STEELERS FOOTBALL

OK...so I AM a Pittsburgh Steeler certified crazy fan!!! I can't tell you how excited I was that tonight was the beginning of PRE-season football. Yes...pre-season. I guess you have to be from the Pittsburgh area to know just how much that means. Somehow, life is better when the "men of steel" are on the field...when they are suited up...when ESPN is broadcasting the game weekly. I think this feeling is tied to the history of western PA. The northeast has been through its share of ups and downs. As a kid, I remember oh so well, the "RUST belt" times...the layoffs of the 70's...the steel mills shutting down...the coal mines laying off mass numbers...the little town fronts "closing shop" and becoming ghost towns...a mass exodus to the southern states where unions didn't rule, etc.. What was the ONE thing that gave us HOPE during those days? What was the ONE thing that the broken down town and fractured individual spirits could RALLY around? YES-the PITTSBURGH STEELERS! Sunday afternoons (and occasionally the rare Monday night) was the highlight of the week for so many of us. It is a tie that binds even decades later.

I find I am one of those who have "moved south" to find better work opportunities. Yes, thirty plus years later, I still get together with other Pittsburgh area transplants for game time. There are a group of four to six of us who rally around a television set to cheer our team on. Thanks Steelers for giving us the glue that held us together through the tough economic times of the 70's! Thanks for being the glue that holds us all together no matter how many miles we live from downtown Pittsburgh!!!

OK, so for a few hours, our minds are OFF the problems and struggles of everyday! You STILL give us a few hours of HOPE and JOY! HERE WE GO STEELERS!!! HERE WE GO!!!