they stupid suits not just man up and say what they really think? When my boss at UPS tells me to be safe I say "please don't try and convince me that you CARE about ME. Let's not pretend that it's more than just a financial issue." He's always like "no man! I care about you!" Suuuuuuure they dooooo....

 

yes McCoy was lowering his Target area as well , was bent over at the waist and his knees where also bent making it a very small window that you would have been hard pressed from Harrison's angle to put your fist into the target zone so how is the defender supposed to be able to tackle the man at that point in time , no room for a shoulder to fit into the target window with a form tackle

 

No, this myth has been debunked already. Colt McCoy barely and I mean barely lowered his head. Harrison would have hit him in the head no matter what McCoy did because that's where Harrison was aiming (either intentionally or unintentionally).

You're right though, I've seen Clark blow up guys by hitting them in the body. There's no reason all our players can't do the same.

 

Shame that this nice thread has been derailed,