CinePhillyist Reviews... The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Playlist Rewind: Shonen Knife at Johnny Brenda's
Phillyist Playlist: 311 at the Borgata Event Center
Where Have All Our T-Shirts Gone?
I Have a Baby and Ten Dollars...Now What?
I have very few vivid memories from my early childhood in small town Western Pennsylvania. I remember sitting in my grandparents' house, on the orange circa-1965 bean bag, watching the 1987 Fiesta Bowl where Penn State narrowly edged #1 Miami 14-10 to claim their second national championship. More importantly, I remember watching a muted television on Sundays while listening to an overly enthusiastic, hyperbolic man chart the Pittsburgh Steelers' battles to victory on the radio. Yes, like every other black and gold blooded Steeler fan, Myron Cope reared me in the ways of Blitzburgh.
For the past two years, however, I have been here, amidst the followers of a certain rare bird of prey. Unrelenting in their passion for all things Eagles, the fans of Philadelphia remind me of the fans of Pittsburgh, save for, of course, the jewelry adorning our five fingers. It's this same relentlessness that has holed me up in places like Fox and Hound or my humble abode for fear of verbal abuse at showing my true colors. Throughout the playoffs I have not had that same fear. I have been waving my Terrible Towel, proudly sporting my Super Bowl XL championship t-shirt, and humming the"Here We Go, Steelers" anthem that has been a part of Steeler lore since the era of Terry Bradshaw, Jack Ham, Franco Harris, Lynn Swan, Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene, and the rest of the vaunted Steel Curtain defense.
The passion in my family for the Steelers is due to our roots in DuBois, Pennsylvania, a tiny blip on the map of Steeler Nation. It spans generations (well, maybe only 3, but still) and doesn't discriminate man, woman or child. There are those that strongly believe that a rooting interest is developed due to geography; I am not in that camp. Were my family to have moved to an alternate locale, I would still be a Steeler fan.
Over Thanksgiving, my girlfriend had the pleasure of experiencing her first Sunday with my family, a ritual that includes eating pizza, drinking pop (we don't drink soda in Western PA), my entire family borne of my maternal grandparents (which totals 15 people between the ages of nine and 75) and a lot of hollering at an event that yelling cannot and will not ever change. It's funny, but it's us; thank god she accepted that.
This Sunday, which team is hoisting the Lombardi trophy at the end of 60 grueling minutes is going to come down to two things: the Steelers' offensive play against a rejuvenated Cardinals defense and how the Cardinals deal with the pseudo-home field advantage for the Steelers that seems to be a given. If the Steelers are to win, only two players can realistically be the MVP: Ben Roethlisberger or Willie Parker. Number seven cannot play like he did in his last go round. Antwaan Randle-El bailed him out with the touchdown pass to Hines Ward. If Fast Willie has a monster game, it will allow Roethlisberger to pick and prod an Arizona defense when it shifts its focus to the run.
As I prepare for this Sunday's matchup, my excitement has been palpable. I can't really remember being this excited during the Super Bowl run of 2006. My life has become more stable since then, allowing me to focus more on Big Ben, Fast Willie, Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward (who is in dire need of a nickname befitting his smash mouth and often maligned style of play). Just as the championship teams of the seventies were my elder family members' teams, this team of the early two-thousands is mine. We have our own defensive identity and all! As Dave Dameshek says, it doesn't matter if you're black or white, as long as you're black and gold. The Terrible Towel is poised to strike this Sunday in Tampa. May the spirit of Myron be with us.
There are some things in life that you cannot choose; those are the things that choose you
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I will get this party started.
As a fan of the black and gold, Myron Cope and pop, I find myself too biased to critique. However you have failed to let people realize that Louis Lipps was the grand marshal of our summer parade.
The article reminded me of growing up. I grew up in the same vicinity and while Dubois is filled with drones who just like the same teams and have the same values (such as racism) as their parents, its friendly neighbor to the west Sandy Township is filled with free thinking idealists who often like teams based on things other than ancestry. I am actually a bears fan. Growing up a fan of an alternate team to your area is very hard. You often feel very alone at football parties and have no one to share your excitement over your team with. All of your fellow fans are many miles away and the only response you get when you explain your team of choice is why. This makes it much easier for me to eat in restaurants by myself and yell at the TVs at Hooters even though no one else is even watching that particular game. I am an outsider as a fan and it has made me an outsider of a human being. I feel like this article will remind many of Phillys faithful of great Eagles memories with family and friends. Unfortunately the only memory I can conjure up is of a Steelers Super Bowl party in 2005. I rememberpeople laughing, and drinking, and making out while my happiest moment of that party was eating the last cocktail shrimp. So I hope all the steelers fans enjoy getting together for this game and rooting and laughing. I'll be at home with my own tray of cocktail shrimp waiting for Rock of Love to come on.
I should have mentioned that Louis Lipps was the grand marshall of the annual Community Days parade in Dub-city. Definitely my bad. He also had his name attached to bad ass cookies "Lipp-Smackers". Those mothers were awesome.
Even though I am in now way shape or for a PA person, I am a Steelers girl because of my Dad. He taught me young to take your team seriously. Pick a team and stick with them through thick and thin.
I have to say, when it comes to this years Super Bowl, I'll be sticking to my team, and at some point, I have a feeling my mind will drift to a little story about a boy who grew up in DuBois, Pennsylvania whose doing just the same.
Go Steelers.
He’ll pose for a photo opp,
but will stonewall you when you ask simple questions about Lipp Smackers.
Since I didn't grow up in Western PA and the article doesn't explain...what is "Yinzer?"
From urbandictionary.com:
A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Known for their love of all things Steelers and Donnie Iris and extreme hatred of Cleveland. Consists mainly on Primanti Brothers and ethnic cuisine. Yinzers can be easily identified by their one-of-a-kind, ridiculous accent.
I'd modify it to include all of Western PA.
That urbandictionary def doesn't really explain why they are called Yinzers. A yinzer is some one who says "Y'inz" which is like "You ones" which is like "Y'all." I believe. I am not a native speaker.
but where did the word come from?
Miss Bee, ahaak's comment is correct.
Yinz is just a slang word for "you" or "you all". "Did yinz see that catch by Holmes in the end zone last night? It won the Stillers the super bowl."
oh bizarre, that comment hadn't shown up when i was on the page, even though it was posted hours before...
Yeah, we're having some commenting issues.