Thousands of Steelers fans make Ford Field feel like Heinz Field North
DETROIT – Call it Heinz Field North. Steelers fans turned Ford Field into their own personal playground in the hours leading up to Super Bowl XL, when their beloved Steelers battled the Seattle Seahawks.
No official ticket distribution figures could document it, but it was easily a 10-1 fan advantage for the Steelers – and that was just inside Ford Field. The crowds around town provided an even larger disparity, as Steelers fans flowed into the town in record numbers as the week leading up to the game progressed.
By kickoff, Ford Field was a sea of Terrible Towels, as Myron Cope’s creation continues in his retirement to be a universal symbol of Pittsburgh Steelers football.
To give you a feel for how intense media scrutiny was for the players, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was followed by two NFL Films cameras, one on either side, as was a two-person convoy to protect the cameramen from running into something as they chronicled the second-year quarterback’s normal warm-up routine.
When the gates opened at 2 p.m., there was a rush to get into seats, but the place remained well below capacity until about 5:30 p.m.
At 4:30 p.m., the first wave of Terrible Towel-waving fans welcomed Jerome Bettis to the field. In true Bettis fashion, he jogged along the sidelines and across the end zones, waving and fist-pumping the fans into louder cheers.
Bettis, too, was a focal point of media coverage. As he stretched in the Steelers’ end zone with a few of his teammates, six cameras recorded his every move. At the other end of the field, Seahawks kicker Josh Brown practiced extra point kicks without notice. A look back to the other end found Bettis surrounded by at least 12 cameras and several boom microphones.
Such is life for a hero coming home to roost.
As kickoff got closer, the crowd booed loudly when a set of Seattle players took the field and, yes, cheered wildly when a similar group of Pittsburgh players came out.
A quick look around the place verified that, no, we were not at Heinz Field. But it certainly seemed like we were.
Another quick check, this one to www.superbowl.com, confirmed that only 42 minutes remained until kickoff. All that was left now was to play the game.