May 02 2007
A Soccer Team for Steelers Fans?
You may or may not have known this, but Aston Villa, which is considered one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in England, is owned by Randy Lerner, who also owns the Cleveland Browns.
Of course, the Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the Browns’ primary rivals. So it would make sense that a rival of the Browns would gravitate toward a rival of Aston Villa as well, yes? That would be Birmingham City, a club that hasn’t had quite as much success as Villa over the years, but their local derbies have always been as spirited as the old Three Rivers Stadium whenever the Browns came to town.
Well, guess what? Birmingham City is getting promoted back to the Premiership next season after getting relegated in 2006. So Birmingham and Villa will meet at least twice next season — possibly more if they draw each other for FA Cup or Carling Cup matches.
Thus, I recommend that Birmingham City fans should show up to their next derby wearing Steelers replica jerseys and swinging terrible towels. It only makes sense with the NFL invading England next year, and the look on Randy Lerner’s face would be just priceless.
Just a suggestion…
One Response to “A Soccer Team for Steelers Fans?”
I may interest you to know that American soccer has had several “steelers” teams of our own. Back in the late 19th, early 20th century, soccer in the USA was mostly a working class industrial sport, with clubs formed for various industrial workers and the like. The most famous of these was Bethlehem Steel FC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_Steel_F.C.
Another “steel” club was Scullin Steel FC from the St. Louis area. Clubs representing dry docks were pretty common too (Robbins Dry Dock FC in Brooklyn) and then there were the Uhrik Truckers from Philly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhrik_Truckers
All in all, pretty blue collar (soccer) football for the USA.
There is a soccer club named Steelers in Korea too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohang_Steelers