Crowd sparse to protest Vick at Steelers' facility

Police showed up outside the Steelers' South Side facility. So did journalists and photographers.

But at 3 p.m. Wednesday — the scheduled start time for a Michael Vick protest — not a protester was seen.

At about 3:10 p.m., a woman and her young daughter walked by with a sign. Forty minutes later, three police officers on motorcycles who'd arrived to keep the peace had left. At that point, a group of six women and two young children had set up behind a fence across the street from the facility. They held signs decrying Vick. Players heading home after practice drove past.

“This is our city, and it makes us look bad,” said Ellie Gordon of Squirrel Hill. “It's embarrassing for me because I like to be proud of Pittsburgh and everyone loves the Steelers. But now, it's just a shameful thing.”

A woman who organized the “Pittsburghers Against Michael Vick” Facebook page promised a better-attended protest at a future date. Her page, which had more than 13,000 “likes,” had passed along word of Wednesday's protest but did not organize it.

Chris Adamski is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.