‘O mama I’m in fear for my life from the long arm of the law.’

The second those words start to blare through the speakers at Acrisure Stadium, and even seconds before when the videoboard goes dark, something mystical happens.

Terrible Towels start waving without prompting, without any action even happening on the field. They continue to whip around in unison, every fan standing and silently waving their towel.

Until the beat of ‘Renegade’ changes and they explode.

“Before that scream in Renegade, it’s like seeing the smoke before the fire and it just kind of prepares you for the moment,” said defensive tackle Cameron Heyward.

As players stand on the sidelines, on the field, watching and doing their part to add to the hype, they too are amazed.

“The towels really juice me up, especially in the fourth quarter when Renegade is playing,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith. “All the towels are flying around the stadium. It’s just truly a feeling like no other. Waving those towels every single game, coming out in the stadium especially in the fourth quarter, it just brings a lot of energy for us.”

For Joey Porter Jr., he not only gets to see towels when he is playing, but he grew up seeing the towel while watching his father, Joey Porter Sr., when he played for the Steelers.

“It brings a lot of memories back from my dad playing and just the history around it,” said Porter. “It’s really a crowd booster. It’s an energy booster for everybody.

“I love seeing the Terrible Towels waving. That’s Steelers Nation. I’m never surprised when I see the Terrible Towels when we’re at the away games. Our fans always make our away games turn into home games, so I just love when they bring that support.”

Like many players before him, Heyward has seen other teams try to duplicate the Terrible Towel to take away its magic on the road.

But he knows it will never work because Steelers Nation is too strong and the towel is too powerful.

“It’s really unbelievable because it can’t be duplicated,” said Heyward. “Everybody tries to, but nobody does it right. To be inspired by Myron Cope and for it to take off the way it did, where everybody’s twirling it and everybody’s locked in and knows there’s an energy that comes along with it, it just makes for something special.

“The Terrible Towel is something special.”