Home >  Sports >  Steelers

Monday, January 21, 2002

By Jan Ackerman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Stuart Karow of Squirrel Hill watched the first quarter of yesterday's Steelers-Ravens playoff game. Then he turned off his television and came Downtown to watch another great performance, the Pittsburgh Symphony's 2:30 p.m. performance of Brahm's German Requiem, with Andre Previn conducting.

	Daryl Meanor, left, who says he prefers auto racing to football, looks across the river to Heinz Field yesterday with two visitors from Girard, Ohio, Ron Schnarrs and his daughter, Jessica, 16. Schnarrs' other daughter was in a dance competition at the Hilton hotel. Meanor planned to return to his Sewickley home to watch the second half of yesterday's game. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

"I have some interest in football, but I feel that the arts are overshadowed in Pittsburgh," said Karow, standing in the lobby of Heinz Hall yesterday afternoon.

"This is a great concert. ... I do not know whether Pittsburghers realize how great their symphony is. It may be overshadowed by sports."

On a day when football frenzy was at a peak, scalpers were working the Downtown streets before 9 a.m. and clergy were praying for a Steelers victory -- that may be an understatement.

But the truth is, not everybody in Pittsburgh lives and dies by the Steelers. In fact, some people don't even like football, although they are not inclined to admit it publicly.

"I am not really a fan, not even in high school," confessed one woman who was shopping at Kaufmann's just before kickoff. "I went to a couple of Steelers games. I jumped up when they jumped up. I really don't understand the game."

But when asked for her name, the woman declined to give it. That's not surprising, considering that she was going to a Steelers party later yesterday.

With Steelermania in high gear, many Downtown parking lots got into the spirit by charging special "event parking" rates of $15 or $20. That was not pleasant news to people who were coming to town for the symphony, the 2 p.m. performance at the Byham Theater of "L'Incoronazione di Poppea," Monteverdi's opera, or other non-Steelers events.

Kathryn and John Vaughan of Clarksburg, W.Va., said the symphony had sent them a letter offering some discounts on parking for the concerts, but they didn't sign on. When they heard that the Steelers-Ravens game would be here, the Vaughans expected problems and left home extra early.

"We left at 8:30 a.m. for the 2:30 p.m. concert," said Kathryn Vaughan. They arrived in Downtown at 10:30 a.m. and found some lots were already full. They skipped the lots that had raised their prices, found parking at a lot at Smithfield Street and Liberty Avenue and capitalized on early arrival by trying a new Downtown restaurant.

They ended up shopping at Lazarus, which had many bargains but few customers.

Vaughan said she likes football and roots for the Steelers, but she had no problem deciding how to spend her Sunday afternoon.

"I'm interested in the game, but not enough to stay home and watch it," she said.

The Rink at PPG Place was busy yesterday afternoon, filled with people who decided to spend the sunny and cold afternoon getting real exercise, instead of the kind that involves a television remote.

Raj Duckett, an employee at the ice skating rink, said Sunday is typically a family day, when parents bring their children to the rink. The staff was monitoring the game from a television in the back room.

"About 60 percent of the people would come back in to check on the score," he said.

Or maybe to warm up.

In Kaufmann's, a boom box on one of the cosmetic counters blared out the play-by-play of the game.

In the men's department, a sales clerk raced up the escalator to the second floor where three big-screen televisions hang on the walls.

"I'm going to watch the kickoff," she called to another clerk.

But in another part of the men's department, a sales clerk confessed, anonymously, that she really detests football.

"They wear tight pants. They get paid millions and they run around," said the woman who wouldn't give her name.

Now that's heresy.