I would like to thank the fellow who ran onto the field on Sunday.

He danced and he pranced from the goal line, out to the Steelers huddle, said "Howdy" to a couple of the players, and then proceeded to continue his dance to the cheers of the 56,000 fans in attendance.

Unfortunately for him, after approximately 60 seconds, security officials finally realized there was a security breach on the field. They promptly tackled him in front of the Steelers bench, where an amused Coach Cowher gave a wry smile to the beleaguered culprit.

I want to thank him, because he gave my son and I something to smile about on our way home after the game.

My son Mike is 14 years old, and he had never been to an NFL game. When I told him we were going to make the trek from Ontario to Pittsburgh this weekend, you should have seen his eyes light up. Father and son, son and father. Male bonding at it's best.

We left on Friday afternoon, and drove as far as Erie Pa. before we stopped for the night. We settled into our room at the Quality Inn, and took in the HBO feature film of "Beverly Hills Cop" starring Eddie Murphy. We had a good laugh before retiring for the evening.

The next morning, we drove to the "World Headquarters of Steelers Merchandise" in Grove City Pa. This is the store that has every piece of Steelers paraphernalia imaginable. I left with a much lighter wallet after buying almost everything, and a son glowing with pride at his new Kordell Stewart jersey.

We left for Pittsburgh, and I told my son that in all probability, the fans at Three Rivers would be booing Kordell at some point in the day. He couldn't understand this. He wondered how the hometown crowd could boo their own players. "Shouldn't they cheer them to try to make them play better"? I told him that although that's the way it should be, it doesn't always happen that way. I figured he would find out on his own.

We spent the night with an old friend of mine who lives in Bethel Park. He was the one who got us the tickets, and he spent the whole evening telling me how grateful I should be. I was very grateful. Mike was going to witness his first Steeler game, and I just knew the hometown team would not let him down.

We woke up early on Sunday morning, and headed straight for the stadium. We took in the sights and sounds of pre-game festivities, and anxiously awaited the opening of the gates. To help pass the time, we waited in front of the players entrance to see if any of the stars would show up. We were not disappointed.

My son was able to take pictures of Coach Cowher and his family, Kevin Gilbride, Levon Kirkland, Jerome Bettis, and Lee Flowers. One of the other fans told us we had just missed Kordell Stewart. We did get some pictures of his car though.

When the gates finally did open, we went inside to watch the pregame warm-ups. Mike had out the binoculars and the camera, and I think we could have left right then and there, and he would have been satisfied with the weekend. Watching the team run out on the field, and the ensuing opening kick off, just heightened the excitement we were both feeling.

It was about 12 minutes into the opening quarter, and Kordell had just missed another open receiver. Suddenly, I hear a Boo. Shockingly, it has come out of the mouth of my son. One day earlier he was asking how people could boo their own team. Now he was witnessing first hand how it happens. It's hard too watch open receivers being ignored, and covered receivers being thrown at.

To Kordell's credit, he did start playing a little better as the game progressed. The running of Jerome Bettis, and the emergence of Courtney Hawkins soon turned the jeers back to cheers.

Joey Porter's fumble return for a TD had us dancing in our seats, and handing out high five's. When Kris Brown kicked the field goal that put the team up by 10, we were celebrating the inevitable victory the remaining 3 minutes 47 seconds would produce.

We had every reason to celebrate. The Eagles couldn't move the ball all day unless it was by virtue of penalty. In fact, at least 20,000 of the 56,000 people in attendance were so sure of the victory, they left their seats and went home!

Mike and I stayed until the bitter end. In fact, we sat in stunned silence for an additional 5-10 minutes after the game ended. How could the 6th rated defense in the NFL collapse so inexplicably after a stellar opening 57 minutes? How could the ref's make such bone-headed calls? How can you not field an onside kick when given 2 chances?

The ride home was pretty silent, and subdued. I think both of us were thinking of what could have been, and what should have been. Then Mike noticed a big smile on my face. He wondered what was so funny. I told him I was just thinking about the guy with the beer bottle dancing all over the field.

We both laughed.

by SteelerGil (November 13, 00)