RICHMOND, Va. — I graduated from high school in 1990, meaning that almost the entire time I was in junior high and high school, the Steelers were mediocre at best. Indeed, living near Akron at the time, it was rare that I ever even got to see them play, outside the two annual drubbings they would receive at the hands of the Browns. I could occasionally tune in a radio signal from Youngstown, but that meant sitting in the car in my driveway for three hours on a Sunday afternoon, as often to listen to a disappointing loss as not.
Truly, none of my options were attractive ones.
Plus, I was a teenager! There was music to listen to, homework to do, and girls to chase. Thus, my interest in the NFL took a backseat to other things.
This game depicted below, plus the one the week before, reignited my fandom. It had been SO LONG since I’d seen the Steelers in a playoff game (not really, of course, but five years is an eternity in kid time), and to see them pull off such a dramatic upset was thrilling. And though the Steelers' return to prominence and dominance was still a few more years away, the scrappy, unlikely team of 1989 gave a fun jolt of optimism to a fan base starved for a little excitement:
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ROB ULLMAN / DKPS[/caption]
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