DETROIT – Pittsburgh fans twirled their Terrible Towels, whooped and hollered as they streamed out of Ford Field after the Steelers’ victory over Seattle in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
“I enjoyed it immensely. It’s probably the last time I’ll see a Super Bowl,” said James Ewards, 70, of Farrell, Pa., who said he saw the Steelers win a Super Bowl once before.
Some fans danced to the African-sounding rhythms of a lone drummer outside the stadium gates, while others hurried to get out of the cold. The temperature when the game ended was 28 degrees but felt like 14 degrees with the wind chill.
They may have lost, but there were no tears streaking the blue and green face paint worn by George Hindman, 61, of Lake Forest Park. The die-hard Seahawks fan said he was satisfied by his Super Bowl experience.
“It’s the first Super Bowl for the Seahawks. I’m amazed for the whole season, how they played and what they achieved. They’ll be back. We’re going to Miami next year. It’s a lot warmer there,” Hindman said.
Ticketless in Detroit
Before kickoff, ticketless fans walked the streets trying to find the best spot to watch the game. Steeler fans filled many of the downtown restaurants and bars, leaving some Seahawks supporters out in the cold.
“We’re outnumbered,” said Ron Rudolph, a 58-year-old insurance salesman from Gig Harbor.
Decked out in a Steelers parka, Otha Bailey of Memphis, Tenn., was standing in line outside Madisons on Broadway to claim seats for herself and her husband, Tony Bailey, who owns a used-car dealership.
The Baileys said they were enjoying themselves, but found Detroit to be a little colder than what they’re used to this time of year. Temperatures were in the 30s as fans packed downtown.
“When I left home, our high was 67 degrees and sunny,” she said. “But I don’t mind the Super Bowl being in a northern city, as long as Pittsburgh is in it.”
Some hearty hopefuls were still searching for tickets.
Real estate manager Brian Doughtery of Pittsburgh, said he has spent three days looking for a deal. He was willing to pay roughly $1,200 – about double face value. Some brokers are selling tickets for $2,500 and up.
“I can go buy a whole season’s worth for $2,000 back home,” said Doughtery, who wore a red and white sign with the word “tickets needed” on it.
Frozen out
While football fans inside Detroit Beer Co. appeared to be having fun as the Super Bowl got under way, the same couldn’t be said of a half-dozen people left in the cold despite having paid the $20 cover charge.
They’d been given wrist bands and told they could come and go as they pleased. But after going outside briefly, they weren’t allowed back inside because the bar was filled to capacity.
Some in the group tried to glimpse the action on a TV through the bar’s windows, while others hurled angry words at the management.
Suddenly, two uniformed men exited the bar. “Wasn’t that the fire marshal who just left? Can’t they let us in now?” someone pleaded.
Just then, two women squeezed out the door and the bouncer let in two more lucky fans.
Street serenade
Super Bowl tailgaters near Detroit’s Eastern Market were serenaded by an unusual trio. Three semi-truck cabs outfitted with special horns played “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Motown hits – in harmony, no less.
The concert, the third this weekend, was the brainchild of Alexander Pollock, an architect with the city of Detroit.
A former trumpeter with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, Pollock said he came up with the idea about 15 years ago after witnessing a convergence of semi-trucks whose drivers were protesting high diesel prices. Every now and then, their horns would hit a perfect chord, Pollock recalled.
The trio played “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” the Supremes’ “Stop in the Name of Love,” and the Motown classic, “Baby I Need Your Loving.”
The 62-year-old Pollock said the project was meant to showcase two of Detroit’s best known products: the automotive industry and Motown music.
“This is a brand-new musical instrument,” he said. “We invented a new piano.”
Cold-weather tailgating
Steelers fan Mike Olivieri drove four hours from Massillon, Ohio, with six friends – all for the thrill of sitting in camp chairs in a Detroit parking lot and watching the Super Bowl on their television.
Olivieri, a 30-year-old plumber, said the atmosphere in the lot near Eastern Market was unbeatable – that is, until most of the other tailgaters packed up to go to the game.
Olivieri was dressed warmly and prepared for near-freezing temperatures and high winds. His group had a folding table set up with beer, chips, hot dogs and hamburgers, and planned to grill steaks.
Nearby, the lone group of Seahawks fans in the parking lot said they had been made to feel welcome.
“Pittsburgh fans are great,” said Casey Goodwin, 25. “They’re going to fall hard.”
Goodwin, who lives in Philadelphia, reunited in Detroit with high school buddies from Puyallup. They were having a good time, but had a bit of a problem on their hands: their TV wasn’t working.
Street preachers
Not everyone who converged on Ford Field was attending the game.
Ron Koner, 64, of Swanton, Ohio, was among a group of street preachers who stood outside, proselytizing fans. Some held signs quoting Bible verses, or banners depicting Jesus on the cross. Nearby, a man wearing a Steelers sweat shirt played bongos.
“All these people most likely are going to hell,” Koner said, brandishing a Bible and gesturing toward the line of ticket holders waiting to go through stadium security.
Why?
“They’re not in church. Do they look like they’re praying?”
Across the street, Anthony Bunkley, 48, leaned against a shopping cart loaded with garbage bags holding all his possessions. The homeless man said he chose that spot for the view it offered of an outdoor screen broadcasting NFL footage.
Bunkley said he planned to stay as long as he was allowed. “I like football, but I like a lot of games,” he said.
He ended up watching the game from a sidewalk across from the downtown YMCA, where a TV inside was showing the game.
Dozens of fans wore signs proclaiming their desperate need for tickets. Among them: Seahawks fan Morgan Davidson, 24, of Seattle, sporting a green, blue and silver Mohawk.
He was willing to pay up to $3,000 for a ticket – after spurning offers for as little as $2,000 earlier in the week. He’d hoped prices would fall, but apparently they didn’t. He had no alternative plans for watching the game.
Over the rainbow
One welcome center downtown was set up to greet gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Super Bowl visitors.
The Detroit-based Triangle Foundation advocacy group has been using the lobby of a progressive, black box theater near Ford Field as a welcome center since Thursday. Outside hangs a rainbow flag.
“We just thought it would be important to have a presence right here … a place to relax a little bit, warm up and find out what’s going on around town,” Jeffrey Montgomery, Triangle’s executive director, said Sunday.
Montgomery said the center has greeted a few hundred people this week, about half from out of town. The foundation, he said, is hoping to draw attention to the presence of gay and lesbian football fans.
Young fan
Sitting quietly at a table with his father, Gabe Rothman was not the most enthusiastic Steelers fan in The Hub Detroit, a downtown bar. But at 12, he probably was the youngest.
“It’s really fun. Everybody’s really into it,” Gabe said, sipping a soft drink on his first-ever trip to a bar.
His father, Jeff Rothman, a Pittsburgh native, drove to Detroit from Cleveland to be part of the action.
Around them, people wearing jester hats and camouflage pants – all in the gold-and-black colors of the Steelers – cheered and clapped raucously at nothing in particular, waving “terrible towels.”
“There’s no other place to be,” Jeff Rothman said. “This is like being in Pittsburgh.”
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