The Steelers claimed the 2010 AFC North Championship with the final regular season win against the Brownies. Way to go Steelers! The game was a 41-9 blowout and gave the other playoff teams a little something to think about when game-planning for the Steelers.  The defense was outstanding as well, as they have been all season.  The Steelers finished as the 2nd seed in the AFC and earned a much needed bye week before the Divisional round. The Steelers’ divisional playoff game will be at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15 at Heinz Field. They will host either Indianapolis, Kansas City or Baltimore, depending on the outcome of the wildcard round games. In any case, bring ’em on. The Steelers will be ready to beat any of them!

Here we go Steelers, here we go!!!!!!

Local product, current Steeler and former Georgia Bulldog star Hines Ward sponsored a charity event here in Atlanta the weekend of June 4-6 to raise money for the The Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation. According to his web site their mission is two-fold: “We help bi-racial Korean children to have a better quality of life while promoting equality and we provide educational programs to help children build confidence and   maintain a work ethic that will provide them the tools to succeed in life.” See Hines Ward’s fan page at http://www.mvp86.com/ for more details! The Steelers Fan Club of Atlanta was well represented at the events and we all had a great time. The bowling event was fantastic. We were able to bowl with a Steeler or former Steeler at each lane, and hang out with some of our favorite players! In attendance were, Hines Ward, Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, Charlie Batch, Deshea Townsend, Max Starks, Chris Hope, Stefan Logan, Chris Kemoeatu, Willie Colon, Dennis Dixon, Trai Essex, William Gay, Rashard Mendenhall, Ike Taylor, Anthony Madison, ,Justin Vincent, and Mike Wallace ( I may have forgotten a couple…). I’ll post pictures later…

Local product, current Steeler and former Georgia Bulldog star Hines Ward is sponsoring a charity event here in Atlanta the weekend of June 4-6. There are several events planned. Hines will be present along with other Steelers and NFL stars. It is for a worthy cause, The Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation. According to his web site their mission is two-fold: “We help bi-racial Korean children to have a better quality of life while promoting equality and we provide educational programs to help children build confidence and   maintain a work ethic that will provide them the tools to succeed in life.” See Hines Ward’s fan page at http://www.mvp86.com/ for more details! Steelers fans have always been generous when it comes to charity, especially when it benefits children. Please help Hines help these kids! You will meet several Steelers and other NFL celebrities and I can guarantee you will be glad you attended!!! 

One of our members, Chris Marin, attended the event last year and is going again this year. He had a great time and here are a couple of his pictures.

Update: Louis Lipps and George Rogers were at Bogey’s Sports Bar on Sunday. They couldn’t have been more gratious or hospitable. They signed autographs and spent time with us. Both guys were a pleasure to hang out with! For those who didn’t make it – you should have!!

Former Steelers wide receiver Louis Lipps will be at a couple of locations this weekend along with Heisman trophy winner and former NFL great (and Duluth’s own) George Rogers. I received the following information from the event organizer.

“Jeff, Finally got Louis located for Sunday afternoon. Louis Lipps along with Geor…ge Rogers will be at the Bogey’s Bar on 3312 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. Duluth, GA. on Super Bowl Sunday from 2:30 – 4 PM, that is Feb 7. Please send note to your membership. Louis is really excited about you guys coming in. They will also be at the Lowes store, John’s Creek, Suwanee, GA on Peachtree Pkwy on Saturday from 1 – 3 PM.”

I’m sure a lot of you remember “Louuuuuuuu” and what a great career he had with the Steelers! He was one of our best players in the 80’s. I hope you can find the time to stop by and see him. Sorry for the short notice, but I just got the information yesterday!

I hope many of our members can attend and give Louis a warm “Pittsburgh South” welcome! Most of us plan to meet at the Bogey’s location. See you there!

The Steelers opponents in 2010 are set. The dates aren’t set yet. Here they are:

Home: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers
Away: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The way the NFL arrives at the opponents is based on the following rules:

• Home and away against its three division opponents (6 games).
• The four teams from another division within its conference on a rotating three-year cycle (4 games).
• The four teams from a division in the other conference on a rotating four-year cycle (4 games).
• Two intraconference games based on the prior year’s standings (2 games). These games match a first-place team against the first-place teams in the two same-conference divisions the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place, and fourth-place teams in a conference are matched in the same way each year.

Just for grins, I checked our web site statistics for visitors during 2009 and where they were from. The results are surprising. The numbers don’t even reflect the almost 2 months when the statistics weren’t being kept due to an error. Below is a list of the web site visits during 2009, and where the visitors are from. I would have guessed the US and Canada, but #3 being Brazil was a surprise. Also, 4 visits from China? Cool. Steelers Pride is Worldwide! BY the way, we have had visits from every state in the US except North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii. I wonder how you say “Here we go Steelers” in Chinese…

Country/Territory     Visits

United States         2483

Canada                  18

Brazil                     11

(not set)                 10

Mexico                  10

Germany                9

United Kingdom      4

China                     4

Saudi Arabia          3

Japan                    2

Costa Rica             1

Philippines             1

Australia                1

Croatia                   1

Denmark                1

Indonesia               1

Romania                1

Hungary                 1

Greece                  1

Lithuania                1

Hong Kong             1

Ukraine                  1

New Zealand          1

Ireland                   1

Netherlands            1

Peru                      1

South Korea           1