Like all Nations, Steeler Nation has its flag: the Terrible
Towel. 16x25 inches, golden, and stained with the victories of 6 Super Bowl
Championships, the Terrible Towel has a seemingly unearthly and sacred
power that can be recognized by any Steeler Nation citizen, and the defilement
of said towel has historically and recently angered these citizens, but why?
SteelerNation has great respect for the towel. Fans walking into the stadium
wave their Terrible Towels; they wave them during warm-ups; they wave them during
the game; they wave them on the celebratory walk back to the parking lot. The playful performance of towel waving at a
live game gives Steelers fans a unique experience. The towel is a Steeler’s ritual, if not more. Sport fans’ rituals unite fans everywhere
under one identity, so messing with
the Terrible Towel is messing with Steeler Nations identity.
The reason opposing teams blow their nose in, rub dirt in,
and burn the Terrible Towel is because they want Steeler Nation to get upset.
They feel a sense of self achievement
in doing so, because they hope those actions might distract Steelers fans (and possibly the players) from
the game at hand and could have a direct effect on the outcome. This would be
the intentions of focused and vested fans, because they would more
likely attend the game, and they want to win, but their interest is in another
team, and frankly it is legal for them to do these vile acts.
The Terrible Towel has a different meaning to a lot of
people, but Steeler’s fans would agree with Greg Garber when he says, “theTerrible Towel inspires an almost irrational loyalty.” Seeing thousands of towels
at an away game is quite possibly one of the greatest sights to a Steeler’s
fan. The reason we hate seeing our flag defiled is because it rallied a tremendous
population of fans everywhere to wave together for the past 38 years,
and it’ll wave for 100 more.
Choosing the Terrible Towel is a perfect example of fan rituals because every Steeler fan knows what it is and believes it can help us win. It shows our support and love for the team. When opposing teams deface the towel fights break out a lot of the time because to a Steeler fan it's like defacing the American Flag.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an excellent post... It does a great job of identifying concepts from class and connecting them with real life examples. Plus, I always like to read about any Steelers related topic.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably one of the best examples of sports rituals. I am still to this day baffled at how many steeler fans can been seen at away games. However I feel this is only a portion of the example. It is also incredible to me how many steeler bars can be found around the world. Florida and London are only two pretty good examples where I have seen them. We can now see the evolution of the terrible towel also because of how many other teams not just Nfl teams who have adopted the "towel."
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