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El domingo 6 de febrero los Pittsburgh Steelers y los Green Bay Packers se encontrarán en el Super Bowl XLV (6:00 PM, hora de New York, FOX) en el Cowboys Stadium en el Norte de Texas. El juego tiene a dos de las más históricas franquicias en la historia de la NFL. Los Steelers ganaron seis Super Bowls, la mayor cantidad en la historia, y los Packers ostentan 12 campeonatos de la NFL (tres Super Bowls), la mayor cantidad en la historia.
EQUIPO - TÍTULOS DEL SUPER BOWL
Pittsburgh Steelers, 6
Dallas Cowboys, 5
San Francisco 49ers, 5
Cinco empatados (incluyendo a GB), 3
EQUIPO - CAMPEONATOS DE LA NFL
Green Bay Packers, 12
Chicago Bears, 9
New York Giants, 7
Pittsburgh Steelers, 6
Con registro de 28-16 (.636), Green Bay tiene la mejor marca en postemporada de la liga. Pittsburgh está segundo con registro de 33-19 (.635).
“Tenemos organizaciones similares”, dice el presidente emérito de los Steelers DAN ROONEY. “Somos similares en la forma en que funcionamos. Tenemos gran respeto por los Packers y siempre lo hemos tenido.”
Los Steelers están de regreso en el Super Bowl por tercera vez en los últimos seis años. Pittsburgh derrotó a Seattle en el Super Bowl XL (5 de febrero de 2006) y derrotó a Arizona en el Super Bowl XLIII (1 de febrero de 2009). Los Steelers realizarán su octava aparición en el Super Bowl, igualando a los Dallas Cowboys en la mayor cantidad en la historia.
“Esto es Pittsburgh”, dice el apoyador de los Steelers LARRY FOOTE. “Si no ganas el Super Bowl, es un fracaso. Los sujetos de los 1970s crearon esa mentalidad. Tienes que dar lo mejor de ti para dar la talla. Nuestra sala de reuniones de la defensiva está justo al lado de los trofeos Lombardi. Se espera que todos hagan su papel para ganar. Los estándares no cambian.”
Green Bay regresa al Super Bowl por primera vez desde las apariciones consecutivas en el Super Bowl XXXI (26 de enero de 1997) y XXXII (25 de enero de 1998). Los Packers derrotaron a New England en el Super Bowl XXXI y cayeron ante Denver en el Super Bowl XXXII. Green Bay realizará su cuarta aparición en el Super Bowl, incluyendo victorias en los Super Bowl I y II.
“Para mí, esto significa todo”, dice el receptor veterano de los Packers DONALD DRIVER, que disputará su primer Super Bowl. “Cuando juegas en esta liga por un largo tiempo, el objetivo principal es alcanzar el Super Bowl y después es ganarlo. Estoy emocionado por ello. Lo más grande para mí ahora es calzarme ese anillo y que sea parte de mi legado porque estuve en el Super Bowl y lo gané.”
En el Juego de Campeonato de la AFC, los Steelers eliminaron a los New York Jets 24-19 en el Heinz Field. El corredor RASHARD MENDENHALL acarreó 121 yardas y una anotación, y el mariscal de campo BEN ROETHLISBERGER se apuntó la 10º victoria de su carrera en postemporada. Roethlisberger, que está en su séptimo año, es uno de apenas tres mariscales de campo (miembro del Salón de la Fama TROY AIKMAN y TOM BRADY) en la historia de la NFL en ganar al menos 10 juegos de postemporada para el final de su séptima temporada.
CURIOSIDADES DE LA NFL
En el último encuentro entre estos dos equipos (20 de diciembre de 2009), el mariscal de Pittsburgh BEN ROETHLISBERGER (503 yardas) y el de Green Bay AARON RODGERS (383) se combinaron para 886 yardas pasando en el triunfo de los Steelers 37-36 sobre los Packers. Marcó el total de yardas más alto en la historia de la NFL en un juego que no tuvo intercepción alguna.
“Ben hace cosas que ningún otro hace”, sintetiza el analista de NFL Network y miembro del Salón de la Fama MICHAEL IRVIN acerca de Roethlisberger. “Si ganas Super Bowls, perteneces a los mejores que han practicado este deporte.”
Roethlisberger ya ganó dos Super Bowls en su carrera y con un triunfo el domingo se uniría a los miembros del Salón de la Fama TERRY BRADSHAW (cuatro), JOE MONTANA (cuatro) y Aikman (tres) y Brady (tres) como los únicos mariscales de campo titulares en la historia de la NFL en ganar al menos tres Super Bowls.
Green Bay adquirió su boleto al Norte de Texas con una victoria 21-14 en el Soldier Field sobre los Chicago Bears. La defensiva mostró el camino con tres intercepciones. El esquinero novato SAM SHIELDS, agente libre no seleccionado en el Sorteo Universitario, tuvo dos intercepciones y una captura, convirtiéndose en el primer novato en el NFL y el primer miembro de los Packers en registrar dos intercepciones y una captura en un juego de postemporada. El tackle defensivo B.J. RAJI agregó una intercepción clave en el último período que devolvió 18 yardas hasta la anotación. Raji es el primer lindero defensivo en la historia de la franquicia en devolver una intercepción hasta la anotación en la postemporada.
El de los Packers es el primer equipo preclasificado Nº 6 en la NFC en avanzar hasta el Super Bowl desde que la NFL instituyó el actual formato de postemporada, de 12 equipos, en 1990. El único otro preclasificado Nº 6 en llegar al Super Bowl fueron los Steelers de 2005, que terminaron ganando el Super Bowl XL.
Green Bay no estuvo detrás en el marcador por más de siete puntos en cualquiera de los juegos de esta temporada, el rpimer equipo en lograr la hazaña desde los Detroit Lions de 1962.
“Este equipo posee gran carácter”, explica el mariscal de campo de los Packers AARON RODGERS, que tiene un índice de pasador de 113.0 en su carrera en postemporada, el más alto en la historia de la NFL (mínimo de 100 intentos). “Si observas la plantilla ahora mismo, Hay un número de sujetos que no estaban con nosotros al comienzo de la temporada o no tenían reservado un papel preponderante. Tener estos jugadores dice mucho de nuestro carácter. Simplemente confiamos uno en el otro.”
El entrenador en jefe de Pittsburgh MIKE TOMLIN, que guió a los Steelers hasta la victoria en el Super Bowl XLIII, puede convertirse en el primer entrenador en jefe en la historia de la NFL en ganar dos Super Bowls en sus primeras cuatro temporadas. También está procurando convertirse en el entrenador en jefe más joven en los anales de la liga en ganar dos títulos de Super Bowl (38 años de edad).
“Es especial”, dice Tomlin acerca de haber alcanzado el Super Bowl XLV. “Hay 32 equipos que inician este viaje y ahora quedan dos. Somos los suficientemente afortunados de ser uno de ellos. Es increíble.”
En la banda opuesta estará el de Green Bay MIKE MC CARTHY, que creció en Pittsburgh y se pasó cuatro temporadas en la Universidad de Pittsburgh como asistente del entrenador.
