And the Winner of an Autographed Copy Of My New Book – “100 Things Steelers Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” Is….

For the past few days we have had a contest for my new book, which will be in stores in the next two weeks – “100 Things Steelers Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.”

The contest was rather simple, but enjoyable, as we asked you for your all-time favorite Steelers memory. Here are a couple more to share before we announce our winner:

This is from Justin:

In 1994 (I was in the ninth grade), my friend Shaun and I made our way to training camp at St. Vincent College (it was my first). We were so excited to be there and had such high hopes of seeing our (at that time) favorite player – Kevin Greene – in person. Moreover, I think we were just as excited at the shot of getting Greene’s John Hancock on the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.

Once at camp, Shaun and I sat patiently on the hill and watched the day’s practice ensue, getting our share of sunburn. At the end of practice and when the time came for all of the players to head into the locker room, we enthusiastically made our way to the front of the ropes positioned to hold the crowd back, in order to ensure we had our moment with Greene. Player by player walked by us, signing papers, hats and autograph pads. I was fortunate to get my favorite receiver’s autograph while waiting for Greene – Yancey Thigpen. And then we saw Greene coming down the walkway. Shaun and I readied our pens, held out our magazines (turned to the feature photo of Greene tearing off his helmet like Hulk Hogan) and shouted, “Great practice, Greene! How about an autograph?” But, to our surprise, he did not so much as break stride – not for us or for any of the fans. He walked straight into the facility, not signing one thing.

We were crushed. As we stood there in dismay for a while – in fact, most all of the players by then had made their way into the locker room, the crowd dwindled to just a handful of fans. It was then that my ultimate Steelers moment took place: the locker room door cracked open and Greene popped his head out – putting one finger over his lips signaling the handful of fans still hanging around to “shhhh.” He walked out with pen in hand and said “Thanks for sticking around, guys. I really don’t like big crowds.” And then he signed our magazines!

What a day!

From Larry:

My favorite Steeler moment was November 6, 2005 when the Steelers visited Lambeau field to play the Packers. Born and raised in Wisconsin, I have been a Steelers fan for 35 years and never liking the Packers one bit. Unrealistic as Packer fans are, they thought on this particular day that the Packers were the team to beat as injuries forced out Rothlisberger, Bettis, and Parker. Dressed in full Steeler garb and rooting on Batch and Staley, I took a lot of profanity from Packer fans during the game as I was cheering and waving my Terrible Towel. At one point in the game when the Packers made a great play, one particular fan screamed at me “Where is your expletive Terrible Towel now”? Three plays later, Favre was sacked then fumbled and Troy Polamalu picked up the ball and did a mad 80 yard dash towards me in the end zone and scored a touchdown. I immediately stood up on the bleachers in my row, turned to the blatant fan, waved my Towel and screamed ”Here is my expletive Terrible Towel!”

Needless to say, the Steelers won that day and I walked out of that stadium passing by all those Packer fans with my head high and was one of the proudest Steeler fans in the nation. Wow!, what a great feeling that was. Three months later that feeling arose again when they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.

Here’s from Gerardo:

My favorite all-time Steeler moment was the hole Pittsburgh Steelers 2005-2006 season, because that season every sunday, my little nephew and my brother gathered at my mom´s apartment and shouted, got angry or even cryed each one of the Steelers games. It was amazing watching my 6 year old nephew and my 63 years old mom, enjoying each and every Steelers game. Obviously it ended with a great celebration running and shouting all over the apartment when the Steelers won Super Bowl XL… one for the thumb. 😀

F.J.’s favorite moment:

I would have to say my favorite “adult” Steeler moment would have to be when during the run to Super Bowl XL against the Colts. After the Bus fumble and the Big tackle by Ben…….. When the “idiot kicker” (quoted by Peyton Manning) misses the field goal that sends the Steelers to the AFC championship game. I couldn’t watch, I had to go outside. My kids came running out screaming “he missed”! I couldn’t believe it. I went in and TiVo’d it over and over…… Watching the Bus and coach Cowher saying “he missed” was awesome.

And my favorite village idiot – Randy Ward of BrownsGab:

My favorite Steeler memory wasn’t when Eric Metcalf returned not one but two punts against Bill Cowers Steelers at the Stadium. How about Tim Couch lighting up the Squeelers on Sunday night football? Nope not that one either. It was that frigid night at Browns Stadiums where they put the Steelers to bed. They beat up “Big Ben” and made the Steelers look like the girls they are. Go Browns!!! Brownsgab I hope to see this on Steelersgab

You saw it Randy, now get ready to lose twice to the Black and Gold in 2010!

And that leads us to our winner…it was a fun contest, but this one really hit hard, and it tugged at the heart, so without any further ado, here it is:

From Rob Nazarian:

It was Sunday, December 14, 2008. My first child, a son, was due 2 days later. It was the day of a very big game for the Steelers and Ravens.

That morning I told my wife she could not go into labor on this day and within an hour we were on our way to the hospital. I am in New York and thankfully the game was nationally televised so we were watching it in the labor room.

Now what makes this interesting is we were torn between naming our son Ben, which my wife wanted, and Alex, which I was for. My wife was never trying to name him after Ben Roethlisberger, she just liked the name.

To decide which name we would go with I suggested that if Ben Roethlisberger got the winning TD then that would be a sign to go with Ben. I said this before the game started so the game could of gone a number of ways. Not only did he pass that winning TD, but he did it with 41 seconds left to Santonio Holmes. Of course that was not enough. It had to be reviewed to make it more dramatic.

About 15 hours later (total 24 hours labor), Ben was born. It will be a great story to tell little Ben on how he got his name. The Steelers continued their magic with a Superbowl victory less then 2 months later. It was a very fun and emotional time for me on all levels. My Steelers won the Superbowl and more importantly, my awesome son Benjamin was born.

I’m sure that was a great memory Rob, and today it’s our winner! Just a reminder we will have more contests, but also for those that want to order the book now before it hits the newsstands (help me make it a NY Times best seller!), here are the sites to order the book:

Borders

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Thanks again everyone, and as always – Go Steelers!!!!!