Steelers a little picky and a whole lot Catholic

My beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, whose opening season game against the Browns I eagerly await, has a distinctively Catholic flair. I’ve written in the past of the deep faith of the Rooney family, which owns and operates the team. A good article from the Pittsburgh Catholic on their faith can be found here. I also put up a post about the Steelers pro-bowl safety, Troy Polamalu, describing his strong Catholic faith and leadership. Rumor has it that Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers quarterback, wears his rosary during the games. Plus, you have to admire the fact that the Steelers organization is opposed to having team cheerleaders.

This week, the Steelers‘ hotel contract rider was leaked to The Smoking Gun. The document outlines all of the team’s requests for its hotel stays during road games. While it is impressive to note that neither team president Dan Rooney nor coach Mike Tomlin stays in fancy suites or upgraded rooms, or that security keys into every Steelers player’s room at 11:00pm the night before a game to make sure he is in bed, or that no alcohol is allowed in the rooms, or that there are absolutely no guests (read: women) allowed in the hotel rooms, what really stuck out is the following request which is first on the “Meetings” list:

MASS:
-40 person theater style seating with widely spaced chairs
-Skirted table at head of room and podium [altar and ambo]
-Water station in rear of room [holy water]
-Hotel to arrange for Catholic priest

On the next page, the document indicates that Mass is held on Sunday morning before the game at the hotel. This is not a normal arrangement in professional sports. Specifically arranging Mass for players, coaches and personnel of an entire sports team while on the road is an exceedingly rare occurrence; in fact, I am not aware of any other professional sports teams that does so (this is not to say that there are none).

Whether or not you appreciate professional athletics, at the very least it is nice to know that within the titanism of the NFL, there is one team that has not forgotten to whom the Lord’s Day really belongs.