For Steelers fans...
I saw this posted by doublej24 on TwoPeas and I loved it so much, I wanted to share.
Nation Building
January 18, 2006
Scott Paulsen
Think about this the next time someone argues that a
professional sports
franchise is not important to a city's identity:
In the 1980's, as the steel mills and their supporting
factories shut down
from Homestead to Midland, Pittsburghers, faced for
the first time in their
lives with the specter of unemployment, were forced to
pick up their
families, leave their home towns and move to more
profitable parts of the
country. The steel workers were not ready for this.
They had planned to stay
in the 'burgh their entire lives. It was home.
Everyone I know can tell the same story about how Dad,
Uncle Bob or their
brother-in-law packed a U-Haul and headed down to
Tampa to build houses or
up to Boston for an office job or out to California to
star in pornographic
videos.
All right. Maybe that last one just happened in my family.
At this same time, during the early to
mid-eighties, the
Pittsburgh Steelers were at the peak of their
popularity. Following the
Super Bowl dynasty years, the power of the Steelers
was strong. Every man,
woman, boy and girl from parts of four states were
Pittsburgh faithful,
living and breathing day to day on the news of their
favorite team. Then, as
now, it seemed to be all anyone talked about.
Who do you think the Steelers will take
in the draft this year?
Is Bradshaw done?
Can you believe they won't give Franco
the money - what's he doing going to Seattle?
The last memories most unemployed steel
workers had of their
towns had a black and gold tinge. The good times
remembered all seemed to
revolve, somehow, around a football game. Sneaking
away from your sister's
wedding reception to go downstairs to the bar and
watch the game against
Earl Campbell and the Oilers - going to midnight mass,
still half in the bag
after Pittsburgh beat Oakland - you and your
grandfather, both crying at the
sight of The Chief, finally holding his Vince Lombardi
Trophy.
And then, the mills closed.
Damn the mills.
One of the unseen benefits of the
collapse of the value
systems our families believed in - that the mill would
look after you
through thick and thin - was that now, decades later,
there is not a town in
America where a Pittsburgher cannot feel at home.
Nearly every city in the
United States has a designated "Black and Gold"
establishment. From Bangor,
Maine to Honolulu, Hawaii, and every town in between
can be found an oasis
of Iron City, chipped ham and yinzers. It's great to
know that no matter
what happened in the lives of our Steel City refugees,
they never forgot the
things that held us together as a city - families,
food, and Steelers football.
It's what we call the Steeler Nation.
You see it every football season. And
when the Steelers have a
great year, as they have had this season, the power of
the Steeler Nation
rises to show itself stronger than ever. This week, as
the Pittsburgh team
of Roethlisberger, Polamalu, Bettis and Porter head to
Denver, the fans of
Greenwood, Lambert, Bleier and Blount, the generation
who followed Lloyd,
Thigpen, Woodson and Kirkland will be watching from
Dallas to Chicago, from
an Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota, to a tent
stuck in the sand near Fallujah, Iraq.
I have received more email from
displaced Pittsburgh Steelers
fans this week than Christmas cards this holiday
season.
They're everywhere.
We're everywhere.
We are the Steeler Nation.
And now, it's passing from one
generation to the next. The
children of displaced Pittsburghers, who have never
lived in the Steel City,
are growing up Steelers fans. When they come back to
their parents'
hometowns to visit the grandparents, they hope, above
all, to be blessed
enough to get to see the Steelers in person.
Heinz Field is their football Mecca.
And if a ticket isn't available, that's
okay, too. There's
nothing better than sitting in Grandpa's living room,
just like Dad did,
eating Grandma's cooking and watching the Pittsburgh
Steelers.
Just like Dad did.
So, to you, Steeler Nation, I send best
wishes and a fond wave
of the Terrible Towel To Tom, who emailed from
Massachusetts to say how
great it was to watch the Patriots lose and the
Steelers win in one glorious
weekend. To Michelle, from Milwaukee, who wrote to let
me know it was she
who hexed Mike Vanderjagt last Sunday by chanting
"boogity, boogity,
boogity" and giving him the "maloik". To Jack, who
will somehow pull himself
away from the beach bar he tends in Hilo,
Hawaii, to once again root for the
black and gold in the middle of the night (his time),
I say, thanks for
giving power to the great Steeler Nation.
All around the NFL, the word is out
that the Pittsburgh
Steeler fans "travel well", meaning they will fly or
drive from Pittsburgh
to anywhere the Steelers play, just to see their team.
The one aspect about
that situation the rest of the NFL fails to grasp is
that, sometimes, the
Steeler Nation does not have to travel. Sometimes,
we're already there.
Yes, the short sighted steel mills
screwed our families over.
But they did, in a completely
unintended way, create
something new and perhaps more powerful than an industry.
