I am strangely inspired by The Pittsburgh Steelers for reasons that you might never guess.

Growing up in Erie, PA, I started life as a Cleveland Browns fan because that was my stepdad’s team and Sunday football was one of the first areas where he and I connected. But in the early 70s, as the Browns started becoming perennial losers and the Steelers started winning, my loyalties began to shift culminating with the Steelers’ first Super Bowl win in January of 1975… my senior year in high school.

Immediately upon graduating high school, I landed 1,500 miles away in San Antonio, TX as an Air Force recruit. Less than a year after that, I arrived at my first duty station in Myrtle Beach, SC as the Steelers were on the verge of winning their 2nd Super Bowl in a row. There I met a whole new group of people from across the country who would become my fast friends over the next 3 ½ years.

As an 18-year-old and the youngest of my new circle of friends, I had not yet formed my real identity or figured out who I was as a man. As we all gathered in the barracks community “Day Room” to absorb the NFL season I was still young and unsure of myself and surrounded by people with what I saw as much more impressive backgrounds and from much bigger places.

The one thing that made me stand out… I was the only Steelers fan. And we were the champions! I was a winner! We won our 2nd Super Bowl that first year among my new crew and once more during my tenure at “The Beach.” During those three Super Bowl wins, being a Steelers fan became a staple of who I felt I was in my soul. A WINNER and a CHAMPION.

After leaving the Air Force and starting my career in information technology, in Tampa, FL, the Steelers won their 4th Super Bowl in 6 years. Once again, among a new circle of friends, I strutted my stuff as the only Steelers fan – as a winner and a champion! 

Anyone who knows me to this day knows that I am a Steelers fan and that as a man, I carry myself like a champion and a winner. The Steelers of the 1970s inspired me to be the man I am at a time when I wasn’t quite sure how I’d turn out. The Steelers have gone on to win 6 Super Bowls over the years and each one of them has been an emotional experience for me.

Now in the face of both triumph and disaster, and when it’s time to smash my goals, I never forget that “We are the Champions, my friend!”

PS. The best news… even though she was born in Atlanta and raised mostly in Florida, I’ve turned my daughter into a Steelers fan as well! HERE WE GO, STEELERS. HERE WE GO!!!!

Who is that person/place/thing for you? Comment below and tell me your biggest inspiration.