Published Monday, January 6, 2003
Herald Staff Writer
Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns fans turned out at area watering holes and living rooms and tuned in to watch Sunday's cutthroat playoff game between the football rivals at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.
In the Shenango Valley, where fans of both teams are found, friends became foes as the longest and, if you ask the locals, greatest rival in AFC history was played out.
Bill Novosel, owner of Billy's Black and Gold bar on Sharpsville Avenue, Sharon said fans began flocking into the parking lot at 8:45 a.m. even though the bar doesn't open until 11 a.m.
The bar is a mecca for Steelers fans from far and wide. About 200 people crammed into the tavern to watch the game.
Joe Nezdoba, manager of a gentlemen's cabaret and grill in Pasadena, Calif., said he flew back to his hometown of Sharon to watch the game at Billy's. The all-Steelers atmosphere also drew Cindy Lauener of Palmyra, Ohio, and her family. They traveled 45 minutes to Sharon to be surrounded by cheerful fans at the bar, which she said was the next best thing to Heinz Field.
"I go to most home games, but I couldn't get tickets to the play-offs," she said.
Lacking a local "Browns bar," Cleveland fan Marc Smith of Hermitage watched the game at the Golden Bear Tavern in West Middlesex.
He stood at the back of the bar with a huge grin across his face as the Browns led 24-7 in the third quarter. "I didn't expect them to do so good," he said. "But there's still a lot of football left."
Dressed in a leather Browns jacket, Smith wasn't joined by too many other Cleveland partisans. "I always come down here," he said. "I'm one of the few Browns fans who show up here.'"
"Hell will freeze over first before I or any of us change teams," Smith said.
Over at Billy's, semi-pro football player Steve Moser of Hermitage, a 1992 Minor League Hall of Fame inductee, said he invited his son, a Browns fan, to come watch but his son declined.
Moser joined about 200 Pittsburgh fans who seemed displeased with how the early half of the game was going.
Crammed and clench-fisted, black and gold fans gathered around one of 30 televisions scattered throughout Billy's watching as the Browns led the Steelers 33--21 in the fourth.
Alyson "Bumpy" Brown of Sharon became overwhelmed during the game by a missed call for the Steelers which she thought should have gone the other way.
"I don't care. Cleveland ain't going nowhere anyway," she yelled at the television screen. "If they win they'll have to meet up with Oakland, Jerry Rice and that quarterback they have. They'll be sitting at home right with us."
Tom Schaffer, 35, of Hubbard, was also hoping to see the Steelers pull of a win. He said with Pittsburgh having the home-team advantage, winning the game should have been a breeze.
"We should beat the Browns big time tonight -- at least by 3 points. They're at their home field. There's no excuse for losing," he said.
"But the game isn't over 'til the clock runs out," he added.
And it wasn't.
The end of the game proved to be an emotion-filled one for many at Billy's, especially Cindy Lauener, who wiped tears from her eyes after the game.
After time ran out on the clock with Steelers in the lead, a triumphant outcry ascended at Billy's with fans hugging eachother in excitement, happy for the close win.
Pittsburgh had completed a pass for a two-point conversion, earning a 36-33 AFC wild-card win over the Cleveland Browns -- the sixth largest. It would have been the fifth largest comeback in NFL playoff history had the San Francisco 49ers not defeated the New York Giants 39-38 later on Sunday.
The Steelers play the Tennessee Titans Saturday.