Being in Pittsburgh for Super Bowl Sunday: An essay in words and pictures

WilliamPitt

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Tue Feb-07-06 01:06 AM
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Being in Pittsburgh for Super Bowl Sunday: An essay in words and pictures

So OK, I'm a Patriots fan. Die-hard and all that. But when my team pooped all over itself in Denver during that playoff game, I transferred my allegiance immediately to Pittsburgh. Some of my Pats-fan friends found this astonishing, but there is logic here:

1. I watched all the games with my friend Dan, who is from the 'Burgh. It was fun rooting for the Steelers as they beat the first, second and third-seeded teams in their own houses. When they finally beat Denver, Dan said "I am going home to watch this game, and you are coming with me." Sounded like an order.

2. The Steelers beat the Colts. That deserves to be written twice: The Steelers beat the Colts. The ONLY THING that made it easier to deal with the fact that the Pats weren't going for the three-peat was that the goddam Colts and Mr. Golden Boy Manning weren't going either. No, I'm not bitter.

3. The goddam city is named after a relative of mine.

So we left on Thursday night, hitting five bars before the night was over. By 8pm the next night, we had hit a total of nine bars. Nine bars in 24 hours. I learned a lot about Pittsburgh while I was there, but this above all: the town likes to drink. A lot. By the time the game ended on Sunday, I had surpassed all known standards for being drunk and hung over and drunk and hung over and drunk and hung over and drunk. My liver now qualifies as a Superfund site.

Yes, I bought a Steelers jersey (Joey Porter, as it was the only one left, and I enjoy a good smack-talker). Yes, I had a Terrible Towel in my back pocket the whole weekend. This was more than showing allegiance with Dan. It was a necessary survival tactic. I think I saw maybe three people in the whole city between Thursday and Monday who were not wearing black and gold something. Those three people were immediately culled from the herd and slaughtered.

It was, in all, a hugely fun time. As I had no stake in the game - other than loving football for football's sake and wanting to go to a football party in one of the best football towns in the country - I can say a few things. Objectively, that game sucked. By the end of the first quarter, Ben Rothelisburger had gained exactly one more passing yard in the game than I had. He gained one yard. As Bill Simmons said in his game diary, the Patriots would have annihilated both those teams handily. No, I'm not bitter.

Also - and any Steeler fans here are just going to have to suck this up and accept it as fact - the refereeing was abominable. Unvarnished catastrophe for the NFL. Worst possible moment for the refs to decide to stick their heads up their asses. I think the ball broke the plane on that Ben dive-in. But there was no offensive pass interference in the end zone, there was no hold on that pass play, and the tackle they got called on for a personal foul chop-block was a straight-up good tackle.

Michael Smith on ESPN.com summed it up for me. "Seattle had its share of goats: in particular, tight end Jerramy Stevens, who dropped four balls, and kicker Josh Brown, who missed two field-goal attempts. Almost to a man, the Seahawks pointed the blame finger at themselves for converting only one of three red zone attempts (when they had been the best in the league in that area, scoring a touchdown on 71.7 percent of their trips inside the 20-yard line); for allowing Ben Roethlisberger to improvise and complete a 37-yard pass to game MVP Hines Ward to the 1; for giving up a 75-yard touchdown run to Willie Parker; and for getting beaten by a trick play on Antwaan Randle El's pass to fellow receiver Ward for a touchdown, a first in Super Bowl history. If you read between the lines, though, they pretty much spelled out in bold letters that they had plenty of help in handing Pittsburgh its fifth Lombardi Trophy. Namely, the boys in black and white."

The WHOLE PLANET knew the Steelers were going to run that trick play. Stevens dropped so many first-down catches, I can't believe he wasn't thrown off the plane back to Seattle. I can't believe they didn't throw that wretched punter out after him. And the refs were terrible. There it is in a nutshell.

But.

It was a GREAT game to watch in a crummy Steelers bar surrounded by regulars who have been going there for 40 years, surrounded by friends of friends who were great people, knowing that the bartenders behind me were serving every single drink for free all night. That's right. The bar was wiiiiiiiiide open. It was an amazing time.

On to the pictures.

1. There is an area of town called The Strip, where on Friday there were hundreds of people selling Steelers gear to thousands of people that were covered from head to foot with Steelers gear. On one corner was this great supermarket with the funniest sign I've seen in a while:

2. The place I watched the game was called the Pleasure Bar. I have no idea why. Here it is:

3. The moment of victory:

4. The scene outside after the win, and note well that this neighborhood was as dead as Julius Caeser during the game. No cars, no people, just the wind:

5. The scene inside a bar called the Fox & Hound, where we went after the game was over:

6. On the way to the airport today, I saw this and thought it was neat. All those little black dots on the bridge are birds. Thousands of birds. If I were smart, I'd open a car wash on the far side:

Great weekend.

Go Pats.

P.S. My new favorite word is "jagoff."