A heart-felt thank you before moving on
Twenty-five years is a long time. In fact, it is more than half of my life.
It’s also how long I have been covering the Pittsburgh Steelers for the readers of the Observer-Reporter.
But last week’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals marked the end of that run. For just the second time in my life Sunday, I was covering a Steelers game for a news outlet other than the Observer-Reporter.
It wasn’t an easy decision to leave.
I came to Washington in February of 1993 as a loud, brash 23-year-old who had previously worked at the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown and The Derrick in Oil City. It was at that second stop I had an opportunity to cover my first Steelers game.
And it really wasn’t about the Steelers that day. Indianapolis Colts head coach Ted Marchibroda had grown up in Rocky Grove, a small town located between Oil City and Franklin. I convinced sports editor Penny Weichel to go and write a story about Marchibroda?
It just so happened that a few weeks before that, another sports writer I had worked with at Johnstown, Randy Miller, was covering the Steelers. He told me the newspaper in Washington was looking for somebody to be an outdoors writer and layout specialist. I had written about hunting and fishing at Oil City – among many other things – so I sent a resume.
At the Steelers game, I met former Observer-Reporter sports editor, Tom Rose. I must have left an impression. He hired me a couple of months later when the season ended. He was looking to get away from covering the Steelers after more than a decade on the beat. At a staff meeting, he asked if anyone wanted to do it.
I raised my hand.
Little did I know where that would lead me.
First would be to mini-camp that year at Three Rivers Stadium. I’ll never forget my first story. It was on Kevin Greene, the Steelers’ big free agent signing that offseason. I had a one-on-one interview with him that must have left him wondering who in the world was this goofy kid.
A few months later, I was covering my first Steelers game for the Observer-Reporter against the San Francisco 49ers. In Barcelona, Spain.
There were future Hall of Fame players and current NFL stars on both teams. Steve Young, Jerry Rice and others were on the field for San Francisco. Greene, Rod Woodson and Dermontti Dawson were there for the Steelers.
Talk about culture shock for a kid who had grown up in rural Clarion County and who had never been on a plane before.
That game at Estadi Olimpic would be the first of more than 400 I would cover for the Observer-Reporter in six different countries and nearly 60 stadiums, some of which don’t even exist any longer.
It’s been a heck of a ride.
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the readers who have been there with me along the way. You made it all possible. If you hadn’t cared so much about the team, the newspaper would have quit sending me long ago.
I never cared about winning awards or anything of that sort. My daily coverage of the team always revolved around what I felt the readers wanted to know about the team.
Sometimes, I hope I even got that right.
I also would be remiss if I didn’t thank the people at the Observer-Reporter who made that all possible, starting with the Northrop family. They rescued a kid who was toiling 12 hours a day at a small newspaper in northwestern Pennsylvania and gave him a chance to go on the journey of a lifetime.
For that, I always will be grateful.
The staff at the Observer-Reporter has always been top-notch. It might sound self-serving, but the work that goes into putting this publication together on a daily basis, the hours that are put in, often above and beyond what is required, are difficult to work around a family. But they do it. And often do it with a smile.
That group of people is what made the countless hours not seem like work.
I’ll miss them, just like I’ll miss covering the Steelers on a daily basis for you.
Thankfully, my new employer, DKPittsburghSports.com, has agreed to allow me write a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter. More often than not, it will be about the Steelers. But I’ll also do some stuff on the people from this area I run into in my travels.
That was important to me.
I didn’t grow up in Washington or Greene counties. But this is my home and I am raising my children here. This community has become a part of me.
So this is not farewell. It’s not goodbye.
You’ll still see me around. Hopefully, you will continue to read.
Newspapers such as the Observer-Reporter are an important part of the fabric of a community.
But you are a much bigger part of the newspaper.