You see, the Steelers are something my wife and I do together. My wife has a very busy life with work, a very large and nearby family and taking care of her two kids. For three hours a week, we get to spend time alone together either at the game, screaming at the TV or watching with other Texas based fans at a fan club party. Our road trips to games are our vacations.
We found ridiculously cheap round trip airfare a couple of weeks before the divisional round and tickets in the lower bowl section 129 were not too over priced so we pulled the trigger.
I bet I refreshed various weather forecast apps over one hundred times in the last few days leading up to our trip. Being from Texas, I had one snow day in the sixth grade. The cold, the snow and the ice is not really my thing. We packed basically all the cold weather Steelers gear were had and were ready.
We landed Saturday late morning and were greeted with the remnants of the snow and ice storm the night and early morning before. Welcome to fifteen degrees. We took the airport flyer into town and the bus driver was a maniac, sow and ice on the 376 didn''t bother him at all. What a gripper of a bus ride.
First stop was the strip district to find my JuJu jersey. No luck at all, but we do love Yinzers N Da Burgh for cheap knockoff Steelers gear. We made a late afternoon trip to the fan shop at Heinz to find the elusive JuJu jersey, but apparently all of team JuJu wears double or triple XX.
We took the train over to Northside before the game. Finally there it was, an XL JuJu jersey sold by a large street corner vendor. The real Nike vapor and my pregame was made, We ended up at the Tequila Cowboy, which was packed full of the Nation. My wife is so outgoing and we talked to fans from all over including Baltimore and New Jersey.
Lets talk about the cold a bit. I was layered up times five up top and time two below, heavy gloves and head protection as well, Simply it was not enough and I have never been so cold in my life. I bought my wife a Coors Light in a can and by the time I walked it to our seats, it was frozen.
Unfortunately the game from the opening possession by the Jaguars was awful. I feel our team was totally not ready to play and was out coached the entire day. While the game got close I really felt after the first quarter that we were going to lose and of course we did.
My view from Texas is changes have to be made on both sides of the ball from a coaching standpoint. Todd Haley should not be retained, he has had his chance and his play calling especially on two fourth downs was awful, Keith Butler needs to go too, His scheme impresses me sometimes, but simply we give up way too many chunk plays. It is time for a change. Mike Tomlin made some blunders, but I am not on the fire Tomlin bandwagon, I do not think we can find anyone better, What a disappointing end to a very promising season,
