For this Sunday’s game at Bank of America Stadium, there is going to be yet another yinzer takeover. Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers are heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to try and make it an extra home game for the black and gold, just like they do so often. The Carolina Panthers will have plenty of trouble feeding off of crowd noise for their own home game.
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After beating the Atlanta Falcons just a couple weeks ago to the sights of terrible towels, the Steelers will attempt to use the “home away from home” fans to their advantage again. Last time, the family of Cameron and Connor Heyward went to Atlanta to cheer them on and join in making Atlanta a home game. This time, it looks as if Alex Highsmith’s family will, since they’ll be traveling to the city of Charlotte, where Highsmith was a walk-on athlete. It’s not just this year where the Steelers fans are making an impact, however. They’re pretty well-known for taking over opponents’ stadiums, and they can even go above and beyond their last two away games by far.
Steelers at Chargers, 2019
Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise
Back when the Los Angeles Chargers had no fans coming to their tiny stadium, it seemed like a good thing when they saw that their stadium would be filled up. The only problem was that there were only a handful of home fans. Steeler Nation filled up almost the entirety of the stadium. This game didn’t even have Ben Roethlisberger in it, since he was just starting his recovery on season ending elbow surgery. This wasn’t even a crowd to see what Mason Rudolph had to offer, since he was recovering from a brutal concussion.
An entire stadium of Steelers fans on the west coast came to a game where a world champion duck hunter and duck caller was making his first career start at QB: Devlin “Duck” Hodges. It was so bad that the stadium crew played “Renegade,” the Steelers’ hype song that they play at their own home games. Even though it was done as a joke, the players for the Chargers did not take kindly to it, with Melvin Gordon being on hot mic getting pissed off about the song being blared throughout the stadium.
Steelers at Oilers, 1997
There are plenty of good examples of the yinzer takeover, but let’s go back a little bit to when Steelers fans rushed to Memphis to take up around 40,000 seats to watch their team play the Tennessee Oilers. Even with the Oilers getting an upset win to end the 1997 season, Steelers fans cheered on their team, with Kordell Stewart and Mike Tomczak leading the team at QB. A poor offensive showcase for both teams did not deter fans during the game either. Win or lose, these fans go wherever the team goes. And nothing can change that.
The Steelers taking over stadiums is not a new thing. It doesn’t matter who the QB is, who the opponent is, when it is, or how the team is doing. The Steelers will invade any and all stadiums to try and take home field advantage away from any franchise. You could probably expect them to take over a stadium in a different country with how many fans aren’t even in the U.S.
Next time you want to see the Steelers somewhere other than Pittsburgh, go for it. There will most likely be other crazy fans at the game, just like you.
Any thoughts or better examples of the Yinzer Takeover? Leave a comment below.
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