A Packer Fan in Steeler Country

Editor's Note: With the Green Bay Packers facing off against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday, Sewickley Patch and Fox Point-Bayside Patch have paired up to bring you a look at a Packer fan in Steelers Country, and a Steelers fan in Packer country. Here's a view from the Pittsburgh side.

Tom Cvitkovic is an outcast in his family – at least when it comes to his love for the Green Bay Packers.

On a trip Saturday to the Mall at Robinson, the 51-year-old quickly found himself to be the odd man out with the general public as he and his 9-year-old son Ante, strolled together through the mall’s corridors wearing (gasp!) Packers jerseys.

A group of teenagers were daring enough to make snide comments, but most people just stopped to stare. If looks really could kill, Cvitkovic and his son would not have left the mall alive.

“You should have seen everybody looking at us the whole time,” Cvitkovic said. “It was so funny. I enjoyed it.”

Cvitkovic, 51, and his family, own Harmony Beer Distributors on Duss Avenue in Ambridge, one of the closest beer distributors to the Sewickley area. With an aunt and cousins from Sewickley and Leetsdale, Cvitkovic, of neighboring Ambridge, said he’s the only one in the family who finds the Steelers to be his least favorite NFL team. But his love for the Packers, which has rubbed off on his son, didn’t happen overnight.

Cvitkovic became a fan in elementary school back when football wasn’t broadcast on television the way it is today. Cvitkovic fell in love with a team he felt was talented. He also felt a connection with legendary Green Bay Packer, Bart Starr.

“Bart Starr was my hero. I was a little kid and just fell in love.”

Chuck Cvitkovic, Tom’s father, said Starr and Jim Taylor were the heroes in that day.

“[Green Bay] They had a roughneck team at that time, so he stuck with them,” said Chuck Cvitkovic, a Steelers fan.

Cvitkovic loves the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Pirates and the Boston Celtics, but when it comes to football, it’s Packers all the way.

“His hats, his gloves, his underwear – everything is Green Bay. I’m not kidding you,” said his sister, Lisa Cvitkovic, a Steelers fan.

There isn’t much hope for finding Packers gear in Steelers Country. So when Cvitkovic was surprised on year for Christmas with Packers jerseys, ties, belts, dress shirts – even boxers from his son, he was elated.

“It was the best Christmas,” Cvitkovic said.

Steelers fans walk into the beer distributor, where the walls are decorated in Steelers, Pirates and Pens, then they notice Cvitkovic, decked in green and gold.

“Here we go Packers, here we go!” he sang out in the back of the store, purposefully trying to get under everyone’s skin.

But when you’re wearing green and gold instead of black and gold, it’s hard not to go unnoticed. And Cvitkovic doesn’t shy from the attention, though he did admit to covering up his Packers shirt while making beer deliveries Monday morning so as not to alienate some customers.

But one loyal customer encouraged Cvitkovic, as he rang her up in the checkout line.

“Green Bay is my second favorite team, so I don’t give a [care] who wins,” she said.