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In Week Fifteen, long-time Full Monty Fantasy Baseball League member and resident Steelers fan Jim "The Piano Man" Kalach got to travel down from Connecticut to The Meadowlands to watch his beloved Steelers take on the reeling New York Football Giants. The following is an eyewitness account of the game as told by Jim, apparently after a few too many Steel City Lagers had already been thrown down... Twirling Towels Blow Ill Wind Into the Meadowlands Some Scrooge-like Giant fans held tightly on to their tickets on Saturday, but most put them up for sale to Steelers fans. The misers were rewarded with a vision of Eli Manning yet-to-come. Manning had a great game and showed some poise, but thousands of twirling gold towels blew and ill wind into the Meadowlands that day. The end result -- Steelers 33, Giants 30. My neighbor (also a Steelers fan) and I made the trek to Meadowlands parking lot 5, which had been turned into Steel City East. We set up the grill and coolers and did a little tailgating. We were soon surrounded by Matt and his Hoboken Steelers fan club and Rob and his crew from SteelersNYC (www.steelersnyc.com -- a plug for Rob's site). I'm pretty sure at least 25 percent or more of the crowd wore black and gold that day. I had been predicting an opening kick-off touch down the entire morning. Unfortunately, I had the wrong team! The Giants fans were in the game right away and Tiki Barber cut through the Steelers defense in the first half. Manning looked sharp and Roethlisberger was the one making rookie mistakes. We took some friendly, good-natured ribbing from the Giants fans seated nearby. "Wave your towel now, motherf*$%@!," and "Wipe your terrible ass with that thing," were just a couple of the cheerful comments. I just pointed to the clock and smiled. In the second half, the Steelers defense shut down Barber. Roethlisberger made the big plays, Randle El picked up Burress' slack and Jerome Bettis ran the football down the Giants throat. A few hundred Steelers fans perched themselves above the runway and cheered the Steelers as they left the field. It was almost like a home game! A couple of Giants fans grumbled behind us as we left the stadium. "This doesn't sit with me," one said. "Look at all these freakin Steelers fans!" Another Giants fan explained the intricacies of the playoffs to me as we left the parking lot. "You guys are one and done! You're going nowhere. But you guys are still better than those f&*#@%$ Eagles fans!"
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