by Fred Moleck
Steelers Nation Ritual
Ritual—repeated patternings of symbolic language relevant to and expressive of the community that generated it.
A few weeks ago on a flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh, a bunch of Pittsburgh Steelers fans were on their way to Pittsburgh to attend the game between the Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens.
This game would determine who would be going to the Super Bowl. I was surprised that so many Pittsburghers were in Chicago the past week and were making their way back to Pittsburgh for the life-changing game.
My bigger surprise was that they were not Pittsburghers but Chicago fans who just had to be in Pittsburgh for this game. Pittsburgh won. The Steelers were on the way to Super Bowl—again.
I do have friends who are avid sports fans and would travel to see a Yankees game or a Bulls game. They might wear a pin declaring their fanship.
The Steelers fan, however, is different.
During the past seven to ten days there has been an onslaught of people from other parts of the United States to be in Pittsburgh for the Sunday Super Bowl game.
Mind you—they were not traveling to Tampa, but to Pittsburgh. Some had family and friends in Pittsburgh.
But some of them just wanted to be in Pittsburgh as the Super Bowl loomed. They were traveling to Pittsburgh to enjoy the rituals of anticipation: hitting the bars to share food and drink, telling their stories of how many Super Bowls they’ve attended, and publicly displaying their Pittsburgh pride by wearing Steelers shirts and ball caps, and waving the black-and-gold towels. More on that a little later.
(I kept thinking of Psalm 122: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.”)
In the news programs of last week one could count on footage of people wrapped in Steelers shirts and ball caps, waving their-gold-and black towels, drinking beer, eating pirogi, and being rowdy. (Symbolic language relevant to and expressive of the community that generated the language.)
Both native fans and visiting fans get into the vesture early on.
On Tuesday of last week I counted about every fourth person in the markets and malls sporting a Steelers football jersey.
On Sunday, just about everyone was in football vesture. (Repeated patternings.)
Another element in any Steelers game is the omnipresent Terrible Towel, generated by the late Myron Cope, Pittsburgh’s beloved broadcaster, as a device for the fans to express their fanship in a visible way. It worked. (Symbolic language.)
It has achieved the rank of symbol not too dissimilar to the flag of the United States. There are reports of it being displayed by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was been seen atop Mount Kilimanjaro and in Antarctica.
I dare say that the typical Steelers fan has infused the Towel with a nearly sacred meaning.
That fan, however, may not be aware that the sales of the towels and other related items has generated a $2.5 million facility for the mentally handicapped such as Cope’s son, who has autism and who has lived at the school for twenty years.
Oh, by the way, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the 2009 Super Bowl, 27–23. It is the sixth Super Bowl claimed by Pittsburgh.
Go Steelers!
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@comcast.net