They helped created a nation.
A Steeler Nation.
Nation Building
January 18, 2006
Scott Paulsen
Think about this the next time someone argues that a
professional sports
franchise is not important to a city's identity:
In the 1980's, as the steel mills and their supporting
factories shut down
from Homestead to Midland, Pittsburghers, faced for
the first time in their
lives with the specter of unemployment, were forced to
pick up their
families, leave their home towns and move to more
profitable parts of the
country. The steel workers were not ready for this.
They had planned to stay
in the 'burgh their entire lives. It was home.
Everyone I know can tell the same story about how Dad,
Uncle Bob or their
brother-in-law packed a U-Haul and headed down to
Tampa to build houses or
up to Boston for an office job or out to California to
star in pornographic
videos.
All right. Maybe that last one just happened in my family.
At this same time, during the early to
mid-eighties, the
Pittsburgh Steelers were at the peak of their
popularity. Following the
Super Bowl dynasty years, the power of the Steelers
was strong. Every man,
woman, boy and girl from parts of four states were
Pittsburgh faithful,
living and breathing day to day on the news of their
favorite team. Then, as
now, it seemed to be all anyone talked about.
Who do you think the Steelers will take
in the draft this year?
Is Bradshaw done?
Can you believe they won't give Franco
the money - what's he doing going to Seattle?
The last memories most unemployed steel
workers had of their
towns had a black and gold tinge. The good times
remembered all seemed to
revolve, somehow, around a football game. Sneaking
away from your sister's
wedding reception to go downstairs to the bar and
watch the game against
Earl Campbell and the Oilers - going to midnight mass,
still half in the bag
after Pittsburgh beat Oakland - you and your
grandfather, both crying at the
sight of The Chief, finally holding his Vince Lombardi
Trophy.
And then, the mills closed.
Damn the mills.
One of the unseen benefits of the
collapse of the value
systems our families believed in - that the mill would
look after you
through thick and thin - was that now, decades later,
there is not a town in
America where a Pittsburgher cannot feel at home.
Nearly every city in the
United States has a designated "Black and Gold"
establishment. From Bangor,
Maine to Honolulu, Hawaii, and every town in between
can be found an oasis
of Iron City, chipped ham and yinzers. It's great to
know that no matter
what happened in the lives of our Steel City refugees,
they never forgot the
things that held us together as a city - families,
food, and Steelers football.
It's what we call the Steeler Nation.
You see it every football season. And
when the Steelers have a
great year, as they have had this season, the power of
the Steeler Nation
rises to show itself stronger than ever. This week, as
the Pittsburgh team
of Roethlisberger, Polamalu, Bettis and Porter head to
Denver, the fans of
Greenwood, Lambert, Bleier and Blount, the generation
who followed Lloyd,
Thigpen, Woodson and Kirkland will be watching from
Dallas to Chicago, from
an Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota, to a tent
stuck in the sand near Fallujah, Iraq.
I have received more email from
displaced Pittsburgh Steelers
fans this week than Christmas cards this holiday
season.
They're everywhere.
We're everywhere.
We are the Steeler Nation.
And now, it's passing from one
generation to the next. The
children of displaced Pittsburghers, who have never
lived in the Steel City,
are growing up Steelers fans. When they come back to
their parents'
hometowns to visit the grandparents, they hope, above
all, to be blessed
enough to get to see the Steelers in person.
Heinz Field is their football Mecca.
And if a ticket isn't available, that's
okay, too. There's
nothing better than sitting in Grandpa's living room,
just like Dad did,
eating Grandma's cooking and watching the Pittsburgh
Steelers.
Just like Dad did.
So, to you, Steeler Nation, I send best
wishes and a fond wave
of the Terrible Towel To Tom, who emailed from
Massachusetts to say how
great it was to watch the Patriots lose and the
Steelers win in one glorious
weekend. To Michelle, from Milwaukee, who wrote to let
me know it was she
who hexed Mike Vanderjagt last Sunday by chanting
"boogity, boogity,
boogity" and giving him the "maloik". To Jack, who
will somehow pull himself
away from the beach bar he tends in Hilo,
Hawaii, to once again root for the
black and gold in the middle of the night (his time),
I say, thanks for
giving power to the great Steeler Nation.
All around the NFL, the word is out
that the Pittsburgh
Steeler fans "travel well", meaning they will fly or
drive from Pittsburgh
to anywhere the Steelers play, just to see their team.
The one aspect about
that situation the rest of the NFL fails to grasp is
that, sometimes, the
Steeler Nation does not have to travel. Sometimes,
we're already there.
Yes, the short sighted steel mills
screwed our families over.
But they did, in a completely
unintended way, create
something new and perhaps more powerful than an industry.
They helped created a nation.
A Steeler Nation.
posted by J. at 8:17 PM
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