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Seen here in this picture is me during my one and only time seeing the Steelers play in Pittsburgh. It was 8 degrees during this 2016 divisional playoff game. I was wearing everything that I brought. We won that game against The Miami Dolphins.

Many years earlier when I was 8 years old I had become a Steelers fan. How does a kid who’s born in Brooklyn, NY, moves to Fort Lauderdale, Florida when he’s 6 become a Steelers fan? 

When we arrived in South Florida I started playing tackle football for my local town team called The Davie Colts. Our Helmets had the same logo as the Baltimore Colts. That was short lived because the next season the team switched names to the Davie Broncos. Of course we shared the same helmet logo as the Denver Broncos. This was 1977. I was 7 years old and I actually remember watching Super Bowl 12 between The Denver Broncos and The Dallas Cowboys. I suppose I was rooting for Denver since I was technically a Bronco. Here’s a pic of me with my sister Charese.

I was about to turn 8 years old. I didn’t have favorite team. I was never a Giants fan having left New York when I was 6. I wasn’t a Dolphins fan because we had just moved to Florida. My Mom tried to turn me into a Jets fan. That didn’t happen. Everything changed the very next year when the Steelers played in the Super Bowl. I don’t quite remember if it was Super Bowl 13 or 14, but I remember watching the game on TV and falling in love with them.

Was it was their awesome uniforms? Was it was their legendary players that they had on the team at that point who had won 4 Super Bowls in the past 6 years? Maybe it was the classic Coke commercial when Mean Joe Green said “ Hey Kid, Catch,” and throws the kid (who was my age) his jersey. All I know is that from that point on I would become a diehard, hardcore Steelers fan for the rest of my life. 

The Steelers were about to test my fandom. I had caught the last bit of their 70’s Dynasty. It was sad that I could never see the Steelers play growing up in South Florida. It was always the Dolphins games that they would show on TV. I remember looking at the standings in the newspaper before school to see their record to see if they won or lost. I remember being sad if they were low in the standings.  

A few years went by and my interests in football declined a little bit as I got into playing guitar when was 12. From then till 1991 I barely kept up with football. I would see an occasional game on TV and of course I would root for them.

One night I was sitting at home and a Steelers game came on. Like I mentioned, it was very rare to get the Steelers games in Florida. It might’ve been the last game of the ’91 season. I remember watching the game and enjoying it like did when I was a kid. They had the same legendary head coach Chuck Noll that they had back when I was a kid. 

I was hooked again. The very next season Coach Chuck Noll retired and Bill Cowher became the new head coach. I started becoming somewhat obsessed with the Steelers. I was buying all kinds of Steelers stuff including trading cards. Many of them were rookies cards of players from the great 70’s teams. I think it was the 93 season when I finally got to see the Steelers play the Dolphins at Joe Robbie Stadium In Miami. (Ft. Lauderdale).  

It was tough during those years because I couldn’t see my team play. You would have to wait for SportCenter at the end of the night just to see highlights of the game. It wasn’t like it is today where everything is at your finger tips. I was subscribed to The Steelers Digest which was a small newspaper written by Steelers writers who still to this day work for media outlets for the Steelers. Bob Labriola and Gerry Dulac were two of the writers. I would read this newspaper top to bottom like my life depended on it. 

I still have all my Steelers collectables including the trading cards and many issues of The Steelers Digest. 

I think that it was 96, or 97, whenI found out about this Steelers bar that showed the Steelers game every week. What! That was mind-blowing. It was a place not to far from where I lived at the time. The place was called the Sand Trap. It was a great bar / restaurant located in a golf course called Colony West in Tamarac, Florida. Apparently the owner of this place was a long time Steelers fan. This place was all decked out with Steelers memorabilia. It was so beautiful. 

These people that went were hard core Steelers fans, many were from Pittsburgh. I felt like I fit right in. I went there for years, every Sunday during the season. I met some really great people who I’m still friends with to this day. The Steelers couldn’t seem to get back to the Super Bowl with the exception of the ’95 season when they got there and lost a nail bitter. 

I would continue to watch the Steelers at the Sand Trap till 2004 when I decided to move to New York. My first year in New York I was going to have to find a Steelers bar fast. Don’t get me wrong. I moved to New York to be Rock Star. Haha. Part of that plan was to watch the Steelers play every week as well. I had found a few places, one was called Time Out. That’s where I met bartender Carmet who I wrote my song “Freakshow” about. She would wind up being in the video a few years later. That song is on my Album “Life Is Sweeter…”

The very next year I found a magical place called Blondies. It was 2005 and that year the Steelers would go on and win The Super bowl. It was the first time in 26 years. It really was an amazing experience. All the up’s and downs of winning and loosing for years finally came to an end. I finally got to experience the Steelers winning the Super Bowl for the first time since I was 9 years old. A few years later in ’08 they would go on and win again. In 2010 they would get to the big game and lose. 

Here we are now in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic and I’m still following the Steelers like I always have. We haven’t been back to the big game in 10 years but we’ve gotten real close a few times. Steelers fans enjoy the times they spend together rooting for their team. The same goes for any fans for any team. You stick with your team through all the good and bad years. And when that one good year comes and it happens, It’s magical and there’s nothing else like it. 

Right now The Steelers are 10-0, undefeated. Never in their long history dating back to 1933 has that ever happened. Prior to this 10-0 start, in 1978 they started 7-0 and ended up 14-2 winning the Super Bowl. Feels like we’ve come full circle.

“I’ve got a feeling, Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl.” I’m not from Pittsburgh, but I bleed Black and gold.