Celebrating the holiday season in Black & Gold!

It’s not just another monthly Fan Photos post, at this time of year we’ve given it a festive holiday flair! And fans aren’t just decorating it Steelers Style this year, they are living it:


Cutest little elf!

“Our son Wyatt enjoying his first Steelers Christmas, Black & Gold tree and all!” — Jaime & Cy Greer

Steelers training camp in December?


That’s what Sarah Swenson thinks about when she attends camp during the summer!

“I picked a photo from each training camp visit I’ve made and had an ornament made. I have 2 on my tree now and just need to have 1 made from this year’s trip. Thought you might enjoy my festive tree.” — Sarah

A Steelers Family Christmas card!


John & Rochelle Kenny and their daughter Arielle pose in their favorite jerseys. John was born and raised in Mt. Oliver on the South Side.

“I married into the dynasty 15 years ago and root for the team 365 days of the year whether we are having a good season or not.” — Rochelle

Is that a….a shoe in the family Christmas tree?


Yes, it is! This is Mary Rafail’s shoe…or rather Ben’s shoe! Mary was one of Ben’s Birthday Wishes Drawing winners back in September of 2011. She decided her autographed shoe from Ben needed to take center stage on her Steelers tree!

“I love my Ben shoe. It is the center of my home, lol! My husband has a signed photo of him, and one of Dick Butkus, and a football signed by Mike Singletary…but my Ben shoe is the most popular of all! Everyone wants to touch it!” — Mary

You can see Mary posing with her birthday shoe here! You can see a full photo of her Shoe Tree here!



Wait! There’s more holiday cheer!

We have four pages of some of the best looking Steelers Christmas trees, a wreath, a rather overzealous elf, and of course, the best fans in the world dressed for the season all right here.

We also have some adorable Lil’ […]

“Wausau PD is very proud of its K-9 program for the integral part it plays in our drug prevention and enforcement efforts. With the financial support from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, Wausau Police will expand the K-9 program and have a larger impact on our community. We will continue to aggressively enforce drug laws to make Wausau a great place to live and visit. We are very grateful for the generosity of the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation. Additionally, we want to thank the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin for being the fiscal agent of this grant.” — Wausau Police Chief Jeff Hardel.

Today, Ben announced that his Foundation, in association with The Giving Back Fund, will be distributing a grant to the Wausau Police Department, approximately 90 minutes east of Green Bay where the Steelers will play the Packers on Sunday, December 22nd.

The Wausau Police Department will use the grant to purchase and train a new K-9 for their unit.

During the 2013-14 NFL season, the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation will be distributing grants to K-9 units of police and fire departments in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers. The Foundation will also distribute several grants to the Pittsburgh area and will consider a grant to a non-NFL market city in the United States for each playoff game in which the Steelers compete. The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation invited police and fire departments across the country to submit proposals detailing their needs.

This marks the seventh season that the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units. The mission of the Foundation is to support K-9 units of police and fire departments throughout the United States with a particular emphasis on support for service dogs in Pittsburgh, PA. Ben and the Foundation also strive to support Make-A-Wish.

The Foundation distributed more than $135,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2012 NFL season and has distributed in excess of $1 million since 2007.

In commenting on why the mission of the foundation is so important to him, Ben said, “We’re very fortunate to be in the position that we are able to help these K-9 units. The work that is performed by the dogs and their handlers as well […]

“I’m just trying to play this game and this snap. This is a physical game, as we see every week. You’ve got to take it one play at a time. I’m going to give everything I have on every play and if that leads to me playing every play, then we can talk after the season about what it felt like.” — Ben

Highlights from Steelers.com:


How far would you say the no-huddle has come this year? Are you guys constantly adding to it as the year has gone on?

Yeah, we’re tweaking things, changing things, adding things and taking things out. I think it’s come a long way. I think it’s evolved for the better.



Impressions of going to Lambeau Field:

I don’t yet. I’m excited, obviously, all of the rich history, the tradition. From what I saw from the forecast, I’ll get the full effect of it. Just excited to go up and to be a part of something that has been around, and the people that have played there, it will really be neat.


Were you there in 2005?

No, I wasn’t. I had my knee surgery a couple days before that so they didn’t want me to fly. No flying after surgery, so I stayed at home and watched it on TV.


Have you thought much about the Super Bowl since then?
Nope.


Not even this week?

Nope. [Smiles]


Not even looking at film?

Nope. [Laughs]


Are you lying to me right about now?

Maybe. [Laughs] How do you not? The Green Bay media asked me the same thing and it’s, “What do you remember?” I said, “Losing.” That’s all that matters. That’s all you remember from a game like that. It’s here and now. That was a few years ago. We’re a different team and they’re a different team. It’s not like let’s go get some payback or revenge or things like that. It’s just let’s go up and take care of the business that we set up to try and take care of.


How have the Packers changed?

They’re a different team. They’ve had some injuries on defense, but they still have some of their main guys – [A.J.] Hawk, Clay [Matthews] and [B.J.] Raji. They’ve got some guys that are going to create some issues for us that we’re just going to have to do the best we […]

“You know me, I think the fans know me – the most important thing to me is wins and losses. To me, personal records are things you look back on when you’re done playing, and say, ‘Wow, that was pretty cool’. But like you said, to break the great Terry Bradshaw’s record…I don’t know exactly what year he he retired (he is told 1983 was his last year), but a record that’s held for 30 years, a record of one of the greatest quarterback’s of all time, and one of the greatest franchises of all time. To be able to break his records means a lot to me.

