A few weeks ago in the Monday night game against the San Diego Chargers, Qualcomm Stadium sounded like Heinz Field West as there was an incredible amount of Pittsburgh Steelers fans in attendance for the game. That’s not overly surprising, however, being as Steelers fans are known around the league as being the best when it comes to supporting their team on the road.
This week, the Steelers go back on the road again to play the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium and the home team’s president is expecting a lot of Terrible Towels to be visible in the stands during the game.
“We know that there will be a lot of Steelers fans,” team President Mark Donovan said, according to Adam Teicher, who covers the Chiefs for ESPN.com. “They travel well. They always do.”
The Chiefs enter Sunday’s game against the Steelers with 1-5 record and because of that, Donovan is fully aware of the repercussions that come with that as it relates to their team’s fans showing up in large numbers on Sunday.
“When you lose four, five in a row, you’re going to see something of a no-show factor,” he said.
During the Wednesday edition of The Terrible Podcast, I asked Teicher to give his thoughts on what he expects the crowd to be like on Sunday.
“Steeler Nation travels well,” said Teicher. “I expect there to be a lot of Steeler fans on Sunday and the Chiefs’ fans are frustrated and rightly so. I think there were expectations that this was going to be a good season in Kansas City and it’s not turning out that way. I expect this to be maybe more of a Steeler crowd than a lot of people would expect.”
If things turn out like many are expecting they will, perhaps quarterback Landry Jones won’t have to worry about using a silent snap count on Sunday, if indeed he winds up making his first career start. Instead, perhaps Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith should be the one practicing silent counts this week in practice. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers can probably tell Smith what it’s like to be forced to use silent counts at home.
“Odd is one word we could use,” Rivers said after the game against the Steelers.
