Game Day Advice from The Pittsburgh Post Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06034/649152.stm
This is it, Steelers Nation. Gather round, listen up
Friday, February 03, 2006
By Peter Leo
Some final words
OK, everybody gather round. Grab somebody's hand and take a knee. This is the last time we meet as a Morning File before the game. We've come far, we've worked hard to get to where we are. You've been through some pretty bad jokes and some cold morning walks to get that PG placed carefully in a puddle. But let me make two things clear. One, you've earned the right to be here. Two, you haven't accomplished anything yet. If you're saying, "I'm just happy to be here," get out of the column right now. Go to the Tribune Review, for all we care. Because we have to complete the job. This is a day for winners.
This weekend is going to tell us a lot about what we're made of. It's a long weekend, perhaps one of the longest of your lives. But if you lose your focus, you're not going to take care of business, and that's what this weekend is all about. There are readers all over the country who would give their right arm to be where you are. You are the privileged few. So go out there in your black and gold, get to your TV sets, watch smart, have fun and bring that Super Bowl trophy right back where it belongs, to the city of Pittsburgh! (Readership rises with a roar, and chest-bumping ensues world-wide.)
Game preparations
Today and tomorrow:
At home or in public, it's full-dress Steelers gear day and night, sleepwear included. (Men with Steelers hardhats topped with Iron City cans may remove them at night.) Black or white jerseys permissible, though that changes on game day when white jerseys are a must since the Steelers are wearing their road whites.
Game day:
In keeping with Coach Cowher's choice of jerseys, go with white underwear for the game.
The game has a 6:30 p.m. start. Don't start drinking early; you may not make it to the second half. We're looking for fans who can give us 60 moderately sober minutes. Counting the ads and half-time show, that's four moderately sober hours.
Don't get up at 6 a.m., and ask your Mom is it time yet, as if this were Christmas. This goes for you kids, too. If you can't handle day-long stress, sleep in until 6 p.m.
During the game:
When the Steelers score, don't spike the dip. Just hand it to the host. Act like you've been to a Super Bowl party before.
No premature celebration. "Premature" means less than a six-touchdown lead with 9 seconds to go and the Steelers with the ball on the Seattle goal line.
If you're new to football, pick your spots, maybe during an ad, for your eye-rolling questions, such as "What's a down?" or "Who are they playing again?"
If you're hosting a Super Bowl party, provide a rubber room in case things go wrong or the game becomes too tense for your guests, such as a Steelers lead of less than 42 points.
Post-game
Be sure to think it through, and be aware of the rug quality, if you're tempted to douse your party host with Gatorade.
Steelers Nation in exile
Marvin Kitman, the brilliant, funny television critic for Newsday for 35 years now retired, is a Pittsburgher by birth (Montefiore Hospital, East Liberty) and memory (Rosy Rowswell, the Hill). His important credential this weekend: He's a Steelers fan. Let's go LIVE to Marvin in New Jersey:
"The Steeler Nation, province of Leonia, N.J., often meets in my house. I get the games on the Satellite. It's amazing -- 1,001 channels and the only thing I watch is the Steelers. The capital of Steeler Nation-in-exile in northern New Jersey is a bar in Palisades Park named Whiskey Pete's. This is puzzling to some because 99.8% of the establishments in Palisades Park are Korean-owned and named. (Not everybody realizes that "Whiskey Pete" is an old Korean name, second only to "Park.")
"Normally, it is occupied by knuckleheads. On Sundays, the knuckleheads are displaced by members of the provisional Steeler Nation government, some of whom have been at Whiskey Pete's since Tuesday. It is a small place, and the Steelerati have to fight their way in. Whiskey Pete's is where I get the latest Steeler inside information, such as, Ben this week was working on his tackling. I don't like to brag, Peter, but I was the one who e-mailed Cowher the game plan for the Bronco game: Score on the first four possessions. I told him to do the same thing this Sunday."
The old country
Here's another report from a Steelers fan, this one isolated from Steelers Nation. Robin Barwick is an Englishman from Tunbridge Wells, Kent. But he lived in Indiana, Pa., as a boy and caught Steelermania:
"Most sports fans in England realize that the Super Bowl is on Sunday, but very few could tell you who is playing. What everyone knows is that it kicks off very late (11 p.m.). I have booked Monday morning off, but if we win I may go to work, as I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep. I'll make some celebratory calls to friends in PA and then run around the living room a few times as quietly as possible as I won't want to wake up my kids. By the time I have finished running around it will probably be 4 a.m., maybe 5, so I'll drink English breakfast tea in my favorite Steelers mug and head out back to look up to the starlit sky and share a quiet, tearful moment with Art Rooney."