“I hope that Terry feels the same way, I hope it’s an honor to have someone who has played in one uniform and has played as long as I have. I hope it’s an honor for him to have the record broken. Records are meant to be broken. This past year Zack Dysert, the quarterback for Miami, who is now in Denver, broke some of my records. I texted him and told him ‘congratulations’. I just think it’s really neat that records get broken and by good people…I hate to break a record when we lose though – that kills me.” –Ben, when asked about breaking his own record for single-season completions as well as breaking Terry Bradshaw’s record for touchdowns.

More from KDKA-93.7 The Fan:

Ron Cook asked Roethlisberger if the offense’s recent success is putting to rest the speculation that Offensive Coordinator Todd Haley will not be back in 2014.

“I would think so,” Roethlisberger said. “The points we’re putting up, the production, I would think that that would be enough for people to be like, ‘Relax a little bit.’ and to see that our relationship is more than fine. We have a great relationship. We went to dinner last week. There’s no issues.”

Roethlisberger added that he doesn’t want to see any changes, although he knows there will be some because of free agency and rookies.

Cook asked Roethlisberger about his ability to stay healthyand take every snap through 14 games.

“You do have to get lucky. A great offensive line doesn’t hurt either, and I think that’s part of the reason that I’ve been able to (knock on wood) stay healthy is because I thought they’ve done a great job of protecting […]

The Steelers earned a much-needed 30-20 win from the Bengals on Sunday at Heinz Field. Ben completed 20 of his 25 passes, and Le’Veon Bell ran for 117 yards.

“I’ve said for a bunch of weeks now, there’s going to be no quit from me or from anybody. I thought tonight was a good night and a good example of that. Everybody fought hard from start to finish and I was real proud of how everyone played.” — Ben, post-game.

From John Dudley at the Erie-Times News this morning:

Ben Roethlisberger, in the midst of his best season, reached another milestone in Sunday night’s 30-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Roethlisberger broke his own franchise single-season completions record of 337 and now has the three highest single-season totals in Steelers history.

Wideout Antonio Brown, the biggest beneficiary of those throws, became only the second Steelers player with at least 95 receptions. He trails single-season leader Hines Ward, who had 112 catches in 2002.

“It’s a blessing,” Brown said of nearing Ward’s record. “I had an opportunity to see Hines today. He was really encouraging. As this thing continues to unfold, I just want to continue to excel with the team and play as a team and help us win games.”

Roethlisberger completed 20-of-25 attempts for 191 yards with one touchdown and one interceptions. He was sacked only once.


You can read more from Mr. Dudley here.

“We just wanted to come out and play as hard as we could, show we’re going to give it everything we’ve got to the end.” — Ben

From Alan Robinson, at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The Steelers turned a succession of special teams mistakes by the Cincinnati Bengals (9-5) into a club record-tying 21-point first quarter that featured an Antonio Brown touchdown catch and 67-yard punt return score, and they beat up on their division rival 30-20 at Heinz Field.

The first-place Bengals were favored to win in Pittsburgh for the first time since 1989, but it was the Steelers who turned back the clock with a vintage performance that made their fans wonder where this had been all season.

“Cincinnati was beginning to feel good about themselves against us,” safety Ryan Clark said. “They’d won two in a row and at the end of the game in September they were fighting and talking. […]

From Teresa Varley, at Steelers.com today:

Roethlisberger is one of 32 NFL team’s “Man of the Year” award winners and qualifies for the league’s national 2013 Walter Payton Man of the Year. The award recognizes a player’s off-the-field community service as well as his playing excellence. The overall winner will be announced during Super Bowl XLVIII in New York/New Jersey.

In 2006, Roethlisberger started the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, which makes grants to local police and fire departments with an emphasis on K-9 units and service dogs. The idea came when a police dog named Flip was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2006 in Roethlisberger’s hometown. Since 2007, the Foundation has made 123 grants nationwide, totaling more than $1 million to 117 police and fire departments and several youth organizations. The canine grants have funded the purchase of at least 72 dogs, the training of more than 25 additional dogs and 54 handlers and safety and training equipment, food, vet services and housing for countless more.

For his contributions, Roethlisberger became the first non-law enforcement individual to be honored by the Annual Amen Corner Senator John Heinz Law Enforcement Awards in October 25, 2013.

One of his favorite charities is Make-A-Wish. He enjoys not only being part of the wish experience but helping to make other children’s wishes come true. This year, his foundation made its second annual donation to Make-A-Wish of Greater Pennsylvania to help grant more wishes, increasing from $25,000 to $30,000.

He and his wife have participated in the annual Salvation Army Project Bundle Up shopping night, helping underprivileged children choose warm winter outerwear, and attend many of his teammate’s charity events. He also provides a holiday dinner annually for those in need. This year it was for the Salvation Army of Western Pennsylvania.

He was honored with the Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania “National Champion of Youth Award” for his continued commitment to the community, particularly his work with children. He hosts an annual football camp, with many Boys & Girls Club members attending for free thanks to his generosity.


You can read more from Ms. Varley here.