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==Famous fans==
==Famous fans==
Some notable members of Steeler Nation include President [[Barack Obama]],<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012903196.html</ref> rapper [[Snoop Dogg]],<ref># ESPN - Another great improviser: Snoop Dogg on Romo - NFL
Some notable members of Steeler Nation include President [[Barack Obama]],<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012903196.html</ref> rapper [[Snoop Dogg]],<ref># ESPN - Another great improviser: Snoop Dogg on Romo - NFL
</ref> actors [[Burt Reynolds]],<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000608/bio</ref> [[Jeff Goldblum]]<ref>http://www.mahalo.com/Jeff_Goldblum</ref> and [[Michael Keaton]],<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000474/bio</ref> former MLB pitcher [[Curt Schilling]],<ref>http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2009/02/turns-out-that.html</ref> former [[Director of the Central Intelligence Agency|CIA Director]] [[Michael Hayden]],<ref>http://kdka.com/steelers/General.Michael.Hayden.2.911566.html</ref> talk show host [[Rush Limbaugh]],<ref>http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052209/content/01125104.guest.html</ref> Bishop [[Thomas J. Tobin]] of the [[Diocese of Providence]], Rhode Island,<ref>http://www.projo.com/news/mcharlesbakst/SE_BAKST_COLUMN_17_06-17-07_3F610SH.20bdd48.html</ref> country music legend [[Hank Williams, Jr.]], <ref>http://news.steelers.com/article/99004/</ref> author [[John Grisham]],<ref>http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09030/945688-298.stm</ref> musician [[Brett Michaels]],<ref>http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1603958/20090130/poison.jhtml</ref>, PGA golfer [[Jim Furyk]],<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1104903/index.htm</ref> and "[[Saturday Night Live]]" cast member [[Seth Meyers]].<ref>http://www.pbrtv.com/blog/entry_448.php</ref><ref>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08062/861980-237.stm</ref>
</ref> actors [[Burt Reynolds]],<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000608/bio</ref> [[Jeff Goldblum]]<ref>http://www.mahalo.com/Jeff_Goldblum</ref> and [[Michael Keaton]],<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000474/bio</ref> former MLB pitcher [[Curt Schilling]],<ref>http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2009/02/turns-out-that.html</ref> former [[Director of the Central Intelligence Agency|CIA Director]] [[Michael Hayden]],<ref>http://kdka.com/steelers/General.Michael.Hayden.2.911566.html</ref> talk show host [[Rush Limbaugh]],<ref>http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052209/content/01125104.guest.html</ref> Bishop [[Thomas J. Tobin]] of the [[Diocese of Providence]], Rhode Island,<ref>http://www.projo.com/news/mcharlesbakst/SE_BAKST_COLUMN_17_06-17-07_3F610SH.20bdd48.html</ref> country music legend [[Hank Williams, Jr.]], <ref>http://news.steelers.com/article/99004/</ref> author [[John Grisham]],<ref>http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09030/945688-298.stm</ref> actor [[Verne Troyer]],<ref>http://dailydanny.metro.co.uk/2009/01/index.html</ref> musician [[Brett Michaels]],<ref>http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1603958/20090130/poison.jhtml</ref>, PGA golfer [[Jim Furyk]],<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1104903/index.htm</ref> and "[[Saturday Night Live]]" cast member [[Seth Meyers]].<ref>http://www.pbrtv.com/blog/entry_448.php</ref><ref>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08062/861980-237.stm</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 19:27, 9 October 2009

Steelers fans during a 2005 game.

Steeler Nation is the unofficial name of the fan base of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, coined by NFL Films narrator John Facenda in "Blueprint for Victory," the team's 1975 highlights film. Steeler Country is often used for the Pittsburgh area where the fan base originates or for areas with a large Steelers fan base.

History

Early Years

The Steelers have had a following in Western Pennsylvania since Art Rooney bought the team with $2,500 of his own money, and not, as myth would have it, from his winnings as a horse race handicapper. That year, Pennsylvania relaxed its blue laws allowing sporting events in the commonwealth on Sundays, paving the way for the Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles to begin play for the 1933 NFL season. Previously, the state had teams in Pottsville and Frankford, but both had already folded, due to both the Great Depression and their inability to play on Sunday, when most NFL games took place.

Much like the league itself in the early years, the Steelers had to compete with baseball and college football teams in the city, making the team third in the hierarchy to the Pirates and the Pitt Panthers. Despite the team's early struggles, it had a small but loyal fan base in the city due to the popularity of American football at all levels, dating back to the 1800s, when Pittsburgh hosted the first wholly professional football game in 1895.

Rise of the Steelers

By the 1950s, the Steelers had gained some popularity in the city and were on par with Pitt, but they were still a distant second behind the Pirates in the city.