“Pittsburgh es obviamente una gran parte de lo que soy”, reconoce McCarthy, que guió a los Packers a la postemporada en tres de las últimas cuatro temporadas. “Mi familia está allí aún. Esta será una experiencia única para todos. Fui aficionado de los Pittsburgh Steelers cuando niño y son mi segundo equipo favorito. Pero estamos preparándonos para derrotar a los Pittsburgh Steelers en un juego de fútbol americano y eso es lo que necesitamos para estar enfocados.
“Son un excelente equipo de fútbol americano, obviamente. Han tenido mucho éxito. Son un equipo veterano y experimentado. Han pasado por esta experiencia antes y nosotros no. Lo entendemos. Pero nosotros insistiremos para nuestro enfoque y esa es la manera en que lo encararemos. Nuestro objetivo es traer el Trofeo Lombardi de regreso a casa.”
Ambos equipos pueden atribuir algo del éxito esta temporada al estelar juego defensivo. Los Steelers, encabezados por el coordinador defensivo y miembro del Salón de la Fama DICK LE BEAU encabezaron la NFL permitiendo apenas 14.5 puntos por juego. El coordinador defensivo de Green Bay DOM CAPERS, que tuvo el mismo cargo con los Steelers en el período 1992-94, y los Packers se ubicaron segundos (15.0 puntos por juego).
Los dos equipos también se ubicaron uno-dos en índice de pasador del oponente (Green Bay 67.2, Pittsburgh 73.1) y capturas (Pittsburgh 48, Green Bay 47 – igualando el segundo puesto).
“Tengo tanto respeto por Dick Lebeau como cualquiera en este negocio”, dice Capers. “Lo considero un buen amigo. Estuvimos juntos en 1992 cuando BILL COWHER tomó el cargo y trabajamos juntos allí por tres años. Cualquiera que haya estado en la liga por más de 50 años como jugador y entrenador tiene que tener algo especial. No creo que cualquiera pueda compararse con él.”
Estas dos talentosas defensivas se combinaron para enviar siete jugadores al Pro Bowl este año: el apoyador JAMES HARRISON, el ala defensiva BRETT KEISEL y el profundo TROY POLAMALU, por Pittsburgh, y el profundo NICK COLLINS, el apoyador CLAY MATTHEWS y los esquineros TRAMON WILLIAMS y CHARLES WOODSON por Green Bay.
“Tenemos un montón de talento en este equipo”, dice Woodson. “Cada semana, alguien diferente saca pecho. TLos jugadores de este equipo han estado haciendo jugadas semana a semana. Tenemos un montón de sujetos que pueden hacer jugadas en cualquier momento y en cualquier punto del juego. Sabemos cuán duro es alcanzar el Super Bowl. Quieres ser capaz de llegar y ganarlo. Es a todo o nada ahora. Esperemos que podamos llegar y ganar.”
El domingo 6 de febrero los Pittsburgh Steelers y los Green Bay Packers se encontrarán en el Super Bowl XLV (6:00 PM, hora de New York, FOX) en el Cowboys Stadium en el Norte de Texas. El juego tiene a dos de las más históricas franquicias en la historia de la NFL. Los Steelers ganaron seis Super Bowls, la mayor cantidad en la historia, y los Packers ostentan 12 campeonatos de la NFL (tres Super Bowls), la mayor cantidad en la historia.
EQUIPO - TÍTULOS DEL SUPER BOWL
Pittsburgh Steelers, 6
Dallas Cowboys, 5
San Francisco 49ers, 5
Cinco empatados (incluyendo a GB), 3
EQUIPO - CAMPEONATOS DE LA NFL
Green Bay Packers, 12
Chicago Bears, 9
New York Giants, 7
Pittsburgh Steelers, 6
Con registro de 28-16 (.636), Green Bay tiene la mejor marca en postemporada de la liga. Pittsburgh está segundo con registro de 33-19 (.635).
“Tenemos organizaciones similares”, dice el presidente emérito de los Steelers DAN ROONEY. “Somos similares en la forma en que funcionamos. Tenemos gran respeto por los Packers y siempre lo hemos tenido.”
Los Steelers están de regreso en el Super Bowl por tercera vez en los últimos seis años. Pittsburgh derrotó a Seattle en el Super Bowl XL (5 de febrero de 2006) y derrotó a Arizona en el Super Bowl XLIII (1 de febrero de 2009). Los Steelers realizarán su octava aparición en el Super Bowl, igualando a los Dallas Cowboys en la mayor cantidad en la historia.
“Esto es Pittsburgh”, dice el apoyador de los Steelers LARRY FOOTE. “Si no ganas el Super Bowl, es un fracaso. Los sujetos de los 1970s crearon esa mentalidad. Tienes que dar lo mejor de ti para dar la talla. Nuestra sala de reuniones de la defensiva está justo al lado de los trofeos Lombardi. Se espera que todos hagan su papel para ganar. Los estándares no cambian.”
Green Bay regresa al Super Bowl por primera vez desde las apariciones consecutivas en el Super Bowl XXXI (26 de enero de 1997) y XXXII (25 de enero de 1998). Los Packers derrotaron a New England en el Super Bowl XXXI y cayeron ante Denver en el Super Bowl XXXII. Green Bay realizará su cuarta aparición en el Super Bowl, incluyendo victorias en los Super Bowl I y II.
“Para mí, esto significa todo”, dice el receptor veterano de los Packers DONALD DRIVER, que disputará su primer Super Bowl. “Cuando juegas en esta liga por un largo tiempo, el objetivo principal es alcanzar el Super Bowl y después es ganarlo. Estoy emocionado por ello. Lo más grande para mí ahora es calzarme ese anillo y que sea parte de mi legado porque estuve en el Super Bowl y lo gané.”
En el Juego de Campeonato de la AFC, los Steelers eliminaron a los New York Jets 24-19 en el Heinz Field. El corredor RASHARD MENDENHALL acarreó 121 yardas y una anotación, y el mariscal de campo BEN ROETHLISBERGER se apuntó la 10º victoria de su carrera en postemporada. Roethlisberger, que está en su séptimo año, es uno de apenas tres mariscales de campo (miembro del Salón de la Fama TROY AIKMAN y TOM BRADY) en la historia de la NFL en ganar al menos 10 juegos de postemporada para el final de su séptima temporada.
CURIOSIDADES DE LA NFL
En el último encuentro entre estos dos equipos (20 de diciembre de 2009), el mariscal de Pittsburgh BEN ROETHLISBERGER (503 yardas) y el de Green Bay AARON RODGERS (383) se combinaron para 886 yardas pasando en el triunfo de los Steelers 37-36 sobre los Packers. Marcó el total de yardas más alto en la historia de la NFL en un juego que no tuvo intercepción alguna.
“Ben hace cosas que ningún otro hace”, sintetiza el analista de NFL Network y miembro del Salón de la Fama MICHAEL IRVIN acerca de Roethlisberger. “Si ganas Super Bowls, perteneces a los mejores que han practicado este deporte.”
Roethlisberger ya ganó dos Super Bowls en su carrera y con un triunfo el domingo se uniría a los miembros del Salón de la Fama TERRY BRADSHAW (cuatro), JOE MONTANA (cuatro) y Aikman (tres) y Brady (tres) como los únicos mariscales de campo titulares en la historia de la NFL en ganar al menos tres Super Bowls.
