football » Stop, Drop and Blog

Steelers Through the Years

FireFamily Talks Sports, Photography 18 Responses »

Feb 042011

Cue Kenny Rogers! Except don’t. Yeah, don’t do that. It’s time for a FireFamily Retrospective of Steelers photos. This post? Is picture heavy. If you’re on dial-up, bail now. HERE WE GO!

Before I start in with the cute kids, this is me on the field of the Steelers vs. Jets playoff game in January 2005. Pre-boys (barely) me was awfully excited to be on the field for the news station I worked for at the time. We won, but lost in the next round to the Patriots.

The very first picture I have of BigBrother in Steelers gear is this one, one week and four days after he was born. It was taken during a game on November 28, 2005 — which, thanks to Google, was against the Colts. We lost. Badly. 26-7. But BigBrother didn’t mind. He spent most of the game like this:

The rest of the 2005-2006 season was kind of dreamy, wasn’t it? Considering we won the Super Bowl and all. A collage of various BigBrother pics works best. The top two photos and the left and right side are from the Super Bowl — which was a good, good day for us.

By the time football season rolled back around in 2006, we were living in our house, BigBrother was mobile and life was feeling pretty good. The season was, uh, not as great, but BigBrother enjoyed another football season all by himself.

The 2007-2008 season was a bit better…ish… and at least we made it to the playoffs. BigBrother started off the season alone. And I was on bedrest. And then along came LittleBrother! There are not many pictures from this football season with the whole Level III bedrest followed by the newborn phase.

Along came the 2008-2009 season and, man, did we have a great year with those boys of ours. And the football team. You know, what with winning the Super Bowl again.

In fact, that year brought my most popular photo on flickr ever, which gets shared on its own here.

That was Grandpa’s last Steelers Super Bowl with us, and I know he’ll be waving his Terrible Towel from Heaven with us on Sunday.

Picture by BigBrother with his camera.

Along came the 2009-2010 season. It should be noted that while I have been to Steelers games before, FireDad had not. So I ponied up some money and took him. He was pleased.

And while the season wasn’t all that great, the boys continued to grow and learn and change and have fun.

Which brings us to this season. I wasn’t great with picture taking this season, partially due to that thing we won’t talk about. There are… some.

But they were all taken on the same day when I recognized the issue and realized that we had just about zilch photo wise in our Steelers gear for the 2010-2011 Steelers season. So on the day of the AFC Championship, I shot a family picture. It’s a keeper. Heck, it’s a framer.

I’d love to hold off on doing another one of these retrospectives for another five years. I wonder how many Super Bowl rings we’ll have on our fingers by then? (And imagine how the boys will look! OMG!)

Happy Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl Weekend, my friends. Be safe — select a Designated Driver or offer to be one. Wave those Terrible Towels with pride. Take lots of pictures. Eat lots of food. AND CHEER FOR THE BLACK AND GOLD! HERE WE GO, STEELERS! HERE WE GO! (Yes, I’m pumped now.)

Ohio State vs Penn State

FireFamily Talks Sports, Photography 4 Responses »

Nov 152010

Uploading the Ohio State versus Penn State photos took longer than I anticipated. As such, this post is a day late. Let’s run through the highlights.

It was warm, so people were dressed… interestingly.

And while the Penn State band was good…

The Ohio State Band? Amazing. Script Ohio? Wow.

Then the game began. And I was on national television! I don’t have a photo of it, but FireDad saw me as I was standing right on the sidelines of this page which they showed from the camera on the Penn State side. My photos aren’t all that great because they were all up in my camera grill.

But this tumble somersault they did together is fun.

In related me-on-the-field news, The Dispatch did a great panorama of the game. If you look on the Buckeyes’ side of the field, toward the student section end near the 10 yardline, I’m standing next to a dude who is kneeling. Wearing a red shirt, grey short sleeved cardigan and my backpack. Camera in hand. Obviously.

The first half of the game was awesome as a Penn State fan.

With some of this.

And some of this.

But then I went upstairs to the pressbox to email the photos to the paper. (And took this.)

And Penn State’s wheels fell off. 35 unanswered points in the second half of play. Sigh. I was back on the field for the fourth quarter. And despite some valiant attempts (with Penn State band bokeh in the background)…

The Buckeyes were the ones cheering at the end of the game.

38-14 in favor of Ohio State. Sad FireMom.

However, and I have to admit it in writing so my Ohio State friends have proof: The Ohio State football game experience was above and beyond what I expected. Kudos to those involved, including those pesky football players. And even those even peskier fans. I have a newfound respect for those Buckeyes.

But not as much as I have for this man:

There are over 250 other photos of the game on flickr if you’re listed as my friend. Let me know if you’d like special access to that album if you are not.