Pittsburgh – Thousands of Steelers fans, some holding signs that simply said “Thanks!”, crowded downtown streets today for a parade honoring the team’s Super Bowl win.
Coach Bill Cowher and the players, dressed in gray Super Bowl champion sweat shirts, slowly rode along the route. Retiring running back Jerome Bettis, sitting in a convertible with the top down, carried the Vince Lombardi trophy.
“I was here with you in the ’70s and all we kept hearing was how great it was,” said Cowher, referring to the team’s four Super Bowl wins. “All I can say to you now – how great it is. We don’t have to hear from anyone else anymore. We are living it, baby.” Many fans twirled Terrible Towels in the air as they stood in chilly temperatures and snow flurries. Several held signs with a photo of Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr. and the words “We remember.” Others wore black-and-gold hard hats.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger echoed the feelings of many fans.
“This has been a dream come true for all of us,” Roethlisberger said.
Team owner Dan Rooney held up a sign saying “Thanks.” “This sign says it all and it’s for you. Thank you,” Rooney told fans at the end of the parade route. “The press, they had their doubts, but you never did and we thank you.” Mayor Bob O’Connor rode along too, sporting a white Bettis jersey. Even Gov. Ed Rendell, a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan, came to cheer on the team.
Crowds lined the mile-long parade route, where police officers riding on horseback swirled the Terrible Towel above their heads.
Sightseeing boats crowded with fans in Steelers gear ferried people from the city’s South Side to downtown for the parade.
Jeff and Stacy Krieger traveled 3 1/2 hours from York County to Pittsburgh on Monday night to be at the parade with their 9-year-old son, Dylan, and 6-year-old daughter, Makensey.
“It’s been 25 years or however long it’s been,” said Jeff Krieger, a construction foreman and lifelong Steelers fan. “It might be another 25 years. You never know.” Pete Paolello, 37, staked out a nice spot on a traffic island next to the parade route. That was the reward for making the 12-hour drive from Boston and getting into town at 5 a.m. today.
“I gave my bosses a heads up last week, ‘If we win, I’ll be out,”‘ Paolello said. His sister, Josie, 24, of Erie, carried a sign that read “We came from Beantown to Bus-town,” referring to retiring running back Bettis.
But Paolello’s 20-year-old son, Ryan Fernandez, didn’t look happy to be in the crowd. He stood out in the sea of black and gold wearing a Red Sox jersey.
“He dragged me out,” said Fernandez, who admitted he is a New England Patriots fan.
The plaza near Point State Park was packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder, at least nine rows deep. There was the usual assortment of popular Steelers jerseys in the crowd – Bettis, Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward and Roethlisberger, to name a few – along with office workers dressed in suits and overcoats wearing Steelers knit hats or black-and-gold scarves.
The plaza was rocking as an assortment of hip-hop music blared over the loud speakers, and it soon got louder when the unofficial Steelers anthem and the Pittsburgh Polka started playing.
By late morning, business in downtown Pittsburgh came to a standstill as workers gathered in front of high-rise windows in offices lining the parade route.
Luigi Piianni, 34, who works downtown, said he got an extended lunch hour to watch the parade.
“After all the AFC championship games, it’s hard to believe it’s all over,” he said.
The parade was also a chance for people to show off their new Super Bowl T-shirts and hats.
Jim Disilverio, 53, a postman from Dillsburg, bought a hat, Steelers shirt and Super Bowl edition of the Terrible Towel.
To get to the parade, Disilverio left his house at 3 a.m.
Today in a black Volkswagen Beetle that he fashioned to look like a Steelers helmet. He said he was at the Steelers victory parade in the 1970s when they won their first Super Bowl.
“I was surprised that they got this far, the way they played the beginning of the season,” Disilverio said.
The Steelers won their fifth Super Bowl title Sunday, beating the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 in Detroit, in the team’s first Super Bowl win since 1980.
“It’s the beginning, we hope, of a new dynasty for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” former Steeler star Lynn Swann, now a candidate for Pennsylvania governor, told the crowd.