In the early 1970s, the Steelers began to rise in popularity, due to changes made by the team in 1969 that saw the hiring of head coach Chuck Noll and the drafting of future Hall of Fame defensive tackle "Mean Joe" Greene. By 1972, the Steelers were a playoff contender and began a sellout streak in Three Rivers Stadium that carried over to Heinz Field and still stands to this day. The team is second to the Green Bay Packers for the longest active consecutive sellout streak in league history.

The team's four Super Bowl victories in the 1970s coincided with the a recession that struck the United States, and the city in particular, that would lead to the closure of several steel mills in the early 1980s. The team's success was credited with giving people in the city hope and leading to the increased fan base. Due to economic uncertainty in the area, many Steelers fans relocated to other areas but retained their identification with the Steelers as a reflection of their former hometown's steel industrial base.

Player Fan Clubs

In the 1970's many fans organized fan clubs for their favorite players. This is one thing that adds uniqueness to Steeler Nation. Some of these fan clubs included Franco's Italian Army,[1] Fenchy's Foreign Legion,[2][3] Gerela' Gorlilas,[4][5][6] Bradshaw's Brigade,[7] Lambert's Lunatics,[8][9][10] Rocky and the Flying Squirrels,[11] Shell's Bombers, and Russel's Raiders[12] among others.

Today

Steelers fans line the Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh for the Super Bowl XLIII victory parade in February 2009.

Since the 1970s, the Steelers have enjoyed a large fan base and have eclipsed the Pittsburgh Pirates as the most popular sports team in Pittsburgh. While the team's success gained it a large fan base nationally, many consider the collapse of the city's steel industry to have been a cause for the strong fan base in other cities, demonstrated when teams whose home turnout would otherwise require a local blackout on television end up selling out when hosting the Steelers.[13] The Cincinnati Bengals are perhaps the best example of this, as throughout the 90's, the team usually only sold out home games when playing against the Steelers. Another instance of the team's large fan base was at Super Bowl XL, where an ESPN.com columnist suggested that Steelers fans outnumbered Seattle Seahawks fans more than 25 to 1.[14]

In November 2007, a study by Turnkey Sports found that the Steelers brand was the strongest in its local market of any team in the NHL, NBA, MLB or NFL.[15][16]

Another study found that the percentage of female fans in the Pittsburgh market was more than double the average.[17]

Comparison to Other NFL Fan Bases

Attempts at quantifying the loyalty of Steeler Nation relative to other NFL fan bases have shown mixed results. A 2006 study by the American City Business Journals placed the team's fans 21st out of 32 teams in the league,[18] behind all three of its division rivals in the AFC North. The study found that although the team had been selling out games for years, some fans were not actually attending the games, and Pittsburgh's weekly turnout percentage for home games was 16th in the league.[19] That ranking was down seven slots from the publication's survey conducted in 1997, which ranked Steeler Nation 14th out of 30 teams, partly due to fans leaving nearly 10 percent of the seats in the stadium empty.[20]

Conversely, a 2008 study from Forbes.com ranked Pittsburgh fans 8th overall, citing amongst other things a long season-ticket waiting list.[21] A 2008 article for ESPN.com ranked Steelers fans as the best in the NFL, citing their "unbelievable" sellout streak of 299 consecutive games.[22][23]

Criticism

Like other teams with large and vocal fan bases, such as the Dawg Pound or Yankees, Steeler Nation has at times been presented in an unflattering light, especially by fans of other teams.

As fans of the only NFL team based in Appalachia, they have occasionally been described in terms of a hillbilly stereotype.[24][25] Steelers fans have also been criticized by newspapers in rival cities for inappropriate behavior during games[24][26][27] — a common problem in the NFL[28] — and a poor understanding of their team's history.[29]

Anti–Steeler Nation sentiment has grown strong enough that in some cases, front offices for other teams have taken steps to keep Pittsburgh fans out of games in their cities.[30] Instead of being permitted to buy tickets to a Chargers-Steelers game in San Diego, for instance, they were required to pay for tickets to two other games, as well.[31] In other cases, teams refused to sell tickets to fans calling from Pittsburgh's 412 area code, and they encouraged fans who were selling their own tickets to do the same.[30] Steelers President Art Rooney II complained to the NFL about the situation, but his grievance was not well received.[30]

Famous fans

Some notable members of Steeler Nation include President Barack Obama,[32] rapper Snoop Dogg,[33] actors Burt Reynolds,[34] Jeff Goldblum[35] and Michael Keaton,[36] former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling,[37] former CIA Director Michael Hayden,[38] talk show host Rush Limbaugh,[39] Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island,[40] country music legend Hank Williams, Jr., [41] author John Grisham,[42] actor Verne Troyer,[43] musician Brett Michaels,[44], PGA golfer Jim Furyk,[45] and "Saturday Night Live" cast member Seth Meyers.[46][47]

