Members of Steeler Nation know all too well the story of The Terrible Towel®. It was a brainchild of beloved and dearly departed Myron Cope during the Noll Dynasty. The magic of The Terrible Towel® lasted beyond the retirement of Chuck Noll, maintained its staying power throughout the entire Cowher age, and is still going strong in the early years of the Tomlin era.
The Terrible Towel® is manufactured in Wisconsin by Chippewa River Industries. Proceeds from the sale of the towels benefit Chippewa which employs the mentally disabled and helps to pay for their care. Myron Cope also collected royalties and donated all of them to the Allegheny Valley School in Pittsburgh, a special needs place where his son is a resident. In 1996, Cope bequeathed The Terrible Towel® rights to the school ensuring proper care for his son and for many others. Over $2.5 MILLION has been realized for the AVS so far. In 2008 alone over $250,000!
What you may not know is that greed has found its way in to this benevolent endeavor. Basically the NFL is mad because they receive $0 from The Terrible Towel® sales. The NFL has been quietly working on a promotion to produce larger towels for every other team in the league beside the Steelers. They unveiled this gimmick after the Conference Championships a few weeks ago. The plan was to market these copy-cat towels and capture the enthusiasm of the Super Bowl contestants. To get things moving, free towels were handed out at every stadium during the Divisional Playoffs. You may have seen Tennessee Titans fans waving those powder blue things. Of course, they wouldn't of brought their own. Steeler fans buy and bring their own towels and protect them with the same fierceness as they do their wallets!
Have you noticed the complete backfire? All the home teams lost EXCEPT the Steelers!
This is another reason why the Steelers need to win the Super Bowl. The sanctity of The Terrible Towel® must be preserved!
Also of note, after the 2005 season, members of the Cincinnati Bengals, then AFC North Division Champs, stomped all over The Terrible Towel® before their playoff game with the wild card Steelers. The Bengals still have not recovered from their loss that day and the Steelers went on to win their Fifth Super Bowl.
On Dec. 21, 2008 members of the Titans stomped on a mock terrible towel. Three weeks later, the Titans took an early dismissal from the playoffs. Early on in that game, the Baltimore Ravens many fans were waving their freebie blue towels marked TITANS! Huh?! Later, as the rain began to fall, and it got colder, Titans fans put their towels on their necks to stay warm. Appropriately, as the game went on, their necks began to tighten and their team choked.
A Steeler Super Bowl XLIII victory will make the sacrilegious theft of the spirit of The Terrible Towel® the worst marketing idea since the NFL network!
GO STEELERS !
The Terrible Towel® has shown up in thousands of places other than football fields. From the 2008 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China to F15's over Afghanistan. Here are 2 more:
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing! That was very interesting!
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