The People of Steel
Sometimes I’m embarrassed that I live in Pittsburgh and don’t like football. It’s awkward, really. People ask me if I watched the game and I have to bluff my way through an answer. If I tell the truth and say no, well bad things just happen. So for the most part, I live in the Steeler nation, but I certainly don’t deserve my citizenship. Football? Eh. If it’s a matter of taking or leaving it, I’ll usually leave it.
But despite my football apathy, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Steelers and what they mean to this city and the people who’ve built it. In so many ways, the Steelers represent every Pittsburgher. They work hard, they never stop fighting; they hit hard when they have to and smile big when it’s time to celebrate. When you watch the Steelers, you witness the story of a city that has been built up, threatened with destruction, and resurrected and recreated from the ashes of dying industry. You watch a city, a people, that never stops fighting and always –- always –- finds the strength to surge through to the end knowing that it has fought with every fiber of its frame to walk away from the battle victorious.
It’s no secret that this town loves its team –- maybe more so than any other place in the nation. But what many people outside Western Pennsylvania don’t realize, those scoffers who wonder why we place so much stake in a sport where men throw a ball and hit each other for sixty minutes, is that this town needs its Steelers like most people need air. When times are hard, jobs are lost and the future is uncertain, the Steelers can lift you up. When life kicks you in the ass and knocks the wind out of you, you can count on the Steelers to pick you up and dust you off. And just when you feel like you can’t go on, Franco or Santonio makes an impossible play to remind you that maybe, just maybe, you can keep putting one foot in front of the other.
On my way home tonight, working my way from Squirrel Hill to the eastern suburbs, I saw kids and parents and grandparents standing on street corners waving flags and screaming for their team. I saw strangers stopped at red lights, talking through open windows and honking horns.
I saw Pittsburgh. And I will never, ever be embarrassed by that.
Thanks Steelers, for everything you mean to this city.
But despite my football apathy, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Steelers and what they mean to this city and the people who’ve built it. In so many ways, the Steelers represent every Pittsburgher. They work hard, they never stop fighting; they hit hard when they have to and smile big when it’s time to celebrate. When you watch the Steelers, you witness the story of a city that has been built up, threatened with destruction, and resurrected and recreated from the ashes of dying industry. You watch a city, a people, that never stops fighting and always –- always –- finds the strength to surge through to the end knowing that it has fought with every fiber of its frame to walk away from the battle victorious.
It’s no secret that this town loves its team –- maybe more so than any other place in the nation. But what many people outside Western Pennsylvania don’t realize, those scoffers who wonder why we place so much stake in a sport where men throw a ball and hit each other for sixty minutes, is that this town needs its Steelers like most people need air. When times are hard, jobs are lost and the future is uncertain, the Steelers can lift you up. When life kicks you in the ass and knocks the wind out of you, you can count on the Steelers to pick you up and dust you off. And just when you feel like you can’t go on, Franco or Santonio makes an impossible play to remind you that maybe, just maybe, you can keep putting one foot in front of the other.
On my way home tonight, working my way from Squirrel Hill to the eastern suburbs, I saw kids and parents and grandparents standing on street corners waving flags and screaming for their team. I saw strangers stopped at red lights, talking through open windows and honking horns.
I saw Pittsburgh. And I will never, ever be embarrassed by that.
Thanks Steelers, for everything you mean to this city.
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