References

  1. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07280/823521-66.stm
  2. ^ http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/11230729/2
  3. ^ http://freetothepeople.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/charming-pittsburgh-oriented-media-7-no-game-no-problem/
  4. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/steelers/20010824hmurals0824P1.asp
  5. ^ http://www.seattlepi.com/football/257293_steelers27.html
  6. ^ http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A19360
  7. ^ http://www.steelers.com/article/40517
  8. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07298/828401-66.stm
  9. ^ http://armchairgm.wikia.com/Jack_Lambert
  10. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1603958/20090130/poison.jhtml
  11. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=QZ_C9sig5dQC&pg=PT76&lpg=PT76&dq=%22bradshaw%27s+brigade%22&source=bl&ots=inAVVJXq0m&sig=ke3CO-XIAM24G3ZDgUgi0s6fGYQ&hl=en&ei=iYHPSqDjCtGX8Aaap9z8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22bradshaw%27s%20brigade%22&f=false
  12. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/features/dolphins/flashbacks/010873/
  13. ^ http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=4328974&searchid=cc5de90e-7af7-4fd1-90b5-8fd6423adcf6
  14. ^ ESPN - Steelers get past Seahawks for fifth Super Bowl win in club history - NFL Football Recap
  15. ^ Anderson, Shelly (2007-11-07). "Penguins Notebook: In this case, No. 20 ranking is huge". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
  16. ^ Collier, Gene (2008-05-25). "This is Hockeytown?". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2008-06-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ "Survey: Steelers Have Best Female Fan Base". KDKA. 2007-09-13. Retrieved 2008-06-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  18. ^ Thomas, G. Scott (2006-09-04). "Full fan loyalty rankings". Bizjournals. Retrieved 2009-02-06. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  19. ^ Thomas, G. Scott (2006-09-04). "NFL Fan Support Rankings". Bizjournals. Retrieved 2009-02-06. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  20. ^ Carlisle, Anthony Todd (1997-01-27). "Steelers fans aren't all that super, according to study". Pittsburgh Business Times. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. p. 5. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  21. ^ Woolsey, Matt (2008-09-01). "America's Most Die-Hard Football Fans". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-02-08. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  22. ^ "ESPN ranks Steelers fans No. 1". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 2008-08-30. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  23. ^ Mosley, Matt (2008-08-29). "NFL's best fans? We gotta hand it to Steelers (barely)". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  24. ^ a b Giro, Tony (2009-01-15). "Why do we hate Steelers fans? Let me count the reasons". The Baltimore Examiner. Balitmore, Md. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  25. ^ Cizmar, Martin (2009-07-27). "Arizona Cardinals Fans, You'd Better Get Ferocious or Steeler Nation Will Eat You Alive". Phoenix New Times. Phoenix, Arizona. Retrieved 2009-02-04. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Forrester, Paul (2007-11-07). "NFL Fan Value Experience: Pittsburgh Steelers". SI.com. Retrieved 2009-02-10. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  27. ^ Cook, Ron (1994-12-18). "O'Donnell can't control critics or crazy bounces". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. p. D1. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  28. ^ McCarthy, Michael (2008-08-06). "NFL unveils new code of conduct for its fans". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Retrieved 2009-02-10. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  29. ^ Stein, Ray (2009-02-001). "The Mailbox: Like it or not, all you Ohio faithful, but Steelers fans here to stay". The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus, Ohio. Retrieved 2009-01-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  30. ^ a b c Bendel, Joe (2006-04-07). "Rooney: Opposing teams discriminate Steelers fans". Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  31. ^ Bendel, Joe (2005-10-06). "Steelers are hot ticket in town". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. p. D3. Retrieved 2009-02-19. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |curly= ignored (help)
  32. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012903196.html
  33. ^ # ESPN - Another great improviser: Snoop Dogg on Romo - NFL
  34. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000608/bio
  35. ^ http://www.mahalo.com/Jeff_Goldblum
  36. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000474/bio
  37. ^ http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2009/02/turns-out-that.html
  38. ^ http://kdka.com/steelers/General.Michael.Hayden.2.911566.html
  39. ^ http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052209/content/01125104.guest.html
  40. ^ http://www.projo.com/news/mcharlesbakst/SE_BAKST_COLUMN_17_06-17-07_3F610SH.20bdd48.html
  41. ^ http://news.steelers.com/article/99004/
  42. ^ http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09030/945688-298.stm
  43. ^ http://dailydanny.metro.co.uk/2009/01/index.html
  44. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1603958/20090130/poison.jhtml
  45. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1104903/index.htm
  46. ^ http://www.pbrtv.com/blog/entry_448.php
  47. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08062/861980-237.stm
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