Playing favorites Detroit is siding with the Steelers

DETROIT -- For a decade, the people of Pittsburgh have embraced a Detroiter and called him one of their own.

This week, Detroit is returning the favor -- on an even larger scale.

Detroit is not just the hometown of Jerome Bettis. It has become Steeler Country.

The Motor City sees a lot of itself in the Steel City, and vice versa.

"There's an awful lot in common," said Cardinal Adam Maida, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Detroit and a Pittsburgh native who has Steelers season tickets. "I think they're very much alike culturally. ... The people are hard-working people. In Detroit, they worked the lines, produced the automobiles for the world. In Pittsburgh, we produced the steel and coal, made the automobiles go."

Sure, the Bettis factor is a big reason many Detroiters are pulling for the black and gold in the Super Bowl against Seattle. But it goes beyond that.

"They're coal miners, manufacturers. We're automotive guys, manufacturers," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said. "It's the same kind of town. It's that rough-edged town. It's that grungy, gritty city, and, you know, people like beer, people like to have fun, people like sports, people like to fire up a cigar every now and then. That's Pittsburgh. That's Detroit."

Cities built on sweat

Detroit is known for the laborers whose sweat and toil put Americans behind the wheels of millions of automobiles.

Pittsburgh is known for its own brand of laborers. Instead of cars, though, their sweat and toil outfitted automakers and countless other industries with the steel necessary to produce their products.

"The people are similar, and they're both hard-nosed cities," said Steelers linebacker Larry Foote, who starred at Detroit's Pershing High and at the University of Michigan. "People are not afraid to tell you what time it is, voicing their opinion. If you're driving and you cut somebody off on the highway, just like in Pittsburgh, they'll let you know."

Both cities over the years have been subjected to stereotypes by those who have never visited. In Detroit's case, it involves some combination of violence and urban decay. In Pittsburgh, it's that of a smoky steel town.

The weather is pretty much the same in both cities, and waterways play a major role. In Detroit, it's the Detroit River and the Great Lakes. In Pittsburgh, it's the three rivers that come together.

The residents of Detroit and Pittsburgh also take a lot of pride in their cities as well as the residents who made it big. Detroit has its plethora of musical giants: Aretha Franklin, any Motown artist, Eminem. In Pittsburgh, it's sports stars: Mario Lemieux, Roberto Clemente, any of the 1970s-era Steelers.

Both cities also are facing the same challenges -- major population declines and the effects of manufacturing job losses.

"We were certainly a manufacturing base. Now we've changed that," Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor said. "We are converting more to high-tech, medical, technological centers."

Even though Pittsburgh doesn't have the number of blue-collar jobs it did during the heyday of the steel industry, the region's residents still take pride in their manufacturing past, O'Connor said.

And, he said, they identify with the Steelers, whose run-first, hit-hard style of play mirrors their ideals.

"You have a pride in your town, and that what's we have," O'Connor said.

And now Detroiters have taken a seat on the Bus bandwagon and will be pulling for him at Ford Field.

"I think it's been my work ethic. I've just been a hard worker, a guy that's always trying to be positive and put a positive swing on things sometimes even in the darkest moments," Bettis said.

"And I think people can relate to that being a blue-collar guy. My game is a blue-collar game. Three yards and a cloud of dust and get up and do it again. That's the way in the Midwest, especially Detroit, which is a very, very blue-collar town. I think people relate to that, as well as Pittsburgh."

As for Seattle, nobody has anything against the city or its football team, but Detroit and Pittsburgh are just more alike.

"I really do like Seattle's team. They're beautiful to watch," Kilpatrick said. "But I don't want them to win."

"This is Bettisburgh this week. It really is," the mayor said. "I wish them [the Seahawks] well and all that, but I'm a Pittsburgh guy this week."