Denver, they are among you.
You know them. Don’t pretend you can’t see their bumper stickers and jerseys and flags draped from homes in your neighborhoods.
You’ve seen the skip in their step lately, the glint in their eyes since Sunday afternoon – those Terrible-Towel-waving, Jerome-Bettis-loving western Pennsylvania types roaming streets and offices and maybe (gasp) your own home.
Sure, they have names and faces, but maybe you’re only seeing red from those water-cooler discussions leading up to Sunday’s do-or-die AFC championship game between the Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Invesco Field at Mile High.
There’s Leslie Volkar, 25, a Pittsburgh native.
“I’m sure there will be a reasonable amount of gloating from me on Monday,” says the Denver-based marketing coordinator.
Huh?
“There’s no doubt,” she says, “the Steelers want it more.”
Ooooh.
To be sure, those transplanted black-and-gold fans love Colorado, but for them, there’s only one allegiance on Sundays. Especially when a Super Bowl berth is on the line.
“I called my daughter in New Mexico and asked what colors my grandkids would be wearing Sunday,” says Gregg Lauerman, 49, a plumber from Lamar who grew up in Pittsburgh and still roots for his hometown team. “It looks like the decision is 2-1, and that’s only because my granddaughter has a Bronco cheerleading outfit.”
It’s straining marriages.
“My husband (a Steelers fan and native Pittsburgher) gave my ticket to a cousin,” says Kim Russo, 40, a phlebotomist for a metro-Denver laboratory and a self-professed Broncomaniac who owns season tickets. “I wasn’t too happy.”
And business relationships.
“My partner put up the Pittsburgh banner, so I had to put up the Bronco flag,” says Rodney Marr, 42, a native Coloradan and co-owner of the Hoffbrau Bar & Grill in Westminster. His business partner, Chris Fullerton, 47, is a Pittsburgh native.
“I’m sure there will be some (trash) talk later this week,” Fullerton says.
At Ben Taylor’s Denver home, the Steelers flag flies and black jerseys are donned every Sunday. He and his eight Pittsburgh buddies – who now live in Boulder or Denver – meet nearly every weekend to watch their Steelers.
The idea of Pittsburgh beating the heavily favored Indianapolis Colts last weekend to play in their adopted city seemed too good to be true.
“It was a complete pipe dream,” Taylor, a 33-year-old software designer, says. “But something miraculous happened and we’re here. More than any other time, it just feels like something special is meant to happen.”
Fran Mamet felt it too. A former student at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, he carried his Steelers allegiance around the world with the Army, then to Colorado. He converted his wife a few years back, and she scoured her office Monday for extra tickets.
“At least 30 people said they wouldn’t sell to her” because she was rooting for the Steelers, says Mamet, 35, a former middle school teacher who lives in Denver. Finally, though, someone came through.
“They whispered to her that they had tickets for sale,” Mamet says. “There were some rules.”
No 1.: No standing or yelling or pointing “first down.”
No. 2: No singing of Steelers theme songs.
“The (ticket sellers) apparently have known the people around them for 29 years,” Mamet says. “I’ll be sure to buy them a beer.”
Section 232, row 6, this Bud’s for you.
Then there’s Russo, the woman whose husband plans to ditch her for the game. Chris Russo already converted three of the couple’s four sons to Steeler Nation, and the Arvada woman hasn’t gotten over it.
She’s now looking for her own ticket, and maybe a little revenge.
“If we win, I’ll call him at the game,” Russo says. “I’ll tell him, ‘Keep on walking, buddy. You loser.”‘
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or rsanchez@denverpost.com.
Oops
Web users trying to visit
denverpost.com Wednesday morning
got a little surprise, Pittsburgh-
style.
Instead of showing the morning’s
news in Colorado, The Post’s
website directed readers to the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s sports
section.
It seems there was a programming
glitch when site designers
tried to link stories from the
Post-Gazette’s site to The Post.
Instead of being offered the
Pittsburgh paper’s stories via a link,
readers were rerouted entirely.
The mistake which happened
about 10:30 a.m. lasted two or
three minutes and produced a
handful of calls from readers wanting
to know what happened.
In the meantime, football fans
who want to know how the Steelers
are gearing up for the AFC
championship game Sunday
against the Broncos can still go to
denverpost.com, then follow links
to the Post-Gazette’s sports stories.
Also on the site, readers can participate
in fan discussion boards
and can pick a new beard for Jake
Plummer or new hair for Steelers
strong safety Troy Polamalu.
