Super Week: Day 3

Media day at the Super Bowl is always one of the strangest days in the sporting world. It’s everything a writer or TV announcer could want; every player on the two best teams in football, just sitting there being forced to answer any question thrown at them for a complete hour. Yet the day always seems to be dominated by somebody doing something completely stupid. Last year it was Seahawks tight end Jeremy Stevens, who for some random reason decided to say during media day, “The story of Jerome Bettis returning to his hometown {Detroit} is heartwarming, but it's going be a sad day when he doesn't walk away with that trophy.” This caused Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter to respond by calling Stevens soft, a prediction that was proved to be true on Super Bowl Sunday.

Unfortunately for the media and for the casual fan, this year’s Media Day didn’t even come close to causing the type of hoopla that the event usually brings. It did have its moments though, and thankfully I was taking notes in order to document them.

-The NFL Network’s coverage begins with the Bears players and coaches pouring onto the field, about to take their team picture in Dolphin Stadium. It appears they are lining up with coaches on the top steps, followed by the players lining up in order of their numbers. I was especially excited to see numbers 18, 30 and 91 there (You are going to have to look those up yourself if you want to know who they are)

-Finally the Bears start taking questions. These include the boring ones like the guy asking Urlacher if this game meant a lot to him to the downright stupid ones, like asking Rex if the Gators winning a National Title helps him in this game. Are these reporters that desperate for a column idea?

-Some guy from the NFL forces Urlacher to take of his Vitamin Water hat and put on an NFL apparel hat. Brian seems cool about it, because I’m sure the H20 company has already paid him.

-Apparently nobody likes backup safety Cameron Worrell, because he keeps on crashing other players’ interviews. Thomas Jones threw him off his podium, but Urlacher seems happy to have him stop by. Worrell asks #54 if he supports Superman or Spiderman (He goes with Clark Kent…good choice) and if he’s a Democrat or Republican (Urlacher doesn’t answer that one…another good choice)

-I’d say the three Bears with the most people around them are 1) Lovie Smith 2) Rex Grossman and 3) Adewale Ogunleye. Lovie and Rex are busy answering questions about the game while the Prince is saying wassup to all the South Florida media members he knew while he was with the Dolphins.

-Deion Sanders, co-hosting this hour for the NFL Network, claims that Bernard Berrian will be the Bears star of media day. Yet his channel decides to never show B.B. on screen.

-Some reporter asks Alex Brown if he needs a Gators national title t-shirt. Brown responds by laughing at this guy, telling him he got both the basketball and football tees the night the Gators won it all. No wonder I love #96.

-Tank Johnson tells a reporter he’s sorry for what happened at his house, but he’s a grown man and he knows what it means to be responsible. I’m not sure if I agree with him, but I wouldn’t say that to his face.

-The Bears hour is done with the media. Unfortunately the Network never showed any interviews with kicker Robbie Gould, who I found out today in the ‘New York Times’ uses his free time to make dinner with for his neighbors' kids. Is there any doubt now that Gould is the coolest kicker ever?

-Everyone claims that media day is a joke and that its only designed for bad reporters to talk to the superstar players. That's why I think some TV guy could have made a name for himself by forcing all the Bears that wern't being interviewed to spell the #94's name. (Again, you want to see how much of a challange that is, you are going to have to look it up yourself. I'm not trying to butcher that name.)

-The Colts are up now, and they do the same thing as the Bears. Look around the field for a while, take the team pic and then finally, take their seats to get interviewed.

-Marvin Harrison, who apparently hates to be interviewed, seems to be comfortable behind the microphone. He tells a reporter that he doesn’t care if he scores a TD, as long as he helps his team win. How about he stays out of the end zone and helps the Bears win? Sounds like a compromise to me.

-The man of the hour, Peyton Manning has been told by an ESPN reporter that an offensive lineman said he looked like an old porn star in his Sprint commercial. Peyton looks happily surprised to hear this.

-Is it just me, or is it a good feeling to everyone when you spot reporters you read or watch during media day? I’ve already seen ESPN’s Michael Smith and John Clayton, the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon, the Boston Glob’s Bob Ryan and the Tribune’s Rick Morrisy walk past the NFL Network cameras.

-Apparently Adam Vinatieri is related in some far-off way to Evil Kenieval. (On his mom’s side) Could this explain his tendency to make clutch field goals? Probably not, but this game is desperate for story lines.

-For the third time in the past six Super Bowls, Vinatieri and wide receiver Ricky Proehl are both in the big game. The last two times (In S.B.’s 36 and 38) Proehl scored a touchdown with two minutes or less left in the game to give his team (The Rams in 36 and the Panthers in 38) the tie or lead, only to see Tom Brady lead the Patriots down the field and have Vinatieri make a field goal as time expires. Now they are both on the Colts. Does this mean that former Bear Proehl will score and then Robbie Gould will kick a game-winner? Why reporters aren’t talking about this theory confuses me.



Finally, time is up on Media Day. I’ll be back tomorrow for some more Bears/Colts breakdown, plus some Super Bowl bets I would put some money down on.