SWORDS CREEK, Va. — There is a downside, apparently, to making it big in the NFL after growing up a local hero in a tiny town.
In Heath Miller's case, everybody for miles around seems to know exactly where your parents live and work, including some people they've never even met. They all buy souvenirs linking them vicariously to your success: Pittsburgh Steeler jerseys, T-shirts, caps and miniature helmets, footballs, rookie cards, you name it. And some drop them off at your mother's office, expecting to have them signed by you and returned by your folks after their next trip to Pittsburgh.
Miller, a rookie tight end, and his unfailingly polite and uncommonly accommodating parents, Earl and Denise, know all about it.
"When he was on the cover of the game-day program in Pittsburgh," his mother said last week, "people around here were ordering them by the boxful. And they would send them over to us to have them signed."
Finally, in December, the Millers decided enough was enough.
"Before Christmas there was a flood, just too much stuff," Denise said. "I basically had to leave work after half a day because it was just too much."
To say that Miller's success has created a stir in this little corner of the world -- the unincorporated community of Swords Creek and the neighboring town of Honaker, map dots in the southwestern corner of Virginia, surrounded by coal fields and the Appalachian Mountains -- would be a gross understatement.
"It gave it new life," Denise said of the communal effect.
Like everyone else in the family, she's not one for bragging. But the signs are literally everywhere, well wishers dotting the landscape with encouragement for Miller against the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday's Super Bowl at Detroit.
Outside an insurance office: "It's Miller Time in Detroit."
Outside Swords Creek Elementary School, where Miller first stood out as an athlete and student: "Go Steelers. Good Luck Heath."
Outside Honaker Elementary School, where students donned No. 83 Steeler jerseys every Friday this season and adopted Miller as a role model even though he never attended classes there: "Go Pittsburgh Steelers."
Outside another office: "Good Luck Heath and Steelers."
Outside Bucks & Bass, a sporting goods store: "Go Heath."
At Honaker High, where Miller was a three-sport star and graduated third in the Class of 2000, the former state player of the year in football and baseball was honored by no fewer than four displays.
