Why the Black and Gold?

This year, 2012 marks a personal NFL milestone for me. This year 10 years ago I begun watching American Football at the mere age of just 10 years old. Looking back now, 10 years on I could not imagine my existence without the ups and downs of the National Football League.

  I am now 20 years old and consider myself more than just your "average, run-of-the-mill, everyday fan." Unlike most NFL Fans living in the US of A being an avid follower of the wonderful sport we know as gridiron is much harder for me than most. See I live in New Zealand a country far removed from the bright lights of the game I love. On an average week in New Zealand our ESPN coverage shows Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football and of course the holy grail Monday Night Football! but for a football nut like myself... that really does not satisfy my hunger for the game! So I have had to find alternatives to quench my thirst for the game. That alternative ended up being NFLGamePass, during football season GamePass is my connection to the NFL world! allowing me to watch every NFL game live. It does not come cheap but well worth the high price tag.

The first game I ever watched was December 7th, 2003. Four days after my 10th birthday. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Oakland Raiders that day 27-7 I remember the day and that very match vividly. As from that day on I knew that the Pittsburgh Steelers were the team for me. That season the Steelers finished with a disappointing 6-10 record but to me the season was possibly the most memorable I have had in a decade of following the black and gold. Time after time i have been asked over the past decade why the Pittsburgh Steelers? why not the Patriots? Colts? Raiders? Giants? or Cowboys? and I always answer in the same way... They are not the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If someone would ask me why I support the Pittsburgh Steelers. I'd answer, The coaches! Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin, Dick LeBeau. The pride and passion both players and coaches have when representing the Steeler legacy. The ability to mould and develop stud players through the draft and above all else the history the Steeler organisation has made and fought to develop, that has led into the powerhouse team we know today.

For 10 years now I have been there for every high and every low the Pittsburgh Steelers have experienced, Many great names have come and gone in the last decade. I feel proud to say I witnessed some true football greats at the peak of their illustrious careers. Names like Joey Porter, Aaron Smith, Hines Ward, Willie Parker and James Farrior may no longer don the the Black and Gold of Pittsburgh but all of them in there own way helped strengthen my love for the Steelers.

Like them, despise them... however you feel about the Pittsburgh Steelers you respect them. 

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattM_44