LOS ANGELES -- Rocky's is a dive bar. There's not much to it except good food and cheap drinks. If the place were in Pittsburgh, it would be serving up Imp and Iron as the specialty of the house. But it isn't in Pittsburgh. It's more than 2,000 miles west, just across the street from Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
During the week it caters to the grips, gaffers and production crews from "Desperate Housewives" and "Crossing Jordan" which shoot at Universal. It isn't the sort of place frequented by prissy studio execs. They go to some Italian restaurant nearby with a fancy name.
But this story is about Sundays -- the day when the Steelers play. Rocky's is one of a dozen or so Steeler bars in the Los Angeles area. Most of the other bars are those "sports bars" with cool sounding names, a million TVs, fake wood floors, and servers by the name of Chad who wear polo shirts.
Rocky's isn't anything like that. It's the old South Side shot-and-a-beer bar -- in L.A. The bartenders and servers sport ponytails and tattoos; they're the kind of people no one wants to mess with. It's tough. It's Pittsburgh.
The Steelers season started out at Rocky's on a hot September morning. Maybe 15 Steelers fans were there on opening day, displaced fans from Monroeville, Mt. Lebanon, Thornburg and Beaver Falls watching the game on a pull-down projection screen that covered an entire end of the room.
Robin Barris and her ex, Bruce Barris, were on hand for that first game. Robin is the executive vice president of operations for Ron Howard's company, Imagine. She's a big shot in the biz. But she doesn't act it. She remembers her Pittsburgh roots. Bruce is a sound-effects engineer now working on the movie version of "Miami Vice." He's an L.A. guy -- Robin converted him.
The Steelers kept winning, and the crowd began to build. Carter Mitchell and Leah McClintick joined the group. Mitchell, an actor, is Carl Lumley's stand-in on the TV show "Alias." His home is near Uniontown. McClintick, an interior designer, is from Elwood City.
By week three, 30 or so Steelers fans packed the place. All wore Steelers shirts and hats. The Jerome Bettis jersey was the favorite. Someone even said "yinz guys" once. All were from somewhere around the 'Burg. Most left because they were looking for a career in Hollywood and maybe because winters in L.A. are a bit warmer. But all missed home.
Things were good, and life was great at Rocky's. Rolling Rock flowed. There was a loss to the Patriots. Still, the crowd remained faithful. Then Ben Roethlisberger got hurt. The season got ugly; they teetered on the edge of elimination. Suddenly, a lot of the Rocky's crowd found another way of spending their Sundays. Some were even uttering those nasty little words "maybe next year."
There were "ups" of course. A few close wins and it looked like the Steelers were going to give the Bengals a run for the AFC North title. Then came the big ugly -- the unexpected loss to the Ravens. Several Steelers games after the loss were on national television. A big chunk of the Rocky's crowd opted to stay home and watch the games where a potential loss would be a private thing and guy tears would be OK.
By the last game of the season, the Steelers needed to win, the Chiefs needed to lose, someone else needed to win, someone else had to lose, and Art Rooney Sr. needed to put in a good word for his team.
It was New Year's Day and the crowd at the bar had shrunk to just seven hung-over die-hard fans from back home watching the game on a small TV above the bar. Late night New Year's partying had taken a toll on the Rocky's regulars.
The Steelers won, and all the other things that were supposed to happen, happened. The Steelers had taken the first step toward one for the thumb.
Then the Steelers crushed the Bengals (Art had more pull than Paul Brown), and they continued their march west onto Indianapolis.
Rocky's was packed with black and gold that day. The regulars were there, but the word had spread. Rocky's was as close to home as you get in L.A. They came from Beaver Falls, New Kensington, Moon and Bethel Park. Most lived in the Valley, not far from Rocky's, in Burbank and North Hollywood -- the home of Warner Brothers, Disney, Universal and NBC Studios. Most were in the entertainment business -- actors, production crews, sound and lighting guys. They were all there for one reason -- to honor and cheer on their Steelers.
As soon as Roethlisberger began picking the defense apart, the fans erupted into the familiar chant: "Here we go Steelers, here we go!" The projection screen was nearly destroyed over a few bad calls -- the thought being that if the screen were destroyed, the referees would feel it.
In the end, nearly 40 exhausted fans bounced up and down in front of the screen as Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed the field goal. The celebration spilled out onto the slumbering Sunday street, startling passers-by.
The march west continued, leaving the destruction of Cincinnati and Indianapolis in its wake. Next stop was Denver and the AFC championship game.
An hour before game time, it was standing room only in Rocky's. All the regulars were back and more. Oddly enough there was a table of Bronco fans. They said very little, and they left at halftime, shocked and chagrined.
The crowd had grown so much by game time that it spilled out the back door where a tailgate party popped up in the parking lot. By halftime they knew it was over.
Sixty wild screaming fans stayed, counting down the game's final 10 seconds. The room erupted into a thunderous "Super Bowl, Super Bowl!" Suddenly a young girl jumped up on a table, stuck a fist into the air, and screamed, "We're going to the Super Bowl!" Not the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl. Not Pittsburgh is going to the Super Bowl. But "we" are going to the Super Bowl.
No matter where you live in this country, there is pride in saying "I'm from Pittsburgh." On Feb. 5, somewhere in a corner of the San Fernando Valley, 60 Steelers fans will be packed into a place called Rocky's, sharing that pride with Pittsburgh.
And when the Steelers win, 2 miles from Rocky's, convertibles packed with black-and-gold fans will be cruising Hollywood Boulevard waving Terrible Towels high in the California night.



Rocky's on Lankershim Boulevard near Universal City in the southeast corner of the San Fernando Valley in California is a favorite hangout of Steelers fans.
Click photo for larger image.


First Published: January 29, 2006, 5:00 a.m.