McKeesport
Deep inside Echostar, the technical call-in center for the Dish Network, a corporate insurgency was taking place to the tune of the Fox NFL sound track and hundreds of black and gold balloons.
The Denver-based company had found itself in the midst of a mutiny led by Steelers fans who had taken over the call center's cubicles and most of its wall space. Past the black-and-gold balloon archway lay a football field-sized testament to the intensity of Steelers fandom and disdain for anything resembling Denver's orange and blue.
The fervor ran so deep in McKeesport that a wager had been struck between the call-in center and its headquarters in Denver -- if the Steerlers won, the headquarters would be required to fly a Steelers Nation flag in the center of its office. If the Steelers lost, a Broncos flag would be hoisted in the McKeesport center.
Employees were not in this for fun and games. So, in a show of confidence in their team -- one that proved to be sweet in the end -- the call-in center sent scores of Terrible Towels and the Steelers flag via FedEx two days before the game.
"This is not just a game," said Dana Bell, an operations manager, who once lived in Denver, but never pledged allegiance to the streaking orange and blue colt of the Broncos. "This is football."
Inside the call-in center, where thousands of calls stream in on how to attach VCRs and DVDs to satellite systems, 100 yards of black and gold balloons, streamers, flags and jerseys hung from the complicated maze of cubicles.
With her little magenta CD player in hand, Michelle Sassi, approached a manager and asked if she could play her daughter's Steelers CD, which instantly began to blare "Here we go, Steelers, Here we go..."
Bodies began to emerge out of small cubicle walls and feet started tapping, sending some of the more fervent fans into a semi-touchdown celebration with their telephone head pieces still attached.
"I won't play it too loud," Ms. Sassi pleaded. She got her way.
The only setback for the 350 employees -- who might have occasionally put a customer on hold to express disgust with referees or celebrate a touchdown by waving a Terrible Towel -- seemed to be the two cubicles separated, but united with decorations in confrontational orange and blue.
Robbi Lester, the owner of one of the cubicles, is a devout Dallas Cowboys fan who had coyly dismissed colleagues threatening her with banishment.
Mrs. Lester seemed to notice a supervisor not answering her calls for help and a higher up telling her that he was going paint her car tires orange and blue. After all, what was some good natured ribbing without the occasional semi-serious threat of mutil-colored tires?
"It's all in good fun," said Mrs. Lester, who claimed to not notice putting on blue sweat pants, an orange T-shirt and a thatched hat with two orange and blue balloons attached.
The Steelers won. The call center went wild. Hugs ensued.
Mrs. Lester never came back.
Denver
Outside Invesco Field, crowding around the ramp where most of the Steelers exited to greet family and friends, roughly 1,500 Steelers fans gave the new AFC Champions a hero's welcome.
Daniel Mohan, a Sharon native living in Austin, Texas, said the excitement was a long time coming.
"I was cheering in 1995; I was there," Mr. Mohan, a software engineer, said of the last AFC Championship Game victory by the Steelers, at Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers won so often in the 1970s, going to four Super Bowls, but losing four of five conference finals in the Bill Cowher era was growing a bit monotonous.
"It's not that strange. But it feels a little unfamiliar," said Mr. Mohan, clad in a white Rocky Bleier No. 20 jersey.
Next to Mr. Mohan at the top of the ramp stood Rob Asbjornsen, 36, of Phoenix, along with his son, Jake, 10. They were among the many fans getting autographs, snapping photos or holding cell phones to allow friends to hear the cacophony.
"Happy to see these guys finally make it," said Asbjornsen, a member of what he calls the second-largest Steelers club outside Pittsburgh, with 2,000 or so Arizona-based fans who convene at a tavern in the north-Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek.
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(Staff writers Chuck Finder and Ann Rodgers contributed to this story. Moustafa Ayad can be reached at
mayad@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1731.)
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