Contents

STEELERSSteeler Mania!Photo by Jeff SwensenThe Pittsburgh Steeler’s kick off their regular seasonon September 9 at Cleveland against the Browns. Iftheir preseason was any indication of how Steeler Maniawill overtake the city, we’re in for a wild ride. Local barsand Steeler haunts are reporting more interest in thepreseason than in past seasons. Check out our SteelerMania page for where to go and find out what specialswill be running during the Steeler games. Could be ournew head coach has already won the hearts of SteelersFans… as more and more fans begin to say…..”Billwho?” It certainly looks as if the Steelers are buyinginto what new coach Mike Tomlin is selling. Accordingto right or left offensive tackle (depending on what day itis) Max Starks, "Coach Tomlin definitely demands thatrespect. He's a great guy. We look forward to playing forhim." Added nose tackle Chris Hope, "Coach Tomlin isdoing a great job. Coach Cowher was an icon." Verytrue. The man truly is an icon, with The Jaw, The FlyingSaliva, and The Stare. Not to mention his record. Nomatter what you think of Cowher, after the 2005 playoffrun to the Superbowl and subsequent victory, hecertainly cemented his place in the Pittsburgh IconHall of Fame.Coach Tomlin has a long way to go to achieve iconicstatus. But so far, so good. Sure, the Hall of Fame gamewas nothing more than a glorified scrimmage, butTomlin's Steelers -- yes, Tomlin's Steelers -- played withboth enthusiasm and discipline and, in Tomlin's currentmantra, "hard, tough and fast."We would like to add the word smart, also. CoachTomlin is dressing in all black. We hope he'll wear hisbasic black for every practice, every game, every pressconference. It just might be the beginning of his imagebuilding and quest for icon-ness. It worked for JohnnyCash, didn’t it?What can we look forward to, well, our running gamehas produced four solid games, and it’ll be on the backfieldto do it yet again when the Steelers kickoff theirregular season. Also, the backs are going to have tostep up in short yardage and red zone/goal line situations,which we know they are fully capable of doingwhatever it takes. Willie Parker is back and healthy, andhe'll be getting a lot more play action in the regular season.If he gets off to a good early start, which we areconfident he will, that'll be good news for the Steelers.That being said, the passing game will be all on BigBen's shoulders, he has been accurate in the shortgame, while he's been on the field in the preseason, butnow it's time for us to see full game Ben and what he istotally capable of doing, winning games. He needs toget the air attack on track early, opening the game upfor the run to take over.Our secondary is going to have to play tight andsmart, and the pass rush will need to build off of thepreseason games. This season looks very promisingand with the Pittsburgh fans behind this great team, weare confident that the Steelers are going to have anincredible season. Let’s GO STEELERS!! We found agreat site for diehard Steeler fans…www.steelersfever.com Check it out!!20 • September 2007