Super Bowl Blog: Media Day
By Peter Schwartz
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Tuesday was Super Bowl XLV Media Day here in Dallas as the Packers and Steelers met the large throng of reporters that gathered at Cowboys Stadium.
This day marked a couple of firsts for me. It was my first time inside the Cowboys new home and the first time that I've covered a Super Bowl Media Day.
Let me touch on Cowboys Stadium first. I'll go back to something that I wrote and said when I walked around Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis before the Jets/Colts Wild Card playoff game.
The Jets and Giants should be embarrassed.
Cowboys Stadium is magnificent. It's huge, but it certainly feels like a stadium, a characteristic that some new buildings don't have. The huge scoreboard that hangs from the roof is a sight to see, so much so that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers voluntarily talked about it during his chat with the media.
PHOTOS: Peter Schwartz at Super Bowl media day
The Packers seemed like a very confident team. They didn't seemed fazed at all by the magnitude of this week and almost seemed a little insulted when asked questions about the edge that the Steelers have in Super Bowl experience.
For the Steelers, it's their third Super Bowl appearance in six years so they are used to all of the distractions that come with this event.
Both teams will have their first practice here in Dallas on Wednesday and they are both expected to work out indoors. That's because of the snow, rain, sleet, ice, and wind that has hit the area here this week. It would have been logical to practice indoors anyway since the retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium is likely going to be closed on Sunday.
Media Day had its usual fair share of interesting questions from the many reporters who don't normally cover football but are somehow credentialed for the Super Bowl.
Here are some of the things that I heard and saw at Media Day…
*Packers lineman Chad Clifton was asked how much he weighed and told the reporter who asked the question that it was none of his business.
*Packers defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins was asked a series of questions about shopping.
*Azteca TV reporter Inez Sainz, as usual, made a spectacle of herself with her attire. Enough said there!
*A foreign reporter asked players on both teams "who owns the Lombardi Trophy?"
*Someone actually asked Packers head coach Mike McCarthy how good Aaron Rodgers has been in the playoffs.
*A foreign language reporter came dressed in workout gear and tried to get some Steelers players to work out with her. When they declined, she was joined by a female reporter from Showtime's "Inside The NFL".
You really can't make this stuff up!
*I saw a guy dressed as a Nick Toons character complete with a cape. I can't make too much fun of him because he was there to film some materials for "NFL Rush Zone: Guardians Of The Core", a movie for kids set to air on Saturday night. More on that later in the week!
*Supermodel Brooklyn Decker was on hand to do interviews for "Entertainment Tonight".
*In what was actually a cool moment, a young man, no more than ten years old, interviewed Aaron Rodgers.
I could go on and on and on, but you get the picture.
Some other news and notes from Tuesday…
The roads were very bad here in the Dallas area. They just aren't equipped for this kind of weather here so roads were slushy and then icy. They shut down schools here, which probably made teachers and school officials in the New York area snicker when they heard the news.
The weather clearly held down the crowd at the Stars/Canucks hockey game that I attended. When the opening face-off was taking place, I don't know if there were 1,000 people in the American Airlines Center.
Here's what's on tap for Wednesday…
The Packers and Steelers will practice for the first time and will each have another session with the media.
NFL Executive Vice-President Jeff Pash will hold a news conference to update the CBA negotiations and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will meet the media.
That's all for now. Check back tomorrow for more!
