Avoiding Super Bowl sideshow
Super Bowl hype has grown immeasurably since Tony Dungy won one with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980.
That’s why the Indianapolis coach called on the three of his current players who have been through the Super wringer to brief their teammates last week. The subject was what to expect over the next five days as the national press hypes Super Bowl XLI between the Colts (15-4) and Chicago Bears (15-3) at Dolphin Stadium.
Kicker Adam Vinatieri (who won three championship with New England), WR Ricky Proehl (who won with St. Louis but lost with St. Louis and Carolina) and DT Anthony “Booger” McFarland (who watched one while on injured reserved with Tampa Bay) addressed the rest of the Colts.
“The one message I gave them is that Super Bowl week is for everybody else, and that the football game is for us,” McFarland said. “What we have to realize is, we are the show. Everything else is a sideshow.”
Helping define some recent Super Bowl losers were indiscretions by players, such as Atlanta S Eugene Robinson, who was arrested for soliciting a prostitute the night before the game – mere hours after receiving the NFL Man of the Year Award.
“We’ve stressed to them it’s a business trip, that we want to go down there and enjoy our families and enjoy the moment, not totally disassociate ourselves from the hype and hoopla, but it’s got to be a business trip,” Dungy said.
True to your school
The Bears arrived Sunday night at Miami International Airport, with DE Alex Brown sporting a tie of his alma mater, the University of Florida, for the team’s welcome news conference at the Airport Hilton.
“Hey, I’m coming back home and I have to represent my school – and that’s my school,” Brown said. “I have five great years there – unbelievable! — and we’re the best college in the world. Basketball, football, you name it. We’re the best at it.”
Not fair
The Pro Football Writers Association filed a complaint with the NFL office regarding the travel schedule of the Colts, who chose to come to town tonight and hold their first news conference of the week at 8:45 p.m. – too late for some papers to put stories together.
The Bears will have had two news conferences (they have one at 3:30 today) before the Colts do their first.
Coach Dungy made the itinerary with the intent of lessening his team’s media load.