Green Bay adquirió su boleto al Norte de Texas con una victoria 21-14 en el Soldier Field sobre los Chicago Bears. La defensiva mostró el camino con tres intercepciones. El esquinero novato SAM SHIELDS, agente libre no seleccionado en el Sorteo Universitario, tuvo dos intercepciones y una captura, convirtiéndose en el primer novato en el NFL y el primer miembro de los Packers en registrar dos intercepciones y una captura en un juego de postemporada. El tackle defensivo B.J. RAJI agregó una intercepción clave en el último período que devolvió 18 yardas hasta la anotación. Raji es el primer lindero defensivo en la historia de la franquicia en devolver una intercepción hasta la anotación en la postemporada.
El de los Packers es el primer equipo preclasificado Nº 6 en la NFC en avanzar hasta el Super Bowl desde que la NFL instituyó el actual formato de postemporada, de 12 equipos, en 1990. El único otro preclasificado Nº 6 en llegar al Super Bowl fueron los Steelers de 2005, que terminaron ganando el Super Bowl XL.
Green Bay no estuvo detrás en el marcador por más de siete puntos en cualquiera de los juegos de esta temporada, el rpimer equipo en lograr la hazaña desde los Detroit Lions de 1962.
“Este equipo posee gran carácter”, explica el mariscal de campo de los Packers AARON RODGERS, que tiene un índice de pasador de 113.0 en su carrera en postemporada, el más alto en la historia de la NFL (mínimo de 100 intentos). “Si observas la plantilla ahora mismo, Hay un número de sujetos que no estaban con nosotros al comienzo de la temporada o no tenían reservado un papel preponderante. Tener estos jugadores dice mucho de nuestro carácter. Simplemente confiamos uno en el otro.”
El entrenador en jefe de Pittsburgh MIKE TOMLIN, que guió a los Steelers hasta la victoria en el Super Bowl XLIII, puede convertirse en el primer entrenador en jefe en la historia de la NFL en ganar dos Super Bowls en sus primeras cuatro temporadas. También está procurando convertirse en el entrenador en jefe más joven en los anales de la liga en ganar dos títulos de Super Bowl (38 años de edad).
“Es especial”, dice Tomlin acerca de haber alcanzado el Super Bowl XLV. “Hay 32 equipos que inician este viaje y ahora quedan dos. Somos los suficientemente afortunados de ser uno de ellos. Es increíble.”
En la banda opuesta estará el de Green Bay MIKE MC CARTHY, que creció en Pittsburgh y se pasó cuatro temporadas en la Universidad de Pittsburgh como asistente del entrenador.
“Pittsburgh es obviamente una gran parte de lo que soy”, reconoce McCarthy, que guió a los Packers a la postemporada en tres de las últimas cuatro temporadas. “Mi familia está allí aún. Esta será una experiencia única para todos. Fui aficionado de los Pittsburgh Steelers cuando niño y son mi segundo equipo favorito. Pero estamos preparándonos para derrotar a los Pittsburgh Steelers en un juego de fútbol americano y eso es lo que necesitamos para estar enfocados.
“Son un excelente equipo de fútbol americano, obviamente. Han tenido mucho éxito. Son un equipo veterano y experimentado. Han pasado por esta experiencia antes y nosotros no. Lo entendemos. Pero nosotros insistiremos para nuestro enfoque y esa es la manera en que lo encararemos. Nuestro objetivo es traer el Trofeo Lombardi de regreso a casa.”
Ambos equipos pueden atribuir algo del éxito esta temporada al estelar juego defensivo. Los Steelers, encabezados por el coordinador defensivo y miembro del Salón de la Fama DICK LE BEAU encabezaron la NFL permitiendo apenas 14.5 puntos por juego. El coordinador defensivo de Green Bay DOM CAPERS, que tuvo el mismo cargo con los Steelers en el período 1992-94, y los Packers se ubicaron segundos (15.0 puntos por juego).
Los dos equipos también se ubicaron uno-dos en índice de pasador del oponente (Green Bay 67.2, Pittsburgh 73.1) y capturas (Pittsburgh 48, Green Bay 47 – igualando el segundo puesto).
“Tengo tanto respeto por Dick Lebeau como cualquiera en este negocio”, dice Capers. “Lo considero un buen amigo. Estuvimos juntos en 1992 cuando BILL COWHER tomó el cargo y trabajamos juntos allí por tres años. Cualquiera que haya estado en la liga por más de 50 años como jugador y entrenador tiene que tener algo especial. No creo que cualquiera pueda compararse con él.”
Estas dos talentosas defensivas se combinaron para enviar siete jugadores al Pro Bowl este año: el apoyador JAMES HARRISON, el ala defensiva BRETT KEISEL y el profundo TROY POLAMALU, por Pittsburgh, y el profundo NICK COLLINS, el apoyador CLAY MATTHEWS y los esquineros TRAMON WILLIAMS y CHARLES WOODSON por Green Bay.
“Tenemos un montón de talento en este equipo”, dice Woodson. “Cada semana, alguien diferente saca pecho. TLos jugadores de este equipo han estado haciendo jugadas semana a semana. Tenemos un montón de sujetos que pueden hacer jugadas en cualquier momento y en cualquier punto del juego. Sabemos cuán duro es alcanzar el Super Bowl. Quieres ser capaz de llegar y ganarlo. Es a todo o nada ahora. Esperemos que podamos llegar y ganar.”
DEBUTS ON FOX AT 12:00 NOON ET ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
41ST Year of TV’s Longest-Running, Most-Honored Annual Sports Special
One-Hour Special Culled From 1.7 Million Feet of Game Film & 400 Hours of Game Audio from 133 Coaches & Players
How did the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers advance to Super Bowl XLV in North Texas? Re-live the journey as only NFL Films can present it on “Road to the Super Bowl” on Super Bowl Sunday, February 6 at 12:00 Noon ET on FOX.
“Road to the Super Bowl” begins with Kickoff Weekend and chronicles the 2010 NFL season utilizing NFL Films’ signature captivating video and sound from on the field and in the locker room from exclusive player and coach wirings.
“For those who love football, this show is red meat,” said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. “No interviews, no talking heads, all action.”
“Road to the Super Bowl” is the longest-running (41 years) and most honored (28 Sports Emmys) annual sports special. “Road to the Super Bowl,” which debuted following the 1969 season, was culled by NFL Films producers from more than 1.7 million feet of game footage to 980 feet for the one-hour special. In addition, more than 400 hours of audio were captured from 133 exclusive coach and player on-field wirings. Original orchestral music, including a 60-person choir, was used in producing the show.
41ST Year of TV’s Longest-Running, Most-Honored Annual Sports Special
One-Hour Special Culled From 1.7 Million Feet of Game Film & 400 Hours of Game Audio from 133 Coaches & Players
How did the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers advance to Super Bowl XLV in North Texas? Re-live the journey as only NFL Films can present it on “Road to the Super Bowl” on Super Bowl Sunday, February 6 at 12:00 Noon ET on FOX.
