Pittsburgh Steelers ILB Patrick Queen will play his fifth game at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday, but he will do so from a very different vantage point. Having spent his first four NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, he is now on the other side of the rivalry. That also means he is on the other side of the Steelers’ stadium theatrics, which he is anticipating.
“I’m ready to hear Renegade in the fourth quarter”, Queen said via the Steelers’ website. “That’s what I’ve been waiting on. I just can’t wait to get in front of the fans and just play our hearts out. Play as hard as we can, give the fans the best game we can, and get a win in there”.
“Renegade” was a hit song by the rock group Styx in the 1980s. The Steelers began playing it a couple of decades ago at Heinz Field during critical moments when they needed a stop. Queen heard that four times as a Raven, though it took time for him to understand what it meant.
“The first two times, I didn’t notice. Then [John Harbaugh] said something about it in the meeting”, Queen recalled about his growing understanding of what Renegade means to the Steelers. “I just remember he was like, ‘We’re going to be in a close game’, this and that. ‘We’re gonna get the towels, get them waving, we’re gonna feel it, make it our own song’. You definitely didn’t notice it the first few years until he said something about it. But once you realize what they’re doing, it’s just an electric feeling, an electric place”.
Whether you like the song or not, as a Steelers fan, you certainly know it. Even those who don’t particularly like the song can acknowledge that it lends itself well to a violent, hard-hitting highlight reel. The Steelers sometimes like to vary the highlights to match their opponent or honor a specific player. Back in 2014, they created a special Joe Greene Renegade highlight reel just for him.
Patrick Queen signed a three-year, $41 million contract with the Steelers this offseason. He hasn’t done anything that would find its way into a Renegade highlight reel yet, but he has plenty of time to get there. He knows the long lineage of quality linebacker play in Pittsburgh, even up to Ryan Shazier.
Having recently turned just 25, Queen really has a chance to immortalize himself in Steelers history. As a former Raven, he has a ready-made face turn for his origin story. Sunday will mark just his first game in Acrisure Stadium in a Steelers jersey, so he is only beginning.
