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12/09/2006 11:08:57 AM · #1 |
On short notice, I was offered the opportunity to go to the Steelers game Thursday night. I, being a life long Steelers fan, who had never seen them play in Pittsburgh, jumped at the chance to go.
While the other 6 people making the trip were dreaming of drunken rowdiness in Pittsburgh, I had visions (delusions) of taking incredible pictures of the team, and of the Steeler fans tailgating at Heinz Field.
With great Steeler pictures in mind, I PM’ed Alan Freed to see if he was going to be at the game. Alan and, as I later found out, his brother Matt have taken excellent Steeler pictures from the field. I’ve never met another DPC’er, so when Alan returned my PM and agreed to meet at the game, I was pretty stoked.
Our plan was simple. Meet at work. Ride to Pittsburgh. Check into the hotel. Catch the hotel shuttle to the game. Meet our friends, who had the tickets, in the parking lot. Tailgate for a couple of hours. Meet up with Alan. Enjoy a Steeler victory. Catch a cab back to the hotel after the game. Ride home Friday. Seemed like a great plan.
With 7 men crammed into a Chevy Trailblazer we started what should have been a 3.5 hour trip at 11:00am. By 1 pm we were very uncomfortable and it had started to snow bringing traffic to a crawl. At 3:30 pm when we finally reached the hotel, my legs were screaming.
After a quick change into warm clothes  we headed for the hotel shuttle only to find it had already departed. For the next hour and 15 min. we waited for the next shuttle and tried to call a cab. The roads had turned to ice and nothing was moving. So at 5 pm we decided that we were going to walk to the game.
The woman behind the desk at the hotel told us that there was no way to walk from Green Tree to downtown. I guess she meant legally, there was no way to walk to downtown. But being the die hard fans that we are, we could not be stopped.
We climbed an embankment, went thru a fence, reached 279 and started walking along the freeway.  At first, we were walking faster than traffic was moving and we were feeling proud of our determination to reach the game. However, before long traffic was moving and we still hadn’t figured out how we were going to get thru the tunnel on foot. By this time it was dark out and did I mention that it was COLD. Along the walk passing cars were yelling at the 7 of us. We heard a lot of “GO STEELERS”, one “get back in your car” and one “I’m with the State Police, you can’t walk there!”. How we managed not to get arrested I’m not sure. Maybe when we climbed our second embankment to get on 19 we lost ‘em.
After 4 miles of walking we were finally off of the freeway and we could see the stadium.  It was about 6:20 pm at this point and I called Alan to see if he was at the game yet. Alan answered the phone but neither of us could really hear the other as I was crossing the West Bridge and the wind was howling.
You may be asking yourself why didn’t we just drive down to the field. Well like I said the guys I was with were planning on doing some serious drinking, and nobody wanted to drive. As it turned out, it was way to cold outside to drink cold beer. Hindsight is always 20/20.
After crossing the bridge we figured out that the parking lot that we were meeting our friends at was on the opposite side of the stadium, another mile away. If I had had my ticket, I would have skipped the tailgate and gone straight to the stadium to take pictures and try to find Alan, but I didn’t.
At 7:40 pm I had finally picked up my ticket, and walked back to the stadium.  With the game starting at 8 I was sure that Alan was already on the field.  The ticket which was supposed to be a “great seat, near mid-field” turned out to be the nose bleed section near the end zone.
During the game I talked to Alan a couple of times. We still couldn’t hear each other very well due to the noise. I could however see him! 
I didn’t really get any good pictures from my seat in the ozone. After the game we walked another 2 miles to catch a cab back to the hotel. The ride back home on Friday took 6 hours. But it was all worth it. I saw the Steelers win, I was at Heinz field, Willie Parker set a few records, and I almost met Alan Freed.
The rest of my pictures are here
Message edited by author 2006-12-09 11:47:36.
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12/09/2006 11:45:26 AM · #2 |
| woW! That's quite the sotry. Thanks for sharing that. Maybe next time you'll actually meet him :P......... and rent a limo..lol j/k |
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12/09/2006 12:24:05 PM · #3 |
| Great story! Sounds like you had fun even if you did freeze your butts off. Good shots, too! |
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12/09/2006 12:53:52 PM · #4 |
As Paul Harvey would say... "Know you know, the rrrrrrrest of the story!" I've been looking forward to hearing all the details of THIS trip!
I got that first call from Eric, but like he said we had a hard time hearing each other with all the wind. I got off the phone and told my wife, "It sounded like he said he was walking... from Green Tree!" But I figured I couldn't have heard that correctly.
Sure enough, that's what he had done... and I promise you this would not be a fun walk in any conditions, let alone on a night when the wind chill was in the single digits!
I was really bummed that I didn't have a chance to meet him. It's always fun to meet DPC'ers who make it to the games, like I've done with  dassilem,  OneSweetSin and others in the past. Hopefully we'll have a little better luck next time!
I think I've finally come up with a perfectly legal way of sharing a few of my shots from the game. I had gotten into trouble with the NFL last year because I had posted some on my web site, but wasn't using them "editorially." So I'm being extremely careful about that kind of thing now, for fears of being denied credentials.
If you go to Must Know News, click the photos link in the sports section to see some of my shots from the game.
I enjoyed your shots, Eric! We'll have to collaborate a little better next time!
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12/09/2006 01:34:33 PM · #5 |
Great pictures Alan. Did your newspaper use any of your shots? Your shot of Parkers fumble is a much better perspective than mine.
I can promise you that next time I will have a better plan. See you then.
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12/09/2006 01:40:01 PM · #6 |
Just got my copy of the paper a few minutes ago actually... they used the Nate Washington TD, Ben Roethlisberger congratulating him on the TD, and the one of Willie Parker diving ahead. I knew they probably wouldn't use the fumble one (even though that's one of my favorites, photographically), since that really wasn't the "story" of the game.
If the Steelers had lost, they would have likely used that one to demonstrate *why* they lost, but since it was a record day for Willie Parker, they'd show him doing good things on the field. I know they're using at least one more of the Parker shots in today's paper, and the usually use other shots throughout the week. |
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