“Road to the Super Bowl” begins with Kickoff Weekend and chronicles the 2010 NFL season utilizing NFL Films’ signature captivating video and sound from on the field and in the locker room from exclusive player and coach wirings.
“For those who love football, this show is red meat,” said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. “No interviews, no talking heads, all action.”
“Road to the Super Bowl” is the longest-running (41 years) and most honored (28 Sports Emmys) annual sports special. “Road to the Super Bowl,” which debuted following the 1969 season, was culled by NFL Films producers from more than 1.7 million feet of game footage to 980 feet for the one-hour special. In addition, more than 400 hours of audio were captured from 133 exclusive coach and player on-field wirings. Original orchestral music, including a 60-person choir, was used in producing the show.
David Cruz ha compartido sus fotos con NMF.
Mucha suerte en tu viaje por Dallas David.
Mucha suerte en tu viaje por Dallas David.
Monday, January 31 2011
Face paint? Check.
Terrible Towel? In hand.
Steelers beads? Got 'em.
"We're here to send our team off right," said Mary Wright, 37, of the North Side before entering Heinz Field on Friday night with her small army of family and friends.
No game? No matter. An estimated 18,000 fans flocked to the North Shore despite below-freezing temperatures for a Steelers pep rally.
The Steelers are scheduled to depart Monday morning for Dallas, where they will go after their third Super Bowl championship in six years and seventh overall.
"This never gets old. These fans are amazing," said Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, as he stood on the sidelines with his wife, Pat. Moments earlier, Rooney received one of the most rousing ovations of the night and chants of "Roo-ney, Roo-ney" when he was introduced to the crowd.
Fireworks, Jumbotron highlights, live music and Steelers anthems such as Styx's "Renegade" played over the stadium's PA system revved up the crowd inside Heinz Field. Outside, fans tailgated, started cheers and chants, and posed for pictures at the statue of Art Rooney, which was clutching flowers and a Terrible Towel.
Players, however, were the night's main attraction. Twenty-seven of them — roughly half the team — appeared on a stage set up in the south end zone, at the open end of the stadium. Eleven players got on the microphone.
Pro Bowl defensive end Brett Keisel, sporting his mountain-man beard, sang an a cappella version of the Steelers anthem "Here We Go" before thanking the team's rabid fan base and vowing to bring another Lombardi Trophy to Pittsburgh with a victory over the Green Bay Packers on Feb. 6.
Pro Bowl linebacker James Harrison, sporting a T-shirt that read "Hittsburgh," got on the microphone twice. The first time, Harrison played coy — "We're going to go on down there to, where is it, Dallas, and see if we can't get (Super Bowl) No. 7," he said — before hollering "Pittttssssburrrgghh," dropping the mic and walking away.
Later, star running back Rashard Mendenhall stopped talking and started dancing when Harrison began beat-boxing into a microphone.
Reserve defensive lineman Chris Hoke led the towel-waving fans into another version of "Here We Go" to close out the rally at 8 p.m.
For some, the rally was a daylong affair.
Chad and Amy Martin allowed their children Chase, 8, and Olivia, 7, to skip school so they could travel 4 1/2 hours from northwest Ohio to attend the rally.
"We've always been Steelers fans, and now our kids are, too. We wanted them to experience this," said Chad, 39, wearing a No. 75 Mean Joe Greene jersey.
The Martins do have at least one connection to the team: Amy, 32, works in the Lima, Ohio, hospital where quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was born.
Bob and Chris Carmichael closed Princeton Auto, a Steubenville, Ohio, body shop they co-own, early to attend the rally with John Gentile, 43, and Denny Talamine, 60. They were tailgating in one of the lots surrounding Heinz Field by 4 p.m.
"This is more important," Bob Carmichael, 45, said. (source Pittsburgh Tribune Review)
Face paint? Check.
Terrible Towel? In hand.
Steelers beads? Got 'em.
"We're here to send our team off right," said Mary Wright, 37, of the North Side before entering Heinz Field on Friday night with her small army of family and friends.
No game? No matter. An estimated 18,000 fans flocked to the North Shore despite below-freezing temperatures for a Steelers pep rally.
The Steelers are scheduled to depart Monday morning for Dallas, where they will go after their third Super Bowl championship in six years and seventh overall.
"This never gets old. These fans are amazing," said Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, as he stood on the sidelines with his wife, Pat. Moments earlier, Rooney received one of the most rousing ovations of the night and chants of "Roo-ney, Roo-ney" when he was introduced to the crowd.
Fireworks, Jumbotron highlights, live music and Steelers anthems such as Styx's "Renegade" played over the stadium's PA system revved up the crowd inside Heinz Field. Outside, fans tailgated, started cheers and chants, and posed for pictures at the statue of Art Rooney, which was clutching flowers and a Terrible Towel.
Players, however, were the night's main attraction. Twenty-seven of them — roughly half the team — appeared on a stage set up in the south end zone, at the open end of the stadium. Eleven players got on the microphone.
Pro Bowl defensive end Brett Keisel, sporting his mountain-man beard, sang an a cappella version of the Steelers anthem "Here We Go" before thanking the team's rabid fan base and vowing to bring another Lombardi Trophy to Pittsburgh with a victory over the Green Bay Packers on Feb. 6.
Pro Bowl linebacker James Harrison, sporting a T-shirt that read "Hittsburgh," got on the microphone twice. The first time, Harrison played coy — "We're going to go on down there to, where is it, Dallas, and see if we can't get (Super Bowl) No. 7," he said — before hollering "Pittttssssburrrgghh," dropping the mic and walking away.
Later, star running back Rashard Mendenhall stopped talking and started dancing when Harrison began beat-boxing into a microphone.
Reserve defensive lineman Chris Hoke led the towel-waving fans into another version of "Here We Go" to close out the rally at 8 p.m.
For some, the rally was a daylong affair.
Chad and Amy Martin allowed their children Chase, 8, and Olivia, 7, to skip school so they could travel 4 1/2 hours from northwest Ohio to attend the rally.
"We've always been Steelers fans, and now our kids are, too. We wanted them to experience this," said Chad, 39, wearing a No. 75 Mean Joe Greene jersey.
The Martins do have at least one connection to the team: Amy, 32, works in the Lima, Ohio, hospital where quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was born.
Bob and Chris Carmichael closed Princeton Auto, a Steubenville, Ohio, body shop they co-own, early to attend the rally with John Gentile, 43, and Denny Talamine, 60. They were tailgating in one of the lots surrounding Heinz Field by 4 p.m.
"This is more important," Bob Carmichael, 45, said. (source Pittsburgh Tribune Review)
PITTSBURGH STEELERS at GREEN BAY PACKERS
PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Status Report
QUESTIONABLE
S Will Allen (knee), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
PROBABLE
CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
Practice Report
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
S Will Allen (knee), CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
Thursday
S Will Allen (knee), CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
Friday
S Will Allen (knee), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
Thursday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
Friday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
FULL PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Friday
CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot)
GREEN BAY PACKERS
Status Report
QUESTIONABLE
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
PROBABLE
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Practice Report (Green Bay did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday. The Wednesday and Thursday practice reports are an estimation).
