Here it is Super Bowl Sunday and, in three hours, my die-hard favorite team will be battling for its seventh Lombardi Trophy--the most coveted trophy in all of sports. So why am I stuck thinking about Cleveland?
Melissa and I were both working two jobs in Youngstown and struggling to get by when we decided there would be more job opportunities in Cleveland ... and the job boards proved us right. It was a tough pill to swallow. For some odd reason, the local Cleveland channels don't carry Pirates games. I might be the only guy in the office wearing Black and Gold. And God forbid, my kid might grow up to be a Browns fan. I was distraught, and never fully bought into the concept that I would like living near Cleveland.
Not only did we jump closer to Lake Erie, we ended up buying a house in Cleveland city limits. And not only have we settled in, I've fallen in love with the city. I'm proud to live in Cleveland, excited to raise a family here and anxious to be a part of it's revitalization. In Cleveland, there are opportunities, there is plenty of entertainment and the people are blue collar--down to earth and unpretentious.
In fact, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are eerily similar cities. I won't hark on their foundations--how they both were built as shipping imports on great bodies of water, forged in the mills by hardworking laborers--but both cities are in the middle of a transformation from polluted and rusty to clean and unique. Neither will ever be Chicago, New York or L.A., but they'd hate to be. Rather, they'll embrace their size and build on their connectivity.
The animosity between the two cities' sport fans couldn't be greater, yet the cities' franchises couldn't be more similar. Each have their share of winners and losers. Although they never hoisted a championship trophy, the Indians were consistent winners through the 1990s and the Cavs dominated through the LeBron era; the Browns have been embarrassingly bad. In Pittsburgh, the Steelers have enjoyed a run of success lately and the Penguins have hoisted two Stanley Cups in recent years, but the Pirates have been absolutely dismal.
Here's a quote from David Morehouse, the Penguins' president: "If you go back to when all this started, when I was growing up (in Pittsburgh) as a kid in the '70s, the sports were the only good thing happening. You picked up the paper, and it was all bad news. Your neighbors were getting laid off. Steel mills were closing. You couldn't get a job. But these guys were winning championships, and they were doing it by working hard. They were validation that working hard would pay off."
Sound familiar, Cleveland?
Today, it's harder to be a Steelers fan in Cleveland than one might think. I cant wear a jersey to work without feeling somewhat uncomfortable at some point throughout the day. I cant fly my Steelers flag in front of my house without the fear of a drunken Browns fan throwing a rock through my living room window. But these things are to be expected and I respect Browns fans for their loyalty. Having a D-bag for a quarterback in Pittsburgh hasn't made it any easier, but Cleveland shouldn't forget they've rooted for a sleazy Jim Brown, a prima donna Manny Ramirez and the biggest D-bag ever in "The Chosen One." I've come to conclusion that most athletes are egotistical douches and we've just got to deal with it.
As far as championships are concerned, Pittsburgh has been blessed to celebrate a handful in recent years. It's been fun, and as we get closer to kickoff tonight, my stomach is in knots over the prospect of another one. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't rooting for Cleveland to get a trophy soon. Certainly there are bigger things in life than sports, but life would get a lot easier, and this region could all breathe a collective sigh of relief, if Cleveland could bring one home.
It will happen eventually. Once it does, I hope the hatred between the cities' sport fans dies down a bit. After all, it's just sports. Until that day, Here We Go Steelers.
