The best way to watch a Pittsburgh Steelers football game

Tonight, the Steelers will take their AFC North-leading 4-1 record to Cincinnati, where they will face the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football. And let me tell you. Anyone who dismissed the Steelers this year should now apologize to me. Right now. Ha.

Yeah, I know, I didn’t expect a lineup of veterans from other teams to join the Steelers and just ball out. I thought Aaron Rodgers would be serviceable, but he’s spreading out touchdown passes like they’re full-sized Snickers bars at Halloween. I thought DK Metcalf would be okay, but the man is playing like a king out there. I thought Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith and Kenneth Gainwell would be nice additions to the team, but damn they are playing like straight-up studs.

And that’s not leaving out the homegrown talent like Jaylen Warren and Nick Herbig and the golden kicking leg of Chris Boswell. No sirree.

Which makes this Black and Gold fan very, very happy.

So let me share with you how I watch a Steelers football game. And it’s a bit of a quirk, but anyone can do it this way – you don’t have to live in Pittsburgh to try it, and you don’t need some super NFL subscription package.

Let’s start with tonight. The Steelers / Bengals game will air on Amazon Prime. So obviously for tonight, you’ll need Amazon Prime. But that also means you probably have an Alexa in your home. Which I do.

So about an hour before the kickoff, tell your Amazon to tune to WDVE. WDVE is the flagship radio channel for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Which means that you’ll get the home call of Rob King, Max Starks and Missi Matthews blasting through your house. At the same time ,you mute your television volume, so that you don’t hear the Amazon Prime announcers if you don’t want to. This also means you’ll hear the local Pittsburgh radio commercials for companies like Henne Jewelers and Giant Eagle supermarkets, but that’s okay. It brings a nice authenticity to the game.

Remember to start the WDVE signal an hour before kickoff – any later and the station will be “blacked out” due to NFL broadcast rules. In other words, if it’s already running, you can’t stop it. Just like Jaylen Warren. 😀

Now here comes the trick. The radio call is approximately ten seconds behind the television broadcast. No worries. Simply pause your Amazon broadcast for ten seconds, and if you time it perfectly, everything will synch up. This will work when you hear the refs clearly announce pass interference from one of the Cincinnati safeties who dared put their scab-infested meathooks on any one of our talented receivers.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget your Terrible Towel. You should have your Terrible Towel ready for the game. Every Steelers fan needs a Terrible Towel. I think the minimum ownership of Terrible Towels is about six. One for each Super Bowl victory, natch.

Oh, and don’t forget to sing “Renegade” during the third quarter. That’s important, too. The Styx song “Renegade,” when sung by the crowd, inspires the Steelers to force fumbles on their opponents, to snag interceptions on their opponents, to drop the opposing quarterbacks into the backfield like tackling dummies. In other words, singing “Renegade” is equivalent to feeding spinach to Popeye the Sailor.

Okay. I’m ready. Let’s take the Steelers to a 5-1 record, then we get the Packers next week on Sunday Night Football … trust me, as a long time Steelers fan, in moments like these, the word “Gahnta” is appropriate.

“Gahnta.” What, you want me to use it in a sentence? Sure.

Pittsburgh Gahnta Super Bowl this year. 😀