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
Thursday
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
Friday
LB Erik Walden (ankle)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Thursday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Friday
T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
FULL PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Friday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), C Jason Spitz (calf)
PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Status Report
QUESTIONABLE
S Will Allen (knee), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
PROBABLE
CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
Practice Report
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
S Will Allen (knee), CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
Thursday
S Will Allen (knee), CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
Friday
S Will Allen (knee), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
Thursday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
Friday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
FULL PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Friday
CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot)
GREEN BAY PACKERS
Status Report
QUESTIONABLE
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
PROBABLE
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Practice Report (Green Bay did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday. The Wednesday and Thursday practice reports are an estimation).
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
Thursday
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
Friday
LB Erik Walden (ankle)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Thursday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Friday
T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
FULL PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Friday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), C Jason Spitz (calf)
Press Conference Transcript
Friday, Jan. 28
(How did Brandon Jackson do in protection last year against Pittsburgh and how important could he be in this game?)
Brandon Jackson performed very well last year in the Pittsburgh game, particularly in protection, and that’s a big part of it. They have the 3-4 scheme and the ability to try to create matchups with their linebackers, their playmakers on back. There is going to be a point in this game where our running backs are going to have to close the door on their pressure. Brandon, and really the whole group has excelled. Actually James Starks is off to a very good start for a young player, but Brandon Jackson played very well in that game last year.
(Who worked at outside linebacker with Walden out and Zombo limited?)
Frank Zombo practiced today for the first time. I’m going to hold Erik Walden until Wednesday’s practice down in Dallas. I’m just going to give him the full weekend to recover. Just worked the rest of our guys, Francois and Briggs.
Nota completa...
Friday, Jan. 28
(How did Brandon Jackson do in protection last year against Pittsburgh and how important could he be in this game?)
Brandon Jackson performed very well last year in the Pittsburgh game, particularly in protection, and that’s a big part of it. They have the 3-4 scheme and the ability to try to create matchups with their linebackers, their playmakers on back. There is going to be a point in this game where our running backs are going to have to close the door on their pressure. Brandon, and really the whole group has excelled. Actually James Starks is off to a very good start for a young player, but Brandon Jackson played very well in that game last year.
(Who worked at outside linebacker with Walden out and Zombo limited?)
Frank Zombo practiced today for the first time. I’m going to hold Erik Walden until Wednesday’s practice down in Dallas. I’m just going to give him the full weekend to recover. Just worked the rest of our guys, Francois and Briggs.
Nota completa...
Follow Super Bowl conversations from Twitter on www.nfl.com/visa
The NFL is encouraging fans to GO INSIDE SUPER BOWL XLV WITH VISA through the official online Super Bowl XLV destination featuring Twitter content. “Go Inside Super Bowl XLV With Visa” is an innovative way for fans to engage with and be a part of Super Bowl XLV using Twitter. It launches today on www.nfl.com/visa.
“Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with Visa” will provide fans with a single location to experience the most relevant Super Bowl XLV chatter happening on Twitter, including coverage of the event from all angles. It will include Tweets from some of the best people covering Super Bowl XLV and will pull in Tweets about the game, the NFL (@nfl), the Green Bay Packers (@packers) and Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers). This resource also will feature Tweets from NFL executives, media personalities, NFL players, Visa and celebrities contributing to telling the story of Super Bowl XLV on Twitter.
“Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with Visa” also will provide fans an easy way to send Tweets to players or include mentions of them in their Tweets by clicking on player photos. Fans also may contribute to the conversation by tagging their Tweets with #SB45, the official hashtag of Super Bowl XLV.
”Over the last year we’ve seen Twitter at the center of fan engagement at major international sporting events sponsored by Visa. Learning from these experiences, we have worked with Twitter and the NFL to bring the world's conversation about Super Bowl together in one place,” said ANTONIO LUCIO, Chief Marketing Officer, Visa Inc.
“We believe this is a great opportunity to provide unique coverage of America’s premier sporting event and to allow our fans from all over the world to experience Super Bowl week in an innovative way,” said HANS SCHROEDER, NFL SVP of Media Business Development. “We are excited to work with Visa and Twitter to make this possible.”
“Twitter lets fans anywhere experience the excitement and energy of the Super Bowl together, in real-time. ‘Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with VISA’ takes this one step further, distilling that conversation and excitement in a single place. We’re excited to be working with Visa and the NFL to help fans experience the Super Bowl in a new way,” said ADAM BAIN, Twitter’s President of Global Revenue.
"Go Inside Super Bowl XLV With VISA" will be featured prominently on www.superbowl.com, the NFL’s official online destination for all things Super Bowl XLV. Fans may access it via the web or mobile web by visiting www.nfl.com/visa. Visa (@VisaNFL) will run a supporting campaign on Twitter with Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends to generate greater awareness of “Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with VISA.”
Features of Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with VISA include:
* Featured Tweets: Displays Tweets from NFL executives, media personalities, NFL players, Visa discount offers and celebrities.
* Pulse: Graphic depiction of the most-frequently tweeted words and phrases.
* Map View: Highlights which key words/phrases are being tweeted in various NFL cities across the United States as well as across the world.
* Team Matchup: Depicts the conversations happening on Twitter about the two competing teams with a team-colored field reflecting the volume of team-related Tweets and team-specific trending topics. The field representation will shows which team is dominating the Twitter conversation at any point in time as shading will shift to reflect the ebb and flow of Tweets. Below each team will be a listing of the “Latest Tweets” (Tweets from fans), “Top Tweets” (most retweeted), and “Featured Tweets” (mix of players & official accounts related to the teams).
* Timeline: A timeline is integrated through all features, enabling users to follow the conversation or trends on a specific day or during a specific part of the game. Users also have the ability to replay the timeline leading up to and throughout Super Bowl XLV to see how the trends changed over time.
* Topic of the Day: Super Bowl-themed questions or conversation starters followed by fans’ Tweets in response.
The NFL is encouraging fans to GO INSIDE SUPER BOWL XLV WITH VISA through the official online Super Bowl XLV destination featuring Twitter content. “Go Inside Super Bowl XLV With Visa” is an innovative way for fans to engage with and be a part of Super Bowl XLV using Twitter. It launches today on www.nfl.com/visa.
“Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with Visa” will provide fans with a single location to experience the most relevant Super Bowl XLV chatter happening on Twitter, including coverage of the event from all angles. It will include Tweets from some of the best people covering Super Bowl XLV and will pull in Tweets about the game, the NFL (@nfl), the Green Bay Packers (@packers) and Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers). This resource also will feature Tweets from NFL executives, media personalities, NFL players, Visa and celebrities contributing to telling the story of Super Bowl XLV on Twitter.
“Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with Visa” also will provide fans an easy way to send Tweets to players or include mentions of them in their Tweets by clicking on player photos. Fans also may contribute to the conversation by tagging their Tweets with #SB45, the official hashtag of Super Bowl XLV.
”Over the last year we’ve seen Twitter at the center of fan engagement at major international sporting events sponsored by Visa. Learning from these experiences, we have worked with Twitter and the NFL to bring the world's conversation about Super Bowl together in one place,” said ANTONIO LUCIO, Chief Marketing Officer, Visa Inc.
