Steelers Super Bowl victory celebration, 2/3/09:

Pittsburgh is crazy about its Steelers even in bad times, but of course with an unprecedented sixth championship, everything has been taken to an even higher level.  Knowing that there was going to be a parade and rally to celebrate the champions in downtown Pittsburgh, just blocks from my workplace, I resolved to go (I was working at home the year they last won the Super Bowl).

It was my first time going to any such rally.  All I knew to expect was that there would be huge crowds.  In fact, upwards of 300,000 showed up, comparable to the population of the city itself.  I and some coworkers tried to find as good a place as possible to watch the show.  Our first attempt got us pretty far away from the stage.  We expected things to be better on the river side of the Boulevard of the Allies but due to various street closures we had a pretty roundabout route.  In the end we wound up in a parking lot at the corner of Stanwix and the Boulevard of the Allies.  We were still a pretty good distance from the stage but thought it was about as good a view as we could get.  Unfortunately besides the vast crowds, our view was partially blocked by the TV crews.  Had I been a bit smarter I would have found my way directly behind the stroller that a neighbor of mine had, but by the time I realized this people were packed in too tightly for me to move.  I was a little annoyed that they hadn't elevated the stage.  At least I had a spot where my view was not blocked by the bus that pulled up later.

We found our places at about 11:30, half an hour before the parade was due to start and at least an hour before it was due to reach us.  The lot filled behind us very quickly.  As they played various familiar pieces of music, the excitement grew.  There were some of the usual Steelers fight songs.  (I must confess I can't bring myself to like "Here We Go", but I do love the Steelers Polka.  Both are goofy, but the polka in a good way.)  Styx's "Renegade" has become a theme of the defense, so people went crazy when it came on.  And of course "We Are the Champions" was a big hit.  In the meantime people entertained themselves by tossing a football around.

I couldn't see anything of the parade, with one exception.  Troy Polamalu stood atop his car, and then dived into the crowd.  I saw the dive but didn't quite understand what he was doing at the time.  To me he just seemed to disappear.

It seemed that just about everybody got a chance to speak on stage.  Dan Rooney started off, of course, followed by apparently the whole coaching staff.  I don't know if all of the players spoke, but certainly a lot of them did.  The bigger stars got to speak later, but surprisingly Ben Roethlisberger was one of the first to talk.  The trophy of course made its appearance; I barely managed to get a picture.  It was one of the first times I really wanted a better camera.  I could see the pictures on the screens of cameras around me and many were coming out much better.  But I could barely see anything myself for all the people ahead of me, including all the cameras and Terrible Towels held high.

It was a cold day, but I really didn't feel it until after I'd begun to leave.   Once again I had to take a roundabout way to get through, but this did take me right by the Steelers bus.  I saw Jeff Reed boarding.  About par for my course that the only player I really got a good view of was the kicker.

All in all the charged atmosphere was very exciting.  However, it was so crowded and I had a chance to really see so little that I will probably either skip it next time or take a different approach.  There were rumors of people trying to find spots in the wee hours of the morning.  I am not fan enough to try that.  The other possibility would be to find some sort of higher ground, such as the parking garages or windows of some nearby building.  Such shelter might help with the cold as well.  But even outside in the cold I was happy to welcome back the champions!