Hump Day flash back (part one)

I grew up in Olean, NY which is located in Western NY, about 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border. My Parents grew up in Erie, PA and were Steelers fans all their lives. As a kid, Olean, NY is hard-core Buffalo Bills country, and what was going on in 1991, when I was 8 years old?
 
Yep, you guessed it Jim Kelley and the Run-and-Gun offense. I remember those teams and players very well and since my parents were Steelers fans I thought it would be funny if I rooted for the Bills. I endured 4 straight seasons of losing the super bowl and decided to join the Dark Side at age 11.

It was two seasons later that the Steelers went to Super Bowl XXX and lost to the Dallas Cowboys. By the age of 13 I just assumed it was normal to go to the Super Bowl every year, (and lose). Not to mention I had gone through all those seasons as a Pirate fan, losing in the NLCS. (God I hate Sid Bream).

So when the drought finally ended in 2005, I felt like I was a champion. GO STEELERS!!!!!

Easy choice. So smooth, so athletic, so likeable. I was 10 when the Steelers drafted him. He didn’t play much as a rookie, but he led the league in punt returns, and he was so much fun to watch returning punts. I remember one return that only went for about 3 yards, but he seemed to fake out practically every player on the punt team, running backwards, forwards, sideways, people were fallling down from the moves he was making, before someone finally brought him down.

Then the next year he tore it up, with the big super bowl win where he caught four passes for about 160 yards, including the bobbled ball catch as he was fallling down, and ended with the mvp.

And there is finally the little known fact that he played a large part in putting the terrible towel on the map when he ran out twirling it during player introductions during one of the playoff games.

Swannie, how we love ya how we love ya.

This dude was mean. Of course, liking Llyod foreshadowed the severe anger issues I encountered as an adult (joke). But seriously, this dude holds the record for most bars on a facemask.

Today, Greg Lloyd is also the Steeler to whom I live closest (I think). He teaches Tae Kwon Do at a dojo outside Atlanta, where I live. He also sticks his gun in his son’s mouth there. This explains why he was not only a “bad” linebacker but a bad human being.

in the sense that I wasn’t that into sports until about 5 years ago, then I became obsessed with the steelers. I grew up a steeler fan because of my father and my early memories were of Lloyd and Greene, and that goddamn superbowl where my dad almost killed the TV.

I always liked the black and gold but for some unexplained reason 5 years ago I became obsessed with the steelers and the nfl in general. The guys at the water cooler at work where taken back when I started correcting them and naming practice sqaud players on their teams.

my earliest memories ,like some others on here, are from the SB XXX era, My guys were LLoyd and Greene- Greene just seemed like a crazy man that your parents wouldnt want you to talk to , and Greg Lloyd just seemed mean. I still dont like Neil O’Donnell, i realize he had to have done pretty good that season but at that age the only thing that sticks in my head is the pass directly to Larry Brown. I almost forgot Levon Kirkland- he amazed me because of how fast he could run being as big as he was

I started watching them when I started middle school, just about the 2003 season. Oh man did that season suck. And you know it’s a horrible season when you lose to the browns. It seemed like if we won, it was ugly, and if we lost it was even uglier.

So I’ll just skip to the 2004 season. By now I had become addicted. I was memorizing players’ stats, height, weight, everything. Didn’t really have a favorite player, but if I had to take one it’s Hines Ward. And then favorite memory was the halloween massacre against New England. Watching Townsend’s pick 6 in that game is one of my favorite Steeler memories,

Loved those guys. I was heartbroken when Layne retired. That same offseason Big Daddy died of a heroin overdose. I lost my favorite on offense and favorite on defense at the same time. My dad taught me about drugs then. The next season (1963) we made the Final Four. I always believed we would have won the NFL title with Layne and Lipscomb. We lost that final game against the Giants, a team we murdered earlier, when Ed Stinking Brown threw the ball all over the field and we lost. Layne and Big Daddy would have made the difference. Layne was a smart, gutty SOB who loved the game on the line. Big Daddy was the first really big man who was fast. Big Daddy used to actually throw blockers into running backs and tackle them that way. It was unbelievable. He would have been a Hall of Famer with a couple more seasons (drug free).

