Super Bowl notes: NFL dealing with social media hackers
MIAMI – The NFL has been dealing with hackers, not someone trying to peak into the league’s records or team playbooks.
The hackers apparently attacked social media accounts for the league and the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.
The NFL said Tuesday that its cybersecurity department noticed a breach of a league-related social media account, then discovered “targeted breaches and additional failed attempts” across the league and team accounts.
The league told teams to secure their social media accounts to stop further access and alerted the social media platform providers to secure all the accounts.
“We continue to work diligently with the teams, which have resumed normal operations,” the NFL said in a statement.
Super inspiration
The Chiefs late founder Lamar Hunt is credited with coining the term “Super Bowl” to describe the NFL’s championship game thanks to seeing his daughter play with a ball.
Clark Hunt now is chairman of the Chiefs, and he gave an update as to how his father was inspired. Hunt says his mother bought three super balls for Christmas in 1965. One for his older brother Lamar and his sister Sharon and himself. Clark Hunt was only a year old at the time and likes to joke he was chewing on the ball.
“I definitely wasn’t bouncing it around the house,” Clark Hunt said. “I may have been chasing it on the ground, crawling around. But my older brother and sister were bouncing them around the house, and I think that stuck in my dad’s mind.”
Top high school football coach
The NFL’s pick for best high school coach in the country is Matt Land of Dalton High School in Dalton, Georgia.
Land graduated from Dalton in 1988 after going 34-4-1 as a player. He walked on at Auburn before returning to Dalton as one of Georgia’s first five community coaches. He has coached at Dalton ever since, sending more than 20 players to play in college.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank said they are proud of how Land has represented his family, school and the state of Georgia.
The award honors high school coaches for character and integrity, leadership and work in the community and commitment to player health and safety along with on-field success. Land was selected from candidates from all 32 NFL teams for the award named after Don Shula, the NFL’s winningest coach.
“Coach Land’s commitment to his players and community over the last 10 years is a genuine reflection of his character and further demonstrates the life skills taught in and through football by coaches like him make an impact far beyond game day,” Blank said.
Land said being mentioned in the same phrase as Shula was an honor in itself, and he appreciates what the award stands for.
The award comes with $15,000 from the NFL Foundation, $10,000 of that going to his football program. He also gets to attend Sunday’s Super Bowl and walk the red carpet at the NFL Honors show Saturday night. Runner-up Lambert Brown of Wayzata High School in Plylmouth, Minnesota, also will receive $15,000 like Land and also will be at the game Sunday.
Hall Of Fame fans
Not only does Kansas City have the Chiefs playing in the Super Bowl, Chiefs fan Janel Renee Carbajo is among a trio of finalists for the Hall of Fans exhibit at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Denver fan Rob Garner and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan Keith Kunzig also are finalists announced Tuesday from online fan polling for the hall. All three have won a trip to Sunday’s Super Bowl, and each will wait in their hotel rooms for a knock on the door from Pro Football Hall of Fame president and CEO David Baker.
Carbajo, 58, of Spring Hill, Kansas, is known as “The Puppet Lady” for the hand puppets she brings to each home game with one dressed for the Chiefs and the other as that week’s opponent. The retired school teacher is a 31-year season-ticket holder. A 40-year-old firefighter in Fort Collins, Colorado, Garner is “Rescue Rob” who uses a fire engine for tailgating and wears full firefighter gear with a custom Broncos helmet.
Kunzig, 52, from Largo, Florida, has had Bucs’ season tickets for 30 years, and he is known as “Big Nasty” wearing full face paint, patched-out jersey and giant Super Bowl trophy belt to games.
Celebrating 100 years with art
A group of artists including Tristan Eaton, Dasic Fernandez, Joe Iurato, Kelsey Montague, and RISK will be showcasing their work highlighting different pieces of NFL100.
“It was important to the NFL to celebrate the 100th season through decor in a special way. We’re thrilled to bring this first of its kind partnership to Miami,” said Daphne Wood, NFL Director of Events. “Each artist brought a unique perspective to help tell the NFL story in a way we’ve never told it before. The most exciting part of collaborating on a platform like this, showcasing Miami’s enriched art culture, is creating once-in-a-lifetime memories for NFL fans while sharing the story of 100th season on a global platform.”
Leading this group of notable artists is Tristan Eaton who has created the face of the Super Bowl 54 ticket and two renditions of the program which includes a hologram version for ticket holders, both of which embody the excitement of the 100th season as seen through the lens of the Super Bowl in Miami.
His works can be found across the world, from Paris to Shanghai to the Wynwood Walls.