Connection

Bill Reiter: WEIRTON, W.Va. -- The green sheet mill shadows the stadium like a big brother, rising above it, running from end zone to end zone, separated only by the road that once hauled coils of steel from one factory to another, where the rumbling gravel and churning trucks drowned out the sound of the game.

Across West Virginia, the connection between the mill and the field — between the players and the workers — was always a matter of time. You started on the 50-yard line as a teenager. You ended up an old man in the factory.