Steelers Road Nation: Roll on, Southern Pacific

On his way to watch the Steelers game at Casey Hampton's family home in Galveston, Texas, Jim Wexell found a little bit of Pittsburgh in Baton Rouge:

On Saturday morning I met with Uniontown native Jack Marucci. He’s the trainer at LSU and was on a tight schedule because the team hosted South Carolina that afternoon. Baton Rouge was hopping early but the insightful interview made the fight through traffic worthwhile. Marucci is a Steelers fan and he talked about how so many of the NFL scouts that pass through LSU have Western Pa. roots. He talked about Alan Faneca and Ryan Clark and also showed me the greatest collection of sports memorabilia I’ve seen. Jack has a Steelers helmet signed by the original Steel Curtain, among many of his other artifacts. He also makes bats for every Major League team, except the Pirates. Well, that used to be true until he recently sent a shipment to Freddy Sanchez. I’ll explain more in the book and talk about the “professional whiffle ball field” he has in his backyard. Jack also noted that LSU’s offensive coordinator and equipment manager are Steelers fans, mainly because of the way the team plays the game so remember that as you watch LSU’s offense. That makes the Tigers a team to root for in the national title hunt this season.

Those of you who subscribe to Steelers Digest, look for Mr. Wexell's story on his gameday experience in Galveston.