Boomer: I Repeat, Beyonce Had Power Issues Before Super Bowl; More On Lewis
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Boomer Esiason has his story, and he's sticking to it.
Esiason relayed on WFAN's "Boomer & Carton" radio show Monday that Beyonce's halftime act "blew the electric in the Superdome twice" during rehearsals leading up to Super Bowl XLVII.
Later Monday morning, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said there was "no indication at all" that Beyonce's performance, which featured impressive lighting and video effects, had anything to do with the partial power outage in New Orleans that delayed the big game for 34 minutes early in the third quarter.
A Superdome official alongside Goodell said the halftime show was fueled "100 percent" by generated power, "which means it was not our grid at all. In fact, during the halftime show, we had a drop in power."
"Listen, I love the Commissioner. You know that. I don't want to undercut him, but people did tell me -- and people in the know told me -- that during their rehearsals, they had power issues," Esiason said. "Now, I don't know if they blew out the Superdome the way it happened on Sunday night. But maybe that's why supposedly she had a new generator or a generator added to the halftime show."
Boomer stands by outage story
The exact cause of the outage is under investigation. An Oct. 15 memo released by the Louisiana Stadium & Exposition District on Monday said tests on the Superdome's electrical feeders showed "some decay and a chance of failure," according to The Associated Press.
"There's all different levels (to) this," said Esiason. "All I know is that they had problems, electrical problems during the week. And that's what I was told by people in the know, and I will stand by it."
The WFAN co-host said "there was no embellishment of the story, there was no agenda from where I got the story from, nobody was looking to embarrass anybody."
Esiason made major headlines for the Beyonce tidbit, delivered during his unique take on Sunday night's outage. Esiason was broadcasting from the radio booth when he heard a loud "buzzing" right before the blackout.
There was a different sort of buzz before the halftime show, too.
"She killed it. She did exactly what she was brought in to do, she did a great job, she looked fantastic," Esiason said of Beyonce. "There was a buzz in the building right before halftime because everybody was looking forward to seeing it, and she knocked it out of the park."
Boomer hears a buzz, makes headlines
Meanwhile, Boomer, in an interview with WCBS 880's Steve Scott, continued his defense of the comments he made about Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens.
Boomer Esiason Defends Ray Lewis Comments
Coming out of a taped interview with Lewis conducted by CBS pregame co-host Shannon Sharpe on Sunday, Esiason said Lewis "was involved in a double murder, and I'm not so sure he gave us all the answers that we were looking for. He knows what went on there. And he can obviously come out and say it. But he doesn't want to say it. He paid off the families."
"What is it about Ray Lewis' story that just doesn't sit with you?" asked Scott.
"Well, I think it doesn't sit with a lot of people and, quite frankly, while I think he's a great football player, a Hall of Fame football player, maybe even the greatest middle linebacker that ever played, at least in my eyes, you know, there's a lot of stuff out there still about the 2000 murders that a lot of people would like to know the answers to," Boomer said. "And I understand that he's probably under some sort of confidentiality clause because he paid the families, and we all understand that and this is not something that's new to me. This is something that we've discussed, it seems like forever on 'The NFL Today,' and it just so happens it became a bigger story simply because it was involved with the Super Bowl."
He said there was "no choice" but to discuss the subject on Super Bowl Sunday.
Your thoughts on Beyonce, the outage or Ray Lewis? Be heard in the comments...
