On Sunday, Heinz Field is set to be packed to the brim with fans for the first time in just 20 months. And the players those fans are cheering on? Yeah, they’re more than ready for the noise.
“It’s going to be crazy,” wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said Friday. “We have the home opener for Steeler nation to come out. The fans, it’s going to be insane. I tried to book my mom a hotel room. It’s ben hard the last couple of days because all of the fans are out here.
“It’s going to be rocking. It’s going to be insane. We haven’t had fans. To have 5,000 to 10,000 people at our (training) camp during the summer was pretty insane. But to have 68,000 to 70,000 people come out to support, it’s going to be insane. It’s going to be so much fun.
The last time the North Shore stadium was December 15, 2020, about three months before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Steelers lost that game — a 17-10 Buffalo win — with Ben Roethlisberger on the sideline due to season-ending elbow surgery.
And while some fans were allowed to attend games during last season, and the preseason. game drew around 45,000 fans, the reception for Roethlisberger as he emerges from the tunnel before the game will be at a much higher level.
So, is he ready for that emotion?
“A little bit, but I don't want to think too much about it because it’d probably be too exciting so I'm trying to temper my excitement right now,” he said.
Others players, who have had a large chunk of their careers impacted by the pandemic, are ready for a return to normalcy.
"I'm excited, super-excited,” linebacker TJ Watt said. “It seems like my rookie year since I've seen fans at Heinz Field. I was jazzed last week for the Bills having their home fans there. I'm super excited. Hopefully we can get as loud as Heinz Field can possibly get."
Meanwhile, the team has first and second-year players who hav never experienced all that Heinz Field has to offer. That includes Najee Harris, who is bringing in family to watch him play the team he grew up watching in Oakland.
Overhead, Mike Tomlin is trying to compact emotion with the reality that Vegas is a solid team, and one that is trying to start 2-0, just as his team is looking to.
“I’m excited about it but I'm not gonna spend a lot of time talking to our team about it,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “I’m gonna talk to our team about the responsibility of creating that environment. It's our job to make the plays, to keep the crowd engaged, to entertain them, and to make it as hostile as we can make it.
“We're excited about getting back into the comfort of Heinz Field and entertaining Steeler Nation, but we also are not running away from the responsibilities that come with playing at Heinz Field.”