About the name
“Steelahs” is how the team’s name would be pronounced if their
home were in New England. I’m sure I uttered it that way more than a few times as a young Steelers fan growing up in
Rhode Island. So the name is a nod to my New England roots, even though I now live in the New York City suburbs.
The original idea for the name of my site was SteelersEast.com. But when I e-mailed the Steelers asking for permission
to use their logo, they responded by saying that I’m not allowed to use their logo OR the name Steelers on any fan Web
site. There are dozens of Steelers fan sites that incorporate the name “Steelers” and use their logo, and I probably
could have gone ahead and done the same without a care in the world. But I had to be the squeaky-clean good citizen and ask
permission. So to avoid copyright infringement (because you know once Roger Goodell’s done with Pacman Jones, he’ll
be coming after me. He is from Bronxville, not far from where I live. So he’ll find me. I know he will), I’m working
around it by not using the term “Steelers” and in lieu of a logo using enough black and yellow in the design to
drive home the point that it’s a Steelers site.
Hopefully, on Dec. 9, there will be a bunch
of people, maybe even me, chanting "Here we go, Steelahs! Here we go!" At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. That
would be cool.
Mike Batista
