THIS SUNDAY will not be as exciting as last Sunday. It will be more an ordinary Sunday, all because there's no Super Bowl to be played and won by the Pittsburgh Steelers . But victory also came at a cost, at least to local governments. The good news is that Tuesday's parade, which attracted 350,000 happy people Downtown, cost just $79,500, a bargain given that security last Sunday night cost an estimated $500,000, due in part to overtime for police officers. The spontaneous events after the game and the planned celebration Tuesday were as different as night and day. The first was marred by vandalism and at least 83 arrests, mostly in Oakland but also on the South Side. By contrast, Tuesday's parade was joyful and peaceful. Fortunately, state funds will defray the cost of both.
THE DAY AFTER the Super Bowl, Punxsutawney Phil, one of America's great prognosticating groundhogs, emerged from his burrow and predicted six more weeks of winter. Although thousands of revelers attended, along with men in top hats, we have the sense that the celebrity groundhog's message was upstaged by wall-to-wall Steeler-mania. Maybe that was a mercy because it seems he got the forecast wrong. Six more weeks of winter would have been right had the Steelers lost, an event that even to contemplate now chills the soul. But the Steelers won and to their many fans harsh winter winds became mere zephyrs, balmy if not tropical. By week's end, a spring-like rise in temperatures was under way. That groundhog needs cable in his burrow to get his forecasts right.
PITTSBURGH is now popularly known by locals as Six Burgh, in recognition of the record six Lombardi trophies won by the local heroes. Be careful how you package it, though. Dan Rugh, owner of CommonWealth Press on the South Side, was sent a cease-and-desist order by the National Football League for using the Super Bowl trophy on T-shirts, which the league claimed violated a registered trademark and copyrighted design. Well, at least he didn't call it Sex Burgh to attract the 20-somethings. Nobody would have believed it, Football being our true passion.
