The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
The banner reads, "Welcome to Steeler Country."
Well, almost. The sign hangs in the teachers' lunch room at Hickory Middle School, courtesy of Eric Cigich.
Wherever the eighth-grade science teacher is, it is indeed Steeler Country.
His wife, Shanda, a history teacher at the school, has earrings with No. 86 on them for Hines Ward, a Steelers wide receiver and MVP of Super Bowl XL. The 43 on her Steelers jersey is No. 43, Troy Polamalu, strong safety.
Eric Cigich's jacket covers a Steelers T-shirt and the tattoo of the Steelers logo on his left wrist. Today, he will be dressed in his No. 58 jersey (Jack Lambert, Hall of Fame linebacker) in preparation for Super Bowl XLV between Pittsburgh and Green Bay.
The Steelers are seeking their seventh championship, evident from the chalkboard in Cigich's classroom that reads "Knocking on 7's door."
"Have you spray-painted the hallways yet?" history teacher Dan Clemens asked.
"They wouldn't let me do the tiles," a bummed-out Cigich said.
But nothing prevented him from painting his front yard with a Steelers logo. It was during a Super Bowl party he hosted about five years ago that a guest suggested he ought to put up a banner.
"I'm not going to make a banner," he said. "A banner would rip. I'm going to make one on my lawn."
The first time Cigich did it, it was posted on Facebook, and folks still contact him about placing logos in their yards. This year, he used an air compressor to put the paint down, which made the colors more vibrant.
Though he has taught at the middle school for 11 years, the 35-year-old Cigich's roots are in Johnstown, Pa., a 90-minute drive from The Steel City.
"People say it's a choice; it's more like a life. You're just thrown into that experience. I don't think you can get out of it."
Shanda Cigich wasn't a huge football fan before marrying Eric four years ago. Now she embraces the Steelers enough to let him decorate the room over their garage in Steelers colors.
The decor includes a refurbished black and gold desk and posters of players staring from the black and gold walls. A piece of old Three Rivers Stadium sits in a display case, which also features every ticket from its final season in 2000.
Nor does she mind the life-size cutout of former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis that watches every game with them on their 62-inch plasma television.
Bettis even travels.
"We took him with us in the car to watch a game at my father's," Eric said.
Shanda Cigich had the nerve to have the couple's only child during a game.
"It was halftime," she said, laughing - and she was agreeable to the newborn coming home swaddled in a Terrible Towel.
"My wife actually made me turn off the television because she was in labor," Eric said. "We lost the game."
The Cigiches and 16-month-old Lucy will watch the Super Bowl in their home with extended family. They made plans to go to church Saturday evening because Eric didn't want to miss the pregame hype. Eric won't sit much during the game. He'll spend most of the time pacing, hands clenched behind his head.
In the unlikely event the Steelers don't win, Eric said, he has offered to wear a Packers "cheese head" for Hickory Middle School teacher Valerie Klauss, who's rooting for Green Bay.
He just can't imagine that happening.
Vicki Friedman, (757) 222-5218, vicki.friedman@pilotonline.com
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jsuperjeff
Good luck finding tears on my face boyo. Albeit we lost, the Packers didn't do enough damage as PIT did to themselves to lose that game. A loss is a loss regardless of the means to get there, though for you to slam PIT and the people that circumnavigate that team, there you cross a line. Hit me up and we'll get together so we can talk football and how much an idiot you think I am. Your arrogance reeks and I feel for you that you have such pent-up anger and that such anger has to be lashed out to those you don't know. Enjoy the sport for what it is. Making it personal and anything beyond is stupidity. Be careful attacking people, they usually don't take it very well. No matter if you hide behind words. Best of luck to your Brownies.
It is a meaningless game
Take a deep breath... We didn't lose. The team did.
It is a meaningless game. FYI: The players would play even if you turned off the tv, went to sleep and never looked at the score. That is how much YOU have on the team, players and community. You and we are not on the team.
Do not get wrapped around an imaginary team of which you are not a part.
Well, good for them..
It's nice to pull for a team that is a perpetual contender. Nothing like success to develop a fan base. I've lived long enough to remember when there were no Steeler fans nationwide, and there weren't many in Pittsburgh either. In fact, most of the football fans I ran into in Pittsburgh (I have family there, then and now) pulled for the Baltimore Colts, because the great Johnny Unitas hailed from the Pittsburgh area. You never saw a 49ers fan outside of the Bay area until Montana came along, same with the Patriots and Brady, etc. Hope the team(s) I pull for start winning some SBs' so I can have fellow travelers in other parts of this world.
Best of luck to both teams today..
Abuse GB Like a Drunk College Girls
Big Ben is going to abuse Green Bay just like they were drunk college girls in a bar!!!! Ben has experiance and we know he has done it several times in recent years.
It amazes me
I have never seen such a bunch of band wagon jumping, sell outs in my life. All these stoolers fans with their brand new Hats, and Jerseys..Make me want to puke ! The majority of these goons are not even from Pittsburgh. I pray so hard that Pittsburgh loses tonight so i can lick the salty tears of pain off the face off every single black and gold wearing idiot. GO BROWNS
Steeler Fans Need a Break!!!
Please give the Steeler fans a break. If you were from a place with zero jobs and no future with unemployment skyrocketing and cold as heck weather, you would pick the only positive thing that area has going for it and jump on the bandwagon too. That is what they do. I understand it very clearly.
Examine/consider it this way: You can tell the "real" Steeler Nation fans because they have a Pittsburgh Pirates(worst team in MLB) flag, sticker or magnet on their vehicles. The rest of them are running away from their past, feeling guilty about it or just want to be a part of one positive thing in this entire world. Heck their quarterback is from OHIO.
So give them a break... They have enough failure in their lives and they need this one.
Its the military influence
This is not Redskin country, as much as the skins have tried to claim us. The fact is that we have so many military down here that maintain their allegiance to their "home" team that the Norfolk area is more Yankee than Southern. Also tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians left the area in the 80s when the steel industry closed down and brought their allegiance to the Steelers with them. Its no coincidence that when possible the local TV channels broadcast the Steeler games. In fact, I believe all of them were broadcast this year, even the Cleveland game. The Steelers were also number one in jersey sales this year, so someone is willing to put their money out for them.
I think part of the reason
I think part of the reason for the strong local following is because of their coach.
It is Redskin territory ..
for the natives... and I beg your pardon.. but my folks are all from here... and I can assure you that are not Yankees. Southern through and through. But there are a lot of transplants in the past 20 years.. and a whole lot are from up North.
Well...
As someone said on here not too long ago... you can't throw a beer can out your pick up truck without hitting a Yankee in Tidewater anymore. They might be nice folks.. but this is not Steeler Country.