“We believe this is a great opportunity to provide unique coverage of America’s premier sporting event and to allow our fans from all over the world to experience Super Bowl week in an innovative way,” said HANS SCHROEDER, NFL SVP of Media Business Development. “We are excited to work with Visa and Twitter to make this possible.”
“Twitter lets fans anywhere experience the excitement and energy of the Super Bowl together, in real-time. ‘Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with VISA’ takes this one step further, distilling that conversation and excitement in a single place. We’re excited to be working with Visa and the NFL to help fans experience the Super Bowl in a new way,” said ADAM BAIN, Twitter’s President of Global Revenue.
"Go Inside Super Bowl XLV With VISA" will be featured prominently on www.superbowl.com, the NFL’s official online destination for all things Super Bowl XLV. Fans may access it via the web or mobile web by visiting www.nfl.com/visa. Visa (@VisaNFL) will run a supporting campaign on Twitter with Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends to generate greater awareness of “Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with VISA.”
Features of Go Inside Super Bowl XLV with VISA include:
* Featured Tweets: Displays Tweets from NFL executives, media personalities, NFL players, Visa discount offers and celebrities.
* Pulse: Graphic depiction of the most-frequently tweeted words and phrases.
* Map View: Highlights which key words/phrases are being tweeted in various NFL cities across the United States as well as across the world.
* Team Matchup: Depicts the conversations happening on Twitter about the two competing teams with a team-colored field reflecting the volume of team-related Tweets and team-specific trending topics. The field representation will shows which team is dominating the Twitter conversation at any point in time as shading will shift to reflect the ebb and flow of Tweets. Below each team will be a listing of the “Latest Tweets” (Tweets from fans), “Top Tweets” (most retweeted), and “Featured Tweets” (mix of players & official accounts related to the teams).
* Timeline: A timeline is integrated through all features, enabling users to follow the conversation or trends on a specific day or during a specific part of the game. Users also have the ability to replay the timeline leading up to and throughout Super Bowl XLV to see how the trends changed over time.
* Topic of the Day: Super Bowl-themed questions or conversation starters followed by fans’ Tweets in response.
Friday, January 28 2011
NFL officials on Thursday outlined for the media the finances behind some of their proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement, expressing why they believed there should be significant urgency on both sides to complete a deal.
The officials, led by general counsel Jeff Pash, the NFL's chief negotiator in talks with the NFL Players Association, also shared slides from presentations they have made to all 32 owners, as well as to the NFLPA itself, during the months of talks aimed at generating a new CBA.
The current CBA is set to expire March 4, with the sides far apart on an agreement. Pash said there are no "intensive, round-the-clock negotiations" scheduled with the players at this point but stressed again that Commissioner Roger Goodell has no greater issue on his agenda.
NFLPA officials have countered that the league has been reluctant to join them for protracted negotiations, just one of many issues the sides have been unable to agree upon.
Contacted Thursday after the NFL's briefing, NFLPA sposkesman George Atallah said, "There is no evidence to suggest that the economic model is broken. There is no evidence to support their claims of a broken business model. Most importantly, there is no evidence that justifies a lockout."
In Thursday's briefing, though, Pash attempted to clarify some of the many murky issues spawned by the potential for a work stoppage.
Pash said he expects teams to continue to apply franchise tags in mid-February, even with the current deal set to expire. Pash also said that if progress is made, it is conceivable the sides could agree to push back the March 4 deadline in order to continue negotiations, as was the case in 2006.
Pash was joined at the briefing by Eric Grubman, executive vice president of business operations; Peter Ruocco, senior vice president of labor relations, and Joe Siclare, senior vice president and treasurer, during which the executives tried to clarify the economic hardships that could befall both sides should they fail to reach a deal in early March.
Some, including the NFLPA, have suggested that the league could benefit and perhaps even save some money via a lockout, and others have suggested that since Week 1 of the 2011 season is still so far away, the league is not under pressure to make a deal quickly. The league officials stated, however, that even a short work stoppage could have considerable direct financial impact on the NFL in the short and long term.
"Uncertainty about a labor agreement will have a clear and cumulative effect on our revenue," said Pash, who remains "optimistic" a new deal can be struck despite all of the hurdles in place.
Ruocco, a top official with the NFL Management Council (the body that oversees contractual and salary cap matters), explained the ramifications of a work stoppage on the potential 2011 free-agent class.
According to Ruocco, if the threshold for unrestricted free agency were to return to four accrued seasons (it took six seasons to become unrestricted in 2010, an uncapped year), this would be the biggest free-agent class ever with 495 players eligible. Of that group, 34 percent are deemed starters, having started eight games or more, which also would make it the highest-quality class ever in that regard.
That group would stand to profit heavily in March, as historically half of all free agents get some form of a bonus in March around when they sign, and the average bonus is $2 million, according to Ruocco. The timing of these payments is significant to players' pay cycles, since base salaries are paid over 17 game checks from September to January.
Given those numbers, the economic impact of roughly 500 free agents not receiving those bonuses this March due to a lockout would be high.
Ruocco also said that seven players have March option bonuses worth a total of $34.3 million; not all of that is guaranteed, and in the event of a longer lockout teams could end up drafting their replacements and end up not picking up some of those bonuses. Furthermore, there are 61 players due March roster bonuses worth a total of $77.5 million, according to Ruocco's figures, and six players are due $31.6 million in salary advances, money that could be lost, jeopardized or indefinitely pushed back due to labor unrest.
Those figures only include March; many players have option or roster bonuses due later in the spring or summer that also would not be paid until a new deal was signed. Furthermore, without a new deal, no draft picks or undrafted players could get signed -- directly impacting their earning potential.
Siclare has worked closely with teams and owners, as well as the league's various business partners, analyzing the economic impact of labor uncertainty on the league. Primarily, the NFL works with large companies and corporations on sponsorships and deals, and those partners expect a level of certainty about if or when games will be played as retailers prepare to stock shelves with merchandise ahead of the season, for example.
"We have already begun to see the effect of the uncertainty of a potential work stoppage, and it compounds over time," Siclare said, adding that his analysis shows "up to a billion dollars in revenues is at risk if a CBA is reached just prior to the start of the regular season."
Risk to the season might result in lower season-ticket renewals and could lead to roughly half the league lowering or keeping current ticket prices, Siclare said, and also threatens many long-term marketing agreements.
"We've been advised by sponsors, certain sponsors, that they will not renew in a work-stoppage scenario," Siclare said. He added that the league has also had a "major revision" from one licensing contract due to the labor uncertainty, resulting in a reduction of revenue in 2011.
Siclare said that an 11th-hour deal this March still would result in a loss of $120 million in revenue. Further, Siclare projects that getting a CBA deal done in August, just before the preseason, would lead to $350 million in lost revenue, and the longer a work stoppage lasts, then losses from gate receipts for preseason or regular-season games and stadium naming rights issues could also arise. The league projects $400 million per regular-season week in losses if the lockout extends into September.
A work stoppage also would impact the league's television contracts, the officials said. Some matters regarding the money from those contracts, as it could pertain to a work stoppage, are before the Special Master, limiting what could be said at this time (the NFLPA believes that TV money, with deals extended to 2014 in many cases, amounts to "lockout insurance").
