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A Glimpse at the Super Bowl “Media”
So little time, so many questions
Media Day is that part of Super Bowl week where the players must submit themselves to a solid hour of questioning from anybody who has been able to garner a media credential for the game …
… including these two guys from a Mexico City TV station, who brought along a puppet Compayito, to ask questions in a high Spanish-accented falsetto.
Yes, this wasn’t quality time for serious sports journalism. It was more like a heavily supervised surreal field trip.
We, the “media” got free reign, and for once, these powerful men who are used to communicating with muscle, were left to defend themselves with only their tongues and mental guile.
“Are you smarter than the average bear?” comedian Mo Rocca, working for NBC-TV’s Tonight Show, asked players on the Chicago Bears.
While Black Entertainment Television personality Toccara asked flirty questions to players, including Indianapolis defensive tackle Darrell Reid.
“What do you do for the ladies on Valentine’s Day?” she asked.
There were NFL players from other teams playing media roles, some officially, such as New York Giants Michael Strahan, who is the big guy in the middle of this media pack …
… and others like Oakland Raider Warren Sapp, who was allegedly working for the NFL, but seemed to spend most of his time approaching good-looking female TV reporters and saying, “Can I borrow you for a moment?” before putting his arm around her in a hug for the cameras.
“I’m a player and a playah — I’m just not a player right now,” Sapp explained to this Fox Sports TV reporter:
He would have had a tough time finding an opportunity to become acquainted with Ines Sainz, a TV reporter from Mexico, who was making the most of the sunny day, and seemed to blanketed in zone coverage from photographers and reporters who apparently needed a break from focusing on the players.
What was the subject again? Football?
A reporter for The Golf Channel spent the time interviewing players on what they thought of Tiger Woods, and ABC-TV’s The Jimmy Kimmel Show employed two former contestants on American Idol to try to get the players to sing the baseball tune, Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
And there were a whole contingent of reporters who asked Jesus questions to players who seemed happy to frame the Super Bowl in a religious context.
“You look at who Christ is and why he died on the cross,” said Colts center Jeff Saturday, “and that’s what it’s all about.”
Reid Ferrin, a reporter for the Christian group Athletes in Action put it this way:
“There’s no greater question to be answered than where are you going to spend eterntity,” he said.
I hope it won’t be at Super Bowl Media Day. For this would surely be hell.
And somewhere in the mix of all bewildering stew of frivolity and religiosity was U.S. Marine Sgt. Reina Barnett, dressed in camouflage, and holding a boom microphone while she asked the players to send a special messages via the Pentagon Channel to the troops stationed in Iraq.
Comments
By ghjkl
January 30, 2007 4:35 PM | Link to this
Lmao. How many people does the Post have down there covering this, anyway?
Imagine the newsroom would be empty if the Dolphins were competing. lol
By Pete Ramirez
February 1, 2007 9:43 PM | Link to this
Hey Frank if you are involved in the media “world” you should know that Televisa is not a Mexico City Channel,it is more than you could imagine, it is the most important Television Company in the Spanish Speaking world including all other countries that you should know or you should have a full knowledge of them, this company is old and getting better and better and it has modern stuff year after year, so if these two insignificant men are talking in front of a famous football player before the superbowl you should know that a great company is not going to deliver such a great task they deser it .BELIEVE ME!
Be well Pedro Ramirez