The Day the Terrible Towel Changed by @PandaPSU

(Photo courtesy of Steelers.com)

The Terrible Towel is one of the most iconic fan tools in Pittsburgh, and quite possibly in sports. It is easily recognizable and symbolic of one of football's most storied franchises. It was created in 1975 by the legendary Myron Cope. What started out as a gimmick that season became a rallying tool for fans in the city and at games. The fans continued to use the towel on the way to the Steelers winning their second Super Bowl.

(Myron Cope - Photo courtesy of Steelers.com)

From Merriam Webster, terrible can be defined as:

ter·ri·ble

adjective \ˈter-ə-bəl, ˈte-rə-\
1) Formidable in nature

This is clearly what Steelers fans think of while they wave their terrible towels. They think of the iconic 'Steel Curtain' defenses of the 1970s. They think of Mean Joe Greene, Jack Ham, etc. Grown men that were talented at what they did, and struck fear into the hearts of their opponents. Maybe fans think of teams in the 1990s with Kevin Greene, Greg Lloyd, Rod Woodson, etc. How about the early 2000s with Joey Porter, James Harrison in his prime, Troy Polamalu, etc. Maybe fans think of a tough, run it down your throat offense with a Franco Harris or Jerome Bettis. Whatever your idea of the terrible towel is or was, you as a fan were always proud to wave it...until yesterday.

From Merriam Webster, terrible can also be defined as:

ter·ri·ble

adjective \ˈter-ə-bəl, ˈte-rə-\
3) Extremely bad: as of very poor quality

This is clearly what Steelers fans must think of their team after yesterday's loss to the Browns. It was a culmination of over two years of mediocrity. The loss brought the Steelers to 3-3 on the season and 19-19 in their last 38 games after finishing the past two seasons with a 8-8 mark. If yesterday's game was a blip in the radar, it would not be so bad, but it brought all the negatives to a boiling point. The offense was able to muster 10 points against the league's 20th ranked defense. The defense gave up 31 points to the league's 20th ranked offense. Is Cleveland on the upswing? Sure, but let's not kid ourselves, these are still the Cleveland Browns. The same franchise the Steelers were 26-3 against since 2000 entering yesterday's contest. Now at 26-4, this team has lost 3 of the 4 times in the past 14 years under Mike Tomlin. It is a franchise the Steelers used to see on the schedule and know that would be two wins toward the ultimate goal of a Super Bowl. The sad part is that the Cleveland Browns have now passed the Steelers organization and are closer to a Super Bowl than Pittsburgh is.

The terrible towel has been through the best of times for this franchise, and there have been a lot (see: Six Super Bowl wins). As this ESPN article mentioned before Super Bowl XLIII againist Arizona, the players know what it means as well:

"I think every great nation has a flag...I think the Steeler Nation, it's obvious that that's our flag." - Troy Polamalu on what the towel means to the Steelers

"When they wave that towel, it's just something that comes from in their soul and tries to reach out to us players." - Ben Roethlisberger

After yesterday's game, maybe fans should continue to bring their terrible towels, or flags as Polamalu mentioned, to the games...but maybe it is time to change the color to white. It looks like the team surrendered with yesterday's performance, and maybe it is time fans waved the white flag along with the team to demand change. At least if we all wave our white terrible towels, maybe this organization will realize that change needs to happen sooner rather than later. For one of the best and most decorated franchises in sports, yesterday gave new meaning to the "terrible" towel.