Category: All Articles

Hi my name is Jovon Johnson, a former player for the beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. Being a professional player for 13 years has given me a much deeper understanding of the sport. An understanding you’d have to experience to truly understand so I decided to think a little deeper from experience.

I come from an era where the best players are supposed to play, but that’s not the case here. We are intertwined with a time where sports politics are ridiculous. Where in fact the best players don’t always play, but instead investments are more important. It’s not what you know, but in fact who you know and your relationship with that team or individual.

Continue reading “In His Own Words: Jovon Johnson”

So around Thanksgiving of 2017 I’m hanging out with my lovely wife and we’re both screwing around on our smartphones. I’m messing around on Twitter scrolling through the hundreds of tweets that the people and accounts that I follow were putting out that day. I had just created my own Twitter page so I was new to this Twitter thing. It’s amazing that there is a Twitter page for virtually everything…dead presidents, cars, favorite sports teams, etc. If you want someone’s opinion about anything, and I mean ANYTHING, you just need to search on Twitter for it.

Anyway, as I was thinking to myself that there is an account for everything it dawned on me that there was something not out there that I couldn’t believe wasn’t actually being discussed. Not one account for the greatest sports team in the history of the NFL, the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers. Could it be? I told my wife this and she told me to start one. How do you start an account on Twitter that you are not associated with? Has to be some sort of law being broken. So on that day @VintageSteelers was born. How hard can it be? Throwing things out there about the greatest dynasty in NFL history. There’s an endless supply of photos on the internet and ideas in my head. To me, the 70s Steelers, and their success, started in 1969. So, let’s take a look back at 1969.

Continue reading “The Steelers of ’69”

1992 Pittsburgh versus Green Bay highlights. Despite a big day by Barry Foster, Pittsburgh scores just three points and loses 17-3 to Green Bay. The team went 1-12 on third downs and Brett Favre threw two touchdown passes – including one for 69 yards to Sharpe. .

Continue reading “Video: 1992 Week 4 Pittsburgh @ Green Bay”

What does a retired NFL athlete who played tight end for Pittsburgh Steelers have in common with the cosmetics industry? Much more than meets the eye. As the Founder and CEO of Chella, I made a special connection between my time playing professional football for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the success my mother found when I was growing up.

When I put on that uniform, I became a different person. I felt this tremendous confidence as a man and as a part of a team. It transformed me. I watched my mom transform from a single mother working two jobs into a real estate developer who retired early. It hit me one day, when she put on makeup, she was doing what I was doing when I put on a football helmet: she was transforming, too. announcing her power and her confidence.

Continue reading “In His Own Words: Chris Kolodziejski”

By Joe Lafferty,
Author of Justin Time, A memoir of Faith and Fight for Life.

Who do you cheer for?

Born and raised in Pittsburgh there are only a few who aren’t diehards for the black and gold of every sport.  Steeler Nation is only rivaled by the followers of our Boys of Winter.

Championship success breeds that kind of loyalty and passion.  Don’t tell me The black hole Raider fans have more fervor than the black and gold Terrible Towel waivers. That franchise hasn’t won a Super Bowl since Michael Keaton made famous the words  “Yeah. 220, 221, whatever it takes,” as Mr. Mom.(1983)

Summary, there are very few places with fans like Pittsburgh.  I’m one of those fans.

But there is an exception to every rule.

Continue reading “Stuck between a Gronk and a Steel place”

1984, the Year of the Bull

By Joe Lafferty,
Author of Justin Time, A memoir of Faith and Fight for Life.

When you get cancer as a kid everybody looks at you differently. I was only eight years old but I knew pity in other’s faces. They didn’t mean it but childhood cancer in the early 80’s, even in Pittsburgh, was rare. It was non Hodgkin’s lymphoma and it came with a 70% chance of survival. Great odds if you’re betting $5 bills at the Rivers Casino but when it’s the life and death of your kid, those odds suck.

Continue reading “The Year of the Bull – Remembering Bill Fralic”

Staking Out Your “Terrytory”

My girlfriend whom I had been dating for quite some time, lived out by the Greater Pittsburgh Airport. I had been recuperating from my automobile accident at the time and still living in Pittsburgh, but I would frequently visit her. Terry Bradshaw, the Steeler’s number one pick in 1970, just happened to rent an apartment his rookie season in the very same complex as hers.  One day she excitingly mentioned that she had met Terry Bradshaw at her apartment complex, and that he had invited her over to his apartment to watch “game films” some evening at her convenience. Naturally, I hit the roof when she informed me.

Continue reading “In His Own Words: Larry Gagner”