Well then
What are the odds? In my first and last years of college in Pittsburgh, the Steelers win the Super Bowl. The first one was a terrible game, but this one was possibly the best football game I’ve ever seen. Both were possibly never-to-be-repeated opportunities for wanton chaos and destruction in an urban area.
The game itself was surprising in many respects. The Steelers defense was not itself, except of course for the James Harrison pick-six. And the Steelers offense found some kind of hidden store of competence and saved the game when it was do-or-die. NBC showed a statistic near the end of the game: Ben Roethlisberger, in his career, has 17 game-winning drives in the 4th quarter or OT, which is the most in the NFL. I don’t know how many opportunities he had to make game-winning drives, without which that statistic loses a lot of its meaning, but apparently he’s been the NFL’s leading comeback kid and I haven’t noticed. Whatever else he may have been so far, on the Steelers’ last scoring drive, he was Joe Montana.
The Steelers’ last scoring drive has got to go down as one of the best in any Super Bowl. History on the line, the Steelers’ offense had the opportunity to redeem themselves for an entire season of inconsistent performance. They repeatedly converted third downs. Roethlisberger somehow managed to throw passes accurate to within inches while under hot pursuit.
And the play that won it all. Another unbelievably accurate pass. And a picture-perfect catch. That kind of catch makes highlight reels even when it doesn’t matter, when the game doesn’t matter. That play is surely going to get a name. Maybe even the drive will.
I don’t know if it beats Eli Manning’s pass to David Tyree last year, or if the drive beats that drive, or even if the game beats that game. But it at least deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.
Against this backdrop, the many examples of monumental idiocy that went down in Pittsburgh seem almost justified.
Rushing out of our house onto the street, screaming and yelling, seeing screaming, yelling, Terrible Towel-waving crowds charging down the street toward us.
Charging down the middle of the street towards Oakland, the crowd growing ever larger, exchanging celebratory hugs, high-fives and pickings-up-off-the-ground with random strangers.
Screaming and gesticulating at the poor lone CMU police car trundling up and down Forbes Avenue.
The noise — no cars, just thousands and thousands of voices.
Seeing the incredible crowd at the University of Pittsburgh. People riding on other people’s shoulders, waving Terrible Towels, screaming.
The fireworks set off in the middle of the crowd. Chunks of trees detached and set aflame.
Police in full riot gear standing guard outside the Cathedral of Learning. Apparently that was off limits.
Drunks climbing up trees and traffic-related structures, destroying signs and traffic lights.
People chucking flour out of dorm room windows above the street.
Six dumbshits flipping over a car right in front of some cops. I didn’t see this happening, but I turned and saw the car on its side, then a drunken idiot came blasting past me with a cop hot on his heels. Then the cop emerged from the crowd, dragging the drunken idiot on his ass.
People smashing ground-level windows of Pitt’s main library. NOT COOL, GUYS.
Cops on horseback standing stoically, keeping people off the unlit back streets.
Guys riding the panther statue in front of some Pitt building.
More fireworks and flaming tree fragments.
Cops on horseback materializing out of nowhere on Bigelow south of Forbes. Retards throwing beer cans at them. Cops and horses unperturbed.
Cops start to move in on crowd. Crowd panics and scatters.
Me actually running away from mounted cops. This was pretty much the cherry on top of the night.
Horses proceed down Forbes, followed by a bunch of motorcycles and a crowd of cheering people. They proceed past what looks like a bonfire in the middle of Forbes. A press of people surges towards it. It looks like an entire tree is blazing in a dumpster, along with random other detritus including wooden Public Works road barriers. People run around and throw more crap on the fire.
Chaos ensues as people shove back away from the fire, saying “tear gas”. Panic spreads.
Turns out there is no tear gas. Someone either saw the flying toilet paper rolls and mistook them for tear gas grenades or just figured they might stir some shit up.
Big column of smoke rising into the sky. Eventually it turned much thicker, opaque and white. We decide to leave.
Trudging up Bigelow towards Fifth, through smoldering debris, as if it were a battlefield.
A guy strolling down the middle of Fifth Avenue, playing the Steelers fight song on a trumpet.
The delirious, incoherent coverage by the local news. The anchors barely able to keep it together or get actual words out.
Man, that was excellent. I’ll miss this city.
