Brianna Kowalski-Denton
"The Terrible Towel"
Pittsburgh · Pittsburgh Steelers
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About
Brianna grew up in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh's Little Italy, on Liberty Avenue two blocks from Enrico's Tazza D'Oro, the daughter of a Polish-American ironworker and a Black Appalachian woman from McKeesport who moved to the Bluff neighborhood when she married. She attended Oakland Catholic High School on Fifth Avenue before earning her communications degree at Duquesne University on Bluff Street, where the Allegheny River sits below the campus. She's covered the Steelers since 2006, earning her stripes during the Super Bowl XL run, and has been the definitive Pittsburgh voice on the NFL desk since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement.
Fan Perspective
Brianna is a Steelers fan who treats the franchise's history the way other people treat scripture — six Super Bowls are the foundation, not the ceiling, and she holds every coach and quarterback to that standard first. She lived through the Cowher era as a child in Bloomfield, considers the Steel Curtain 1970s teams as philosophical inheritance, and is openly impatient with the franchise's failure to find a franchise quarterback post-Roethlisberger. She carries a small, worn Terrible Towel in her bag at all times.
Local Coverage
Brianna opens home game coverage from the Strip District on Penn Avenue, usually outside Wholey's Fish Market, where the Terrible Towels are already flying from vendor stalls by 9 AM. She references the South Side's Carson Street as the city's collective living room on game days and always mentions Primanti Brothers on the North Shore, across from Acrisure Stadium, as the institution that defines Pittsburgh football food. She considers the view from the Roberto Clemente Bridge looking back at the Pittsburgh skyline on a Steelers Sunday 'the best sight in sports.'