The NFL will make $4 billion from its various television contracts in 2011, including its deal with DirecTV, but Pash said if games are lost, those payments would have to be returned "with interest," framing it more like a home equity loan, where you can get the check now but it will be "a source of debt," that must be repaid.
Looking at all of these factors for both parties, Pash said: "There is a substantial incentive for both sides to get a deal by March. The players have a lot of risk, and the clubs have a lot of risks. We know the financial consequences of no agreement."
The NFL officials also elaborated on why the current CBA has not worked to their benefit, in part with materials from their various presentations to the NFLPA. This economic data is all made available to the players and is mandated to be audited independently by a third party, according to the league and as per the CBA.
From 2005 -- when the prior labor deal expired -- to 2009, the NFL has made $5.5 billion in incremental revenue and, according to these figures, $3.8 billion of that has gone to player costs, which amounts to 70 percent. The players' share of revenues in regards to the CBA has been 58 percent, but when all of the various owner expenses are factored in (salaries of all team employees except for players, etc), the percentage of dollars brought in going to players becomes higher.
Owners also increasingly are putting more of their own money into stadiums and therefore assume the responsibility for all of the upkeep needed with massive scoreboards and updating amenities. Thus while the owners are generally pleased with the growth of the game and overall revenues, they are not happy with the degree to which those gains are being offset by rising player costs.
"We have a healthy business," Grubman said. "We're not losing money. But we don't have a healthy business model."
To that end, the officials pointed to the money that has been spent on new stadiums since 1999 (when the league and union became partners in a program, G3, aimed at spurring investment in better facilities, which would then boost revenues for all). Since then, the league has invested $4.4 billion to get new stadiums built and spent $31.6 billion on aggregate player costs during that time, while the salary-cap credits from the union toward the program during that span total $525 million, according to the league's numbers. Pash pointed out that since this current CBA has been in place there have been no new stadium deals completed (several new stadiums have been built, but the construction deals were in place before 2006).
Owners would like a new labor model to reward more innovation, as well. According to the numbers presented, currently an average team's local sponsorship deal of $1 million, once accounting for the percentage that goes to the players, as well as signage, sales commissions, event hospitality and all the hand-holding involved in fulfilling the commitment to that sponsor, will result in a profit of roughly only $70,000 for the team itself. They'd like to see that increase in a new deal.
The league's Kickoff event, a celebration of the first game of the season on a Thursday night, hosted by the Super Bowl winner, has been well received. However, the league officials present Thursday said that even though the event grossed $7.3 million in revenue in 2010, it actually cost the league $4.1 million to put on. The players' share of $4.2 million, plus additional costs associated with the event -- among them television programming at $1.9 million, event costs of $2.2 million and hospitality at $1.4 million -- put Kickoff in the red. The excitement and buzz the event creates makes it more than worth it, but owners would prefer if more of the direct costs of staging such an event could be deducted before the players get their share toward the salary cap.
Pash, while not wanting to speak for the union, said NFLPA officials have not "accepted" the league's analysis of some of these finances. "They've said the current agreement has worked well for the players," Pash said, "and I assume they perceive more risk for the players in changing than they do in maintaining the current structure."
While the union has proposed keeping the current deal in place for 2011, and beyond, the league wants some major changes. The league officials say they aim to learn from their mistakes from the current CBA, which some owners signed with trepidation, and accept responsibility for finding themselves in this situation.
"We've said that we don't have anyone to blame but ourselves," Pash said, "But it's not an agreement that has worked out in a satisfactory way. So rather than kick the can down the road another four or five years, let's figure out how to get a system in place that will be positive for the players and positive for the clubs." (source NFL.com)
NFL officials on Thursday outlined for the media the finances behind some of their proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement, expressing why they believed there should be significant urgency on both sides to complete a deal.
The officials, led by general counsel Jeff Pash, the NFL's chief negotiator in talks with the NFL Players Association, also shared slides from presentations they have made to all 32 owners, as well as to the NFLPA itself, during the months of talks aimed at generating a new CBA.
The current CBA is set to expire March 4, with the sides far apart on an agreement. Pash said there are no "intensive, round-the-clock negotiations" scheduled with the players at this point but stressed again that Commissioner Roger Goodell has no greater issue on his agenda.
NFLPA officials have countered that the league has been reluctant to join them for protracted negotiations, just one of many issues the sides have been unable to agree upon.
Contacted Thursday after the NFL's briefing, NFLPA sposkesman George Atallah said, "There is no evidence to suggest that the economic model is broken. There is no evidence to support their claims of a broken business model. Most importantly, there is no evidence that justifies a lockout."
In Thursday's briefing, though, Pash attempted to clarify some of the many murky issues spawned by the potential for a work stoppage.
Pash said he expects teams to continue to apply franchise tags in mid-February, even with the current deal set to expire. Pash also said that if progress is made, it is conceivable the sides could agree to push back the March 4 deadline in order to continue negotiations, as was the case in 2006.
Pash was joined at the briefing by Eric Grubman, executive vice president of business operations; Peter Ruocco, senior vice president of labor relations, and Joe Siclare, senior vice president and treasurer, during which the executives tried to clarify the economic hardships that could befall both sides should they fail to reach a deal in early March.
Some, including the NFLPA, have suggested that the league could benefit and perhaps even save some money via a lockout, and others have suggested that since Week 1 of the 2011 season is still so far away, the league is not under pressure to make a deal quickly. The league officials stated, however, that even a short work stoppage could have considerable direct financial impact on the NFL in the short and long term.
"Uncertainty about a labor agreement will have a clear and cumulative effect on our revenue," said Pash, who remains "optimistic" a new deal can be struck despite all of the hurdles in place.
Ruocco, a top official with the NFL Management Council (the body that oversees contractual and salary cap matters), explained the ramifications of a work stoppage on the potential 2011 free-agent class.
According to Ruocco, if the threshold for unrestricted free agency were to return to four accrued seasons (it took six seasons to become unrestricted in 2010, an uncapped year), this would be the biggest free-agent class ever with 495 players eligible. Of that group, 34 percent are deemed starters, having started eight games or more, which also would make it the highest-quality class ever in that regard.
That group would stand to profit heavily in March, as historically half of all free agents get some form of a bonus in March around when they sign, and the average bonus is $2 million, according to Ruocco. The timing of these payments is significant to players' pay cycles, since base salaries are paid over 17 game checks from September to January.
Given those numbers, the economic impact of roughly 500 free agents not receiving those bonuses this March due to a lockout would be high.
Ruocco also said that seven players have March option bonuses worth a total of $34.3 million; not all of that is guaranteed, and in the event of a longer lockout teams could end up drafting their replacements and end up not picking up some of those bonuses. Furthermore, there are 61 players due March roster bonuses worth a total of $77.5 million, according to Ruocco's figures, and six players are due $31.6 million in salary advances, money that could be lost, jeopardized or indefinitely pushed back due to labor unrest.
Those figures only include March; many players have option or roster bonuses due later in the spring or summer that also would not be paid until a new deal was signed. Furthermore, without a new deal, no draft picks or undrafted players could get signed -- directly impacting their earning potential.
