The Mojo Boogie - Week 5

Today’s game against the Lions appears opposite the Ratbirds game, so it will not be on TV locally. That means… Hello Jilly’s!

I think the Steelers have good mojo in Detroit as long as it’s not Thanksgiving. The last time they played there was the infamous Jerome Bettis Coin Flip Flap, where the Steelers lost in OT after the ref misheard the Bus’s call. (Or Jerome misspoke or changed his mind, depending on whom you believe.)

The prior time the Steelers played Detroit on Thanksgiving was in 1983. We lived in Toledo at the time, so my dad organized a roadtrip to the game, bringing along neighborhood friends and Pittsburgh relatives. Traditionally, we always went to see the Steelers play in Cleveland. At one time, Dad was buying like 30 tickets not only for ourselves, but also for all the kids in our area that we had converted into Steelers fans. That’s back when you could actually get that many tickets just by calling the Browns box office right after the schedule was announced. Tickets were only about $20 apiece, too. We’d stay at the airport Marriott, where the Steelers stayed themselves. It was a crazy time… one which I will write up during the week we play in Cleveland later this year. So many stories… so many beers. But I digress…

We caravanned all the way up to Detroit, ready to dominate us some Lions in a nice cozy dome, but instead we got our asses handed to us 45-3. It was kind of unnerving though, watching football in a dome. I guess if we’re not sitting there in sleet, snow, or freezing rain, it just doesn’t seem like football. (Which was all we ever saw in Cleveland, let me tell you.)

The one time we went up to Ford Field, well, suffice to say, the Lions weren’t involved. When the Steelers played in Super Bowl XL, it proved to be an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. The location was drivable, so that eliminated airfare. We still had friends to stay with in Toledo, so that eliminated hotel fare. All we had to do was get the tickets, which is still quite a tall order. Luckily, my brother is The TicketMaster. He can find a way to get tickets to anything. This wasn’t going to be cheap though. But for me, it was an opportunity of a lifetime. I’d never see circumstances like this come up again so I had to go all in. My parents flew up from Florida, my brother and I drove in from Baltimore, another friend drove from Charlotte and we took one more old neighborhood friend and veteran of the Cleveland trips. Our little crew had the time of our lives, personally rooting home our boys in a real live Super Bowl.

I intend to write that full story when the playoffs draw near this year. (Wow, that’s 2 foreshadowings in one post!)

So, back to this week... I’ve decided to test out my new K-Mart plunder at Jilly’s by wearing a black polo with gold collar highlights and a black Steelers hat with gold highlights on the edges. No sense breaking out new gear on a big game. The Lions make a good starter test for new mojo. To add some continuity, I’ll wear my customary Steelers socks. But let me tell you, if we lose this one, that shirt and hat will not see the light of game-day ever again. I might even have to burn them.

I wonder if K-Mart’s return policy is lenient enough to include cash back for scorched apparel. I bet if I brought it back to the Pittsburgh K-Mart where I bought it and explained what happened, they’d be OK with it. In fact, they’d probably take the rest of the stock off the floor. It’s a ‘Burgh thing.