Growing up the only time I watched NFL football was on Thanksgiving day. My dad was a Bama fan and never got into NFL. But as I entered my teen years I got into the NFL more. Living in Louisiana I didn’t really have a team, all I knew is that I didn’t like the Saints and I hated the Cowboys (too much like the NY Yankees).

The change happened on Thanksgiving day in 1998. Bill Cowher on television was such a sight that I began rooting for the Steelers during that game. By the time of the overtime fiasco I was a committed Steeler fan. I can’t really explain it, but Cowher just cracked me up the way he looked on the sideline and I was impressed by his coaching. I suppose my favorite player at the time was Jerome Bettis. Currently, I’ve been a huge fan of Troy Polamalu since his rookie year.

At the time I didn’t know that the Steelers were any good, and they went on to lose the rest of their games that season. Then the next year they went 6-10 (I have zero positive memories of Kordell Stewart). It wasn’t until later that I learned I’d jumped into a winning tradition. So I suffered through a fan record of 15-22 before the 2001 season put me in the black going 13-3 and winning the central division.

I remember my Dad bought me a book chronicallizing the first 10 Super Bowls and I was about 8 or 9 and very impressionable. I can recall staring at that picture of Swann’s acrobatics forever. There was also a close-up of Bradshaw with that goofy facemask he used to wear, I was hooked instantly! Not to mention watching those old NFL films highlights, they really fostered a young man’s love for the game, and his team. By the time SB XIII rolled around, I was a full-fledged, die-hard Northern Illinois Steeler fan frothing at the mouth, much to the dismay of all my Bear-fan friends! On to my back went a black no. 12 jersey, up on my wall went a poster of the Blonde Bomber, followed quickly by a Harris poster and a Swann poster. Every one of the next five Halloweens saw me dressed as my favorite QB, he was the first with four rings- of course!

Heath and Troy. Those were my idols coming into the 07-08 season. My friend had shown me a Troy highlight video and I was awestruck. It wasn’t long before every Sunday had me absorbed into the games. Then the offseason came and I knew that his workout would turn him into more of a beast.

My love for Heath began when I checked out his WIkipedia page and found out that his birthday was on the same day as mine. That’s pretty insane, IMO, I mean like it’s pretty special

Though I wasn’t officially “diehard” per say, up until a few years ago, as a younger kid I’d always get real upset when the Steelers lost and real happy when they won. Apparently when I was 4, I was able to recite statistics by heart. My earliest Steeler memory was when I think I was 3, when my dad was watching a game in our former house and I saw number 95 being carted off the field, and my old man being upset about it. Naturally so was I.

As to a favorite player? I remember my first favorite was-though he was way before my time- Lynn Swann. I remember loving the number 8 and seeing his 88 was what began my adoration of “Leaping Lynn”. Then, after seeing his highlights I was hooked. After that whenever I played football with my friends, I always wanted to be the wideout. After I got over the nostalgia, I moved on to current players. Hines Ward was the first Steeler jersey I ever purchased way back when I was 11. That was cool. Before that I had had and am wearing currently a Lambert Jersey that my dad passed on to me when I was 5 or 6. This thing has got to be going on 30 years old, and only now, at the age of 16 actually fits me. Back to my favorite player and plays, for Swann, it had to be his superbowl catch over the cowboy defender. For Ward, my favorite was either his superbowl reverse catch for a TD or his play in the ’05 season leading up to XL where he caught the ball at the opponents 15ish and broke and span out of multiple tackles and barreled into the end zone. I remember seeing Bus getting all upset cause the play before that, he had told Ward to get to the one so he could run it in.

Currently my favorite player is LaMarr Woodley. The guy can ball, and ever since we drafted him, I’ve been rooting him on. You can guess what my favorite play of his was. I have to say there will be a two-way tie for this spot though when Limas Sweed cranks it up this coming season as believe it or not, he and I have a lot of common ground when it comes to upbringing (I’ve seen some facts on his life in the 2008 media guide and interviews).