Siclare has worked closely with teams and owners, as well as the league's various business partners, analyzing the economic impact of labor uncertainty on the league. Primarily, the NFL works with large companies and corporations on sponsorships and deals, and those partners expect a level of certainty about if or when games will be played as retailers prepare to stock shelves with merchandise ahead of the season, for example.
"We have already begun to see the effect of the uncertainty of a potential work stoppage, and it compounds over time," Siclare said, adding that his analysis shows "up to a billion dollars in revenues is at risk if a CBA is reached just prior to the start of the regular season."
Risk to the season might result in lower season-ticket renewals and could lead to roughly half the league lowering or keeping current ticket prices, Siclare said, and also threatens many long-term marketing agreements.
"We've been advised by sponsors, certain sponsors, that they will not renew in a work-stoppage scenario," Siclare said. He added that the league has also had a "major revision" from one licensing contract due to the labor uncertainty, resulting in a reduction of revenue in 2011.
Siclare said that an 11th-hour deal this March still would result in a loss of $120 million in revenue. Further, Siclare projects that getting a CBA deal done in August, just before the preseason, would lead to $350 million in lost revenue, and the longer a work stoppage lasts, then losses from gate receipts for preseason or regular-season games and stadium naming rights issues could also arise. The league projects $400 million per regular-season week in losses if the lockout extends into September.
A work stoppage also would impact the league's television contracts, the officials said. Some matters regarding the money from those contracts, as it could pertain to a work stoppage, are before the Special Master, limiting what could be said at this time (the NFLPA believes that TV money, with deals extended to 2014 in many cases, amounts to "lockout insurance").
The NFL will make $4 billion from its various television contracts in 2011, including its deal with DirecTV, but Pash said if games are lost, those payments would have to be returned "with interest," framing it more like a home equity loan, where you can get the check now but it will be "a source of debt," that must be repaid.
Looking at all of these factors for both parties, Pash said: "There is a substantial incentive for both sides to get a deal by March. The players have a lot of risk, and the clubs have a lot of risks. We know the financial consequences of no agreement."
The NFL officials also elaborated on why the current CBA has not worked to their benefit, in part with materials from their various presentations to the NFLPA. This economic data is all made available to the players and is mandated to be audited independently by a third party, according to the league and as per the CBA.
From 2005 -- when the prior labor deal expired -- to 2009, the NFL has made $5.5 billion in incremental revenue and, according to these figures, $3.8 billion of that has gone to player costs, which amounts to 70 percent. The players' share of revenues in regards to the CBA has been 58 percent, but when all of the various owner expenses are factored in (salaries of all team employees except for players, etc), the percentage of dollars brought in going to players becomes higher.
Owners also increasingly are putting more of their own money into stadiums and therefore assume the responsibility for all of the upkeep needed with massive scoreboards and updating amenities. Thus while the owners are generally pleased with the growth of the game and overall revenues, they are not happy with the degree to which those gains are being offset by rising player costs.
"We have a healthy business," Grubman said. "We're not losing money. But we don't have a healthy business model."
To that end, the officials pointed to the money that has been spent on new stadiums since 1999 (when the league and union became partners in a program, G3, aimed at spurring investment in better facilities, which would then boost revenues for all). Since then, the league has invested $4.4 billion to get new stadiums built and spent $31.6 billion on aggregate player costs during that time, while the salary-cap credits from the union toward the program during that span total $525 million, according to the league's numbers. Pash pointed out that since this current CBA has been in place there have been no new stadium deals completed (several new stadiums have been built, but the construction deals were in place before 2006).
Owners would like a new labor model to reward more innovation, as well. According to the numbers presented, currently an average team's local sponsorship deal of $1 million, once accounting for the percentage that goes to the players, as well as signage, sales commissions, event hospitality and all the hand-holding involved in fulfilling the commitment to that sponsor, will result in a profit of roughly only $70,000 for the team itself. They'd like to see that increase in a new deal.
The league's Kickoff event, a celebration of the first game of the season on a Thursday night, hosted by the Super Bowl winner, has been well received. However, the league officials present Thursday said that even though the event grossed $7.3 million in revenue in 2010, it actually cost the league $4.1 million to put on. The players' share of $4.2 million, plus additional costs associated with the event -- among them television programming at $1.9 million, event costs of $2.2 million and hospitality at $1.4 million -- put Kickoff in the red. The excitement and buzz the event creates makes it more than worth it, but owners would prefer if more of the direct costs of staging such an event could be deducted before the players get their share toward the salary cap.
Pash, while not wanting to speak for the union, said NFLPA officials have not "accepted" the league's analysis of some of these finances. "They've said the current agreement has worked well for the players," Pash said, "and I assume they perceive more risk for the players in changing than they do in maintaining the current structure."
While the union has proposed keeping the current deal in place for 2011, and beyond, the league wants some major changes. The league officials say they aim to learn from their mistakes from the current CBA, which some owners signed with trepidation, and accept responsibility for finding themselves in this situation.
"We've said that we don't have anyone to blame but ourselves," Pash said, "But it's not an agreement that has worked out in a satisfactory way. So rather than kick the can down the road another four or five years, let's figure out how to get a system in place that will be positive for the players and positive for the clubs." (source NFL.com)
Friday, January 28 2011
Now that quarterback Jay Cutler’s sprained left knee has taken its place in Chicago lore alongside Steve Bartman’s hand, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and Al Capone’s vault, the national debate over the quarterback’s fortitude inspires a more provocative question:
How can the National Football League Players’ Association, girding for its messy showdown with owners, hope to achieve solidarity when some NFLPA members accuse an injured player of gutlessness?
Regardless of how the public perceived the supposed indifference Cutler displayed over sitting out virtually the entire second half of the NFC Championship game last Sunday -- personally, I’m convinced his absence gave the Bears their only chance of a comeback against the Packers -- he was due the respect of his peers for no other reason than the imminent storm on the labor front.
Determining an equitable distribution of profits remains the most daunting challenge to a collective-bargaining agreement that would assure the NFL of a football season in 2011. But there are related issues.
Owners are pushing for an expansion of the regular-season schedule, from 16 to 18 games. With good reason, the players’ association contends that two additional games will make its athletes more vulnerable to the physical breakdowns that can shorten careers.
And while a compromise figures to be reached that includes expanded rosters and an increase in minimum salary, it’s certain that any compromise will be preceded by an owner-mandated lockout in early March.
In the meantime, NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith is resorting to the sort of shameful rhetoric that makes it difficult to empathize with the legitimate misgivings of his constituents.
“We are at war!” Smith declared the other day. Excuse me, General Patton, but you are not at war. You never have been at war, and you never will be at war.
“Nobody stays strong without fighting,” Smith lectured a group of 20 player representatives a few months ago. “Nobody negotiates their way to strength. Nobody talks their way to a good deal. Nobody sits down and just has miraculous things happen.”
Yikes. With a blowhard like this guy calling the shots for the NFLPA, there’s a temptation to put the over-under year on the resumption of Sunday afternoon football at 2525.
As for the men who put their bodies at risk by participating in this dangerous game week after week, you’d think they might want to hang tight. Friend or foe, intense rival or roster-fringe obscurity, they’re all in this together -- part of a brotherhood -- right?
But when the Bears team doctors told Cutler to watch the