Steelers fans celebrate team's first home game with tailgating traditions
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Steelers fans packed the parking lots on Sunday morning outside Acrisure Stadium. For many, the home opener is like a holiday.
It's like an Olympic cauldron with grills lit up to start this morning of tailgating.
"It's just something that I look forward to every season," Steelers fan Alyssa Shanahan said.
Shanahan and others look forward to the permeating smells of eggs, sizzling bacon, and juicy kielbasa.
They also look forward to their school bus and its football field ceiling.
"It's to scale," Steelers fan Carl Sezawich said.
The bus has a TV facing the back and a drink bar for cocktails and other beverages.
"We have five stations set up just for a Long Island iced tea," Sezawich said.
What came before the yellow, decked-out Steelers bus?
"In the past, I've had three different ambulances for tailgating," Kim Shanahan-Sezawich said. "I've been doing this for 23 years."
Shanahan-Sezawich has been doing it through thick and thin. Sunday was her late husband's birthday, and he would've been 57.
"This was something he really enjoyed," Alyssa, Kim's daughter, said. Joe Shanahan died nine years ago. Kim wasn't sure if she could keep this going, but the love of the black and gold runs deep.
"We kind of figured it's what he would want us to do," Alyssa said.
Pay homage to six Super Bowls, "Renegade" by Styx, and continue a culture.
"It's like part of our life," Carl Sezawich said.