By Bart Hubbuch
November 8, 2014
Willie Colon (Photo Credit: USA Today Sports Images)
Willie Colon spent the first six years of his career with Pittsburgh, so the Jets guard knows exactly what to expect Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Steelers fans — lots and lots and lots of Steelers fans.
So many Steelers fans waving their bright yellow Terrible Towels, in fact, that Colon and the 1-8 Jets will probably feel like the road team in their own stadium.
How certain are the Jets that the noise from Pittsburgh fans will be a factor? Colon said their offense spent part of practice this week working on a silent snap count — for a home game.
“It’s only a concern if you let it be,” Colon told The Post on Friday. “There’s nothing I or anybody else in this locker room can do to keep Steeler Nation from crawling up in there and taking over, so we just have to deal with it.”
Coach Rex Ryan gamely tried to deflect attention from the expected flood of thousands of Steelers fans by saying he has never experienced a Pittsburgh stadium takeover in his coaching career.
Ryan also bravely predicted there would be more green and white in the stands Sunday than black and gold.
“I’m sure there are going to be a lot more Jets fans than Steeler fans there,” Ryan said.
Fat chance, according to Colon.
“I remember going to St. Louis one time when they were down, and it literally felt like a home game with how they blacked out the stadium,” said Colon, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers in 2009.
Even Colon’s mother is a black-and-gold diehard, having fallen in love with the Steelers in their 1970s glory days because of Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris.
Colon grew up in the Bronx as a Giants fan, but there was no convincing his mother to change her NFL allegiance.
“She’s still a Steelers fan, but it’s secretly,” Colon said, laughing. “She was a Franco Harris groupie.”
Willie Colon spent the first six years of his career with Pittsburgh, so the Jets guard knows exactly what to expect Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Colon’s mom will be at the game Sunday, and he expects her to be cheering for the Jets.
“I’m her baby, so she’s going to be pulling for the Jets — I think,” Colon said.
Colon, who has spent the past two seasons with the Jets, said Gang Green draws a respectable amount of fans on the road but — like just about every other team short of the Cowboys — pales in comparison to the throngs that travel with the Steelers.
Colon said he misses the boost that overwhelming road support brings to the Steelers.
“I remember going to Arizona and [Washington] and other certain stadiums where it felt like a home game, just because the fans overtook the stadium and really put us at ease,” Colon said. “Steeler Nation is as real as can be. It’s a humbling experience.”
“The fan base is huge, and they live and breathe the black and gold,” Colon added. “It’s a worldwide phenomenon, no doubt about it.”
One of the effects of all that support is a locker room in Pittsburgh that Colon said “always feels like one, big family.”
Colon was so tight with his Steelers teammates that he said it actually impacted his play in the first half of a 19-6 loss to Pittsburgh at MetLife Stadium last year in his first season with the Jets.
“It’s such a family atmosphere with the Steelers, and my style of play can be a little bit dirty at times,” he said. “So I found it kind of hard to turn that on against them last year. I remember on one of the first plays, Troy [Polamalu] was coming on a blitz and winked at me, and that kind of broke my mental focus.”
Colon sounded apologetic for the Jets’ woes this year, which he expects will only make the overload of Steelers faithful worse this weekend.
“We haven’t given our fans a lot to cheer for,” Colon said. “If we were 8-1, there would be a better turnout [of Jets fans] on Sunday. But it is what it is. Hopefully, we can give the Jets fans who are there reason to feel good and be loud.”
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