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February 07, 2006
Steeler Madness!
Wow, this town has been crazy over the last couple weeks! 250,000+ fans at the Steeler parade downtown yesterday (we missed that one, but saw it on TV--unbelievable, a quarter of the population of Allegheny county was there). We've never seen a city so completely loyal to its football team. We were not immune to the madness around us. We picked up a strange addiction to going down to the Strip District (our favorite part of town at any time!) over the past few Saturdays to imbibe the chaos of happy, excited people. Here are a few pictures from our last outing. Watching the boisterous fans was just as exciting (if not more so!) than watching the players on the field!
This guy got so excited his head turned into a football.
In Pittsburgh, there was no middle ground as far as reactions to the Super Bowl. Either you were for the Steelers, or you were strangled with Terrible Towels after being boiled in vats of molten Iron City Beer.
A classical musician making a little money out in the streets? Nope. How many times can you play "Here We Go Steelers, Here We Go" before losing your embouchure?
Joanna: I found out that a professor acquaintance of mine had the same habit of visiting the Strip on Saturdays, purely for the sociological fun of it. Watching the reactions of different people was one of the best parts:
a) If you're part of academia, you analyze culture by observing the madness around you. You can detach yourself slightly from it, but you can't completely disengage from the excitement. But you can make intellectual comments about the Super Bowl, such as the ways in which the blue collar fans feel tied to blue collar-ness of the football teams (you can also make cynical comments about the multi-million dollar contracts belying this blue collar image of the players). Also, you can create profound metaphors such as "cans of beer vs. cups of latte" to describe the teams.
b) If you're a car mechanic, you call up your best pals in between providing new brakes for a busy grad student who has waited most of the morning to get her car done. You engage in critiques of the players, past, present, and in the world to come.
c) If you're a middle-aged woman you:
-wear handmade Steeler regalia (mini-Terrible Towels, Steeler barrettes, etc.)
-don't wash your Steelers garments or make any other unexpected moves, just in case you might jinx the game and feel guilty for the rest of your life
-discuss the off field attire of your favorite players (Big Ben shouldn't wear light blue--he's much too large for that).
-sob every time the Steelers make a great/terrible play
-make plots with your other middle-aged lady friends on how to get the most eligible bachelor of the team (Big Ben again) to marry your daughter. "If only I could get in touch with his mother..."
d) If you're a kid, well, look at the previous post featuring the Little Steeler Fan.
fun | By Tim and Jo | 09:23 PM
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