Steelers, Packers Fans Bold in Support of Non-NY Teams

Like many other Pittsburgh Steelers fans on Long Island, Lori Lacava fell in love with the team in the 1970s. 

The defense was referred to as "the Steel Curtain" with "Mean" Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and Lynn Swann and the team won four Super Bowls in six years. 

"I'm from Long Island and live in Northport but I've just always loved them since the 1970s," Lacava said, brazenly wearing her black and gold Steelers varsity-style jacket while walking her dogs around Northport Village Sunday morning. 

She said friends had been giving her a hard time but they cooled down a bit since the Jets lost to Steelers last week. 

"It was much worse than it is now," she said. "What can I do? I love my Steelers."

For some people, support for the Steelers comes after that of a New Year team. 

"If I can't have the Maras I'll take the Rooneys," said Northport resident Dan Campbell, who is a diehard New York Giants fan and does not like the Jets. "Ask the Maras who they're rooting for today. It's the same for me."

The longtime Giants owners have close ties to the longtime Steelers owners. 

Tim Mara and Art Rooney were two fo the first NFL team owners.  Tim Mara purchased the Giants in 1925 and Art Rooney founded the Steelers in 1933. Arthur J. and Kathleen McNulty Rooney. His son Timothy Mara, the current vice president of player evaluation for the New York Giants, married Kathleen Rooney. 

Campbell said he, too became a Steelers fan in the 1970s. "There was a book by [famed Steelers halfback] Rocky Bleier that my mom bought me. It was called "Fighting Back" and it was all about after he came back from Vietnam where he had half his foot blown off and played for the Steelers again," Cambell said. "That's a cool dude. He rushed for 1,000 yards after they blew half his foot off."

For Scudder Avenue resident Keith Kiewra, whose Steelers banner is seen by hundreds each day as they travel up the busy road, his Steelers fandom came later in life. His first wife Jen Zivic, with whom he is still friendly, was a fan because her grandfather Fritzie Zivic, a boxer, was from Pittsburgh and was friends with Art Rooney.

He usually hangs a Steelers banner on his house as soon as Pittsburgh makes the playoffs. "I held off a little bit this year until the Jets lost, then I threw it up there," he said Saturday. He planned to watch the game at home and expected a few dozen friends to show up to watch it with him, whether they support the Steerlers or not. 

One of them will no likely be his brother Crab Meadow resident Al Kiewra, a diehard Jets fans. 

"I called him and he said, 'Keith who? Who is this?'" he said, laughing. "He'll get over it."

Editor's note: Dan Campbell is married to the author and Northport.Patch.com editor Kelly Campbell.