GREENSBURG, PA — Joe Biden’s emotions got the best of him at a campaign stop in Western Pennsylvania, as he recalled the great kindness done to him and his family by one of the area’s iconic families.

After being introduced by Pittsburgh Steelers owner and Obama supporter Dan Rooney, the VP candidate who wears his heart on his sleeve told how the the scion of that football family helped him out when he was at his lowest.

“Sorry to take your time, but Mr. Rooney reminded me of this, Dan reminded me by just seeing him,” he said — telling the crowd about the car accident in 1972 that killed his wife and daughter and left his sons in serious condition in the hospital.

“They wouldn’t let us have a Christmas tree in, understandably, into the hospital because of concern about fire. So I went to K-mart to get a synthetic tree that would, you know, so I’d be able to bring it in and have something there at Christmas for the kids,” he said. “One of the few times I was away from their bed for a couple hours, I came back and they looked like they had lighted up my Christmas trees.”

“My one boy was in traction, and my other little boy had a fractured skull. And they were happy. They each separately had a football in their bed.”

At this point, Biden looked down and paused for 15 seconds to collect himself. “Excuse me,” he said, wiping his eyes. The crowd applauded.

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GREEN BAY, Wis — Delaware Senator Joe Biden has been working hard in Pennsylvania, but may have thrown away some votes in the football-crazed state today — touting his long-time support for the Philadelphia Eagles’ NFC rivals, the Green Bay Packers.

As supporters were still applauding after his just-concluded Wisconsin event, Biden launched into the back story. “I was raised by and educated by the Norbertines, they have a little college called St Norbert college,” he said. “Everybody wonders, Biden, how can you be from Eagle country, how can you like the Green Bay Packers? Let me tell you. You didn’t pass unless you liked the Green Bay Packers.”

On Mondays during football season, Biden said, “If the Green Bay Packers won, we got out early. If the Green Bay Packers lost, we got homework. I’m a Green Bay Packers guy from high school.”

Biden repeated versions of that story to every table he visited at Kroll’s West restaurant, a burger joint in the shadow of historic Lambeau field where the Delaware Senator shook hands with patrons before the Pack’s season opener. He even told one table where a Vikings fan was sitting with several Packers fans that Green Bay backers are a lot nicer than the Eagles fans in his neck of the woods.

While rooting for the Pack might turn off some Philadelphians, one Philly native told me those particular comments won’t cause much of a stir — since the locals take pride in being the home to the toughest, meanest sports fans in the country.

Check out some video of the former high school football star tossing a pigskin on the tarmac before leaving Wisconsin after the jump.

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Pittsburgh, PA — Speaking to a group of Pennsylvania Democrats on the home turf of the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton got into the mood and broke out some of her best metaphors from the gridiron.

“I want to tell you that I will be the best quarterback I can be for our country to take us to the future,” she said to a group of Allegheny Country Democrats at their annual Jefferson Jackson dinner held at Heinz Field. “We’re gonna start calling some new plays. And we’re gonna go on offense as well as have a good defense. We’re going to have a new approach to bringing jobs back to Western Pennsylvania, to creating an economy that works for everybody to move us toward the goal line of Universal health care. We are gonna get across that.”

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But after Clinton played with language (though one might add that she is actually making a defensive goal line stand of her own in the Keystone state), she took aim at an Obama ad in which the IL Democrat declares himself free of oil company money.

“I know that my opponent has been running an ad recently across Pennsylvania very forcefully saying that he doesn’t take money from oil companies,” she said. “Nobody takes money from oil companies. It’s illegal to take money from oil companies…but more than that–we both had a chance in 2005 to stand up and be counted–not just what we say when we are on the campaign trail but how we act when it matters. And we had a chance to vote yes or no on Dick Cheney’s energy bill which gave billions more in tax breaks to the oil companies. I voted no, he voted yes and we’re going to take that message across Pennsylvania. If you want somebody who is strong enough to take on the special interests and mean what I say and deliver results than I’m your candidate.”

While the Obama ad, which currently runs in PA, has been the subject of some back and forth between the campaigns during the last few days Camp Hillary seems to have the edge on this one with the independent website, factcheck.org calling the ad “a little too slick.”