NEWARK -- The answer to your question: Yes. It's quite glamorous to be a sports writer and cover events like Super Bowl Media Day. Doesn't the dateline say it all?
Media Day mutated into some unrecognizable form back in the 1980s, when MTV started sending female VJ's in tight pants and tight low-cut blouses, with buttons screaming for relief. I've heard a number of dumb questions during the several Media Days I've attended, including:
-- "Tell me, why do they call you Boomer?" (Problem: That was to San Francisco's Joe Montana, not opposing quarterback Boomer Esiason of Cincinnati.)
-- "How long have you been a black quarterback?" (That was to Doug Williams, who as far as anybody knew had been black his entire life and a quarterback for much of it.)
-- "Jimmy, was it your mother who was dead and your father who's blind, or dead father and blind mother?" (That was to Jim Plunkett.)
I only heard one dumb question Tuesday. Somebody asked Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman if had any advice for Justin Bieber. It proved to be significant because it was the only time in Sherman's one-hour session that he didn't have answer.
I'm not sure what the fascination with Media Day is. The NFL is convinced that it has taken on a life of its own to the point that it starting making it a public event three years ago. Fans could attend Tuesday at a cost of $28.50. That didn't include parking outside the Prudential Center (home of the New Jersey Devils), which was going for $35.
I got in for free. Let me save you $63.50. Here's a few snapshots in my Digi-Blog, which returns after an extended vacation. We've gone behind-the-scenes for everything from Falcons training camp to SEC Media Days.
Now we bring you, Super Bowl Media Day.
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The media was greeted by a high school marching band. I'm pretty sure Woodward and Bernstein were greeted this way when they knocked on Charles Colson's door.
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This is the scene as the media waits for Wesley Woodward.
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This is the scene as the media waits for Peyton Manning
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This is Phillip Hajszam. He is the Wolf Blitzer of Austria, because not just anybody can make the Mozart thing work. Second choice was dressing up as Maria von Trapp.
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And now, dancing on Stage 2 at the Club Chick-A-Boom-Boom, you know her from her starring role in, "Working Girls on Deadline" . . .
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I'm so confused.
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Nothing -- NOTHING -- says Super Bowl Media Day more than Indianapolis tight end Coby Fleener interviewing Nickelodeon's Pick Boy. (For the record, Pick Boy had to tell me who he was. I would've guessed Robin or Chris Christie.)
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The AJC accounting department will never know that I dined for free on the floor of the New Jersey Devils' practice rink. They'll simply see a piece of paper that reads $37.50 from my favorite restaurant, also known as, "Thank you" (says so right on the back of tear off receipt.)
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No wonder we never found Waldo. He was in Newark.
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Animal? Vegetable? Mineral? Leprechaun? Vulcan? Is this what the high altitude in Denver does do you?
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This is Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch. Hates the media. So it follows that he would hate media day, which is a problem because the NFL mandates that players participate or get fined $50,000. Lynch showed up. But he sat at his place for only six minutes and said very little. Of course, then he left his seat and yukked it up in an interview with Deion Sanders on the NFL Network. Deion must've gone to a really good J-School.
This is Richard Sherman, the man who terrorized Erin Andrews. Kidding. Sort of. Sherman spoke for every second of his one hour of media time. His final words: "I could do this all day." When told about Lynch talking for only six minutes, Sherman said, "I need to teach him how to expand on that so he doesn't get fined $50,000." Richard Sherman: marketing genius. Marshawn Lynch: notsomuch.
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This was a first. The city of Newark, so hopeful that people will write and say good things about their town, handed out goody bags to the media. I opened it on the bus. Would this be an inappropriate time to use the Old Spice body spray?
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