One of the UK's Sports Travel companies had a "Hall of Fame" trip arranged for the week 14 game of the 2003 season, which featured the Steelers against the AFC champions the Oakland Raiders. Having only seen the Steelers once before when they played a preseason in Dublin, I decided it was about time that I visited the Burgh. The trip also included the Monday night game in Cleveland, when the Browns were entertaining the "The Greatest Show on Turf," the St. Louis Rams and a ticket for the NFL's Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

I flew out from Gatwick to Atlanta on the morning of Saturday 6th December, and then caught another flight up to Pittsburgh in the afternoon. After picking up my rental car (which was part of the holiday package) from the airport, I drove to the William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. This must be a fairly prestigious establishment as I found out shortly after that the Raiders were staying there a well.

Not long after getting there I met up with a couple of guys, John Silva and Ronnie Leon, who had travelled in from California for the game. Having established that all of us were from out of town by some considerable distance, they told me that they were going out for a bite to eat and to have some beers with a business associate of John's who was a local Steeler fan, They were quite amazed by the fact that I had flown all the way over just for the game and they were more than happy for me to join them. They had travelled over 2,500 miles themselves!

Russell Rice, John's business colleague, was very hospitable and welcoming and was also happy for me to join them. He first took us to the Primanti Brothers restaurant in the Strip District for one of their "almost famous" Primanti sandwiches and a beer (I.C.Lite, the beer of choice for that weekend!). Afterwards, Russell took us to another Primanti establishment, the "Blues Café" in the South Side district on East Carson Street, where we met up with some of his family and friends. This bar featured live music and the band that were performing that night, Jill West and Blues Attack, were excellent. The rest of the guys said that they were probably the best blues band in Pittsburgh.

Before flying out to Pittsburgh I had been hoping I might meet up with some Steeler fans on the Saturday evening and I could not have wished to meet a nicer group of guys. Russell told me that I would have to tailgate with them on the Sunday morning before the game, which would give me even more of the NFL "fan experience."

While tailgating on the Sunday morning I met up with the "Babes from the 'Burgh", not exactly cheerleaders but the next best thing. While Russell was taking me around introducing me to some of his other friends as, "My buddy Pete from London," the Babes were giving away personally signed copies of their 2004 swimsuit calendar. John got them to sign one for me. Naturally, I had to go over and thank them in person and they too were amazed by the fact that I had travelled all the way from the UK for the game. I had my photo taken with them and it was put onto the SteelersLIVE web site later that week.

The game itself was pretty good as Pittsburgh put in their best performance of the season and beat the Oakland Raiders quite convincingly, 27-7. During the game Jerome "the Bus" Bettis went 8th on the NFL's all-time rushing list, as well as scoring a TD and rushing for 106yds. The other TDs were scored by Plaxico Burress and Dan Kreider.

I met up with the rest of the guys after the game and went to a restaurant and bar that had been converted from a church for a bite to eat and a beer. When we had finished Russell drove us up to Mount Washington where we had an excellent view of the city at night and I managed to take a few photos.

The next morning I wandered around the city myself and after having breakfast in Station Square, I took a ride up the Duquesne Incline and took some more photos of the city.

Monday afternoon I drove up to Cleveland calling in at Canton on the way. I found the Hall of Fame to be quite interesting, especially as there was loads of Steeler stuff there, and of course my namesake Jim Thorpe, the first recognised pro footballer!

The Monday night game was a pretty chilly affair. The highest recorded temperature during the day was -1ºC, so goodness knows what the temperature was at kick off. I was seated quite high up in the stadium and didn't get a lot of protection from the wind coming off Lake Erie, but as they say in that part of the States, it was "proper football weather". It was another good game, the Rams beating the Brownies 26-20 in what became a close game towards the end, so it made the suffering worthwhile!

I drove back down to Pittsburgh the next morning for my return flight to Gatwick, landed at 6:30 on the Wednesday morning, and was in the office by 7:30 (I work in Croydon), only 20 minutes after my normal start time! I had a really great time over there, met some really nice people and will definitely be doing it again.

Croke Park, Dublin 1997