Super Bowl XL …
I have been a Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan for as long as I can remember, even though I spent my childhood in the Washington, DC area. I was born just outside of Pittsburgh, and my indoctrination to the game came at the hands of my Aunt Mary in Pennsylvania. She would jump up and down and yell at the players on the screen. “Run, run, run, Franco!” “Catch it, Swanny!”
The Super Bowl’s number in any year is also the same as my birthday that year. Growing up, I was rather spoiled by my favorite teams’ success. Between my 9th and 14th birthdays, the Steelers won four Super Bowls (IX, X, XIII, XIV). At the time my friends were Redskins or Colts fans, and they didn’t have much to cheer about.
The Steelers have still been very successful by most standards, but they haven’t won the Big Game in 26 years, and have only made it to the Super Bowl once in that time (Super Bowl XXX). This year they defied the odds, winning 3 games on the road in the playoffs as the six seed, and earned the right to play in their 6th Super Bowl.
Sarah and I have been cheering them on the whole way from our seats at McGuillicuddy’s Irish Pub. Each week we put on our Steelers shirts and yell at the screen. “Run, run, run Bus!” “Catch it, Hines!”
Today is the big game against the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks, and I am nervous as hell. All I want for my 40th birthday (2/16) is for the Steelers to win Super Bowl XL.
Sports-Monkey in the making…
With the Pittsburgh Steelers in the #1 seed playoff spot this year, it is time for me to reveal my ugly little secret.
It all began innocently enough: I started watching the Steelers because my husband has been a fan since his childhood, and as I’ve never followed sports, it was natural for me to align with my better half. Over the last two years, I have absorbed a little of the team’s rich history and become familiar with the players. I can’t watch just any football game, but if the Steelers are playing, I’ll be paying attention. Often, I prefer to watch with the sound turned down, or even off. The announcers of any major sporting event drive me insane. It’s like having some busybody stranger talk non-stop in your ear while you’re trying to watch. (Just try reading the closed captioning sometime; you’ll be amazed at the inane babble.)
So, the events of a few days ago took me quite by surprise. I was flipping channels when I happened to land on ESPN. There were highlights on, and since I’ve strangely acquired a taste for Chris Berman’s Fastest Three Minutes in Television halftime show (hey, why spend an entire Sunday watching 4 football games when you can catch all the big moments?), I paused to watch a few clips. Five minutes later I was thinking “well, that’s a good point but without TO I hope the Eagles have come up with some new moves to compensate for….wait a minute, what am I doing!?”
I’d been watching the shiny-suit brigade babble on about players who weren’t even on my team! And there are still 24 days until the Super Bowl.