I can’t wait to rub it in the faces of the Limas haters when he blows up next season!

catch a lot of football, esp. Steeler games so the first game that really stands out in my mind was a 1988 game at the Astrodome against Jerry’s Oilers .. what a game, a 37-34 shootout win for the Steelers with the legendary ( .. hahaha… ) Bubby Brister throwing 65 & 80 yard touchdowns … one to Lious Lipps …

I have to say my guys were all on the D though, Rod Woodson, Hardy Nickerson and David Little (R.I.P) .. the one play in that game which stands out was one Dwight Stone running a kick back for a TD ..

oh man .. a 5-11 season that year but I never forget that game ..

My first favorite player was “Mean” Joe Greene, because I used to have a shirt that said “Mean Joe Greene, the Sacking Machine.” But, I had never really seen any games at that point.

The first game I remember watching was SB XIV, and I guess I would have to say that my favorite player from that game was Stallworth. His two deep bomb receptions were awesome, and helped put the game away in the 4th quarter. He was also the Steeler from those SBs that played the longest after the run was over.

The first time I remember thinking a player was my favorite Steeler was Rod Woodson. It seemed like there had been no real greats for such a long time, and he was the first Steeler in a long time to be talked about as one of the best in the league. The plays with him that really stick out in my mind are when he blew out his knee in game 1of 1995 and then when he came back for the SB and defended a pass against Irvin and pointed to his knee.

i was 8. it was super bowl X. roy gerela had just missed a kick and i, rooting for the steelers because they had the cooler uniforms, threw myself onto the floor for some overly -dramatic reason. my dad, who had grown up on jim brown and was a cleve brownies fan, laughed at me, and of course i started crying. but then some cowboys player stuck a finger in gerela’s face, and that’s when it happened: jack lambert, my role model to be, intervened, slinging legendary cowboy punk cliff harris to the ground and ushering in two new realities in my house:

1. much to my father’s chagrin, i would forever love both jack lambert and the steelers.
2. my little sister would pay the price. unfortunately for her, i would re-enact the play over and over on her, throwing her to the ground whenever i had the chance, standing over her and pointing my finger in her face until she screamed “mom!” and i ended up in my room. she eventually forgave me, but old wounds were recently reopened. you see, she moved to arizona after she graduated college and became a cardinals fan. right after the fitzgerald touchdown that put them up late, she sent me a text message that read “revenge at last!” ten minutes later, with replays confirming santonio’s gorgeous toe-tap, i texted her back: “that must have REALLY sucked,” it said.

anyway, i do feel badly about torturing her. but that’s how i became a steelers fan. and yes, cliff harris is still a punk…

I was Bills fan…until I watched a game when Woodson picked off a tipped pass and ran it back for a score. That same game he registered a sack, and I think he blocked a FG, too. There was a sign in the stands at Three Rivers that day that said “Rod is God.” Ever since then, he’s been my fav.

When he left the Steelers and went on to play with the Niners, Ratbirds, and Raiders…I still followed him, even though it was painful seeing him out of the Black n Gold.

Dan Rooney himself said that letting Woodson leave was one of the biggest mistakes of his professional career. In my opinion, he was the best CB we’ve ever had (taking nothing away from Blount, I’ve just never seen him play).

Also, Woodson was DOMINANT in Tecmo Super Bowl back in the day.

Since ’99, i was in the lounge once with the old man watching tv, he was flicking channels, and up came a Steelers game(although i didnt know it was the Steelers yet)
I instantly decided i liked them because they were black and gold/yellow, my hometown colours

I quickly gained a passion for blitzing linebackers and power runners, because the hard hitting and hard running resembled rugby for me, which i played and still play i might add

My initial favourite player was Jerome Bettis, he was big, powerful but also surprisingly nimble. Although being 10 i couldnt give you a favourite play, too young to remember lol

I also loved Jason Gildon, who made a tonne of sacks when i watched, and i thought a sack was a thing of beauty, was well and truly hooked by now

Now 10 years on, Ive watched a lot of football. My favs include Bettis, Gildon, Slash, Burress(till he turned into an idiot) Ward, Porter, Brown etc

As of now, my favourite players (to name only 3) is Lamarr Woodley (check out my “Why i like #56” please!), Big Ben and Troy P. My favourite play is still proabably the 75 yard touchdown run Willie Parker had, i was watching the Superbowl live, and that play was a thing of beauty, the best run blocking by any team ive ever seen. He didnt get touched.

Cheers!