{"id":671922,"date":"2026-01-12T17:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/671922\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:24:15","slug":"fans-wake-up-bright-and-early-to-be-on-espns-first-take-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/671922\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans wake up bright and early to be on ESPN&#8217;s &#8216;First Take&#8217; ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fans wake up bright and early to be on ESPN&#8217;s &#8216;First Take&#8217; ahead of Steelers vs. Texans playoff game<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768238655_535_wtae.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WTAE logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 11:29 AM EST Jan 12, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans woke up bright and early Monday to participate in ESPN&#8217;s &#8220;First Take&#8221; on the North Shore ahead of the teams&#8217; playoff matchup.Mike Baldwin, the first in line outside Shorty&#8217;s, said he wasn&#8217;t going to miss one second.&#8221;It&#8217;s very exciting. I think it brings a lot out to the Pittsburgh area, puts us on the spotlight,&#8221; he said. Baldwin said he had visited the &#8220;First Take&#8221; set before, and was surprised he was the first in line.&#8221;There has been lines. So I just figured, I got up this morning and I came on down,&#8221; Baldwin said.Texans fans who made the trip to Pittsburgh also joined in on the fun.&#8221;I like watching Stephen A. (Smith) on &#8216;First Take.&#8217; He got up here. Might as well have a full day about it and playoff football,&#8221; said Shane Lawless, who traveled from Houston.Zac Duncan added, &#8220;Don&#8217;t get the opportunity very often. We&#8217;re in the city. Why not?&#8221;By 8:30 a.m., fans were filing in to find the perfect seat, all hoping for a Steelers victory to end their playoff win drought.  &#8220;I&#8217;m very excited. Hopefully, they pull this win off tonight,&#8221; Baldwin said.MORE STEELERS PLAYOFF COVERAGE BELOW:\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans woke up bright and early Monday to participate in ESPN&#8217;s &#8220;First Take&#8221; on the North Shore ahead of the teams&#8217; playoff matchup.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Baldwin, the first in line outside Shorty&#8217;s, said he wasn&#8217;t going to miss one second.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very exciting. I think it brings a lot out to the Pittsburgh area, puts us on the spotlight,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p> Baldwin said he had visited the &#8220;First Take&#8221; set before, and was surprised he was the first in line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has been lines. So I just figured, I got up this morning and I came on down,&#8221; Baldwin said.<\/p>\n<p>Texans fans who made the trip to Pittsburgh also joined in on the fun.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I like watching Stephen A. (Smith) on &#8216;First Take.&#8217; He got up here. Might as well have a full day about it and playoff football,&#8221; said Shane Lawless, who traveled from Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Zac Duncan added, &#8220;Don&#8217;t get the opportunity very often. We&#8217;re in the city. Why not?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>By 8:30 a.m., fans were filing in to find the perfect seat, all hoping for a Steelers victory to end their playoff win drought. <\/p>\n<p> &#8220;I&#8217;m very excited. Hopefully, they pull this win off tonight,&#8221; Baldwin said.<\/p>\n<p>MORE STEELERS PLAYOFF COVERAGE BELOW:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans wake up bright and early to be on ESPN&#8217;s &#8216;First Take&#8217; ahead of Steelers vs. Texans playoff&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[97829,12,919,12777,7,221,253,2368,1128,97828,6,84,66043,520,57,95572,94445,2383,66645,1871,185,222,10676,12809,23972],"class_list":["post-671922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-early-monday","tag-espn","tag-fan","tag-first-take","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-line","tag-mike-baldwin","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-north-shore","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-playoff-matchup","tag-shortys","tag-smith","tag-stephen-a","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-team","tag-texans","tag-tonight","tag-trip","tag-wild-card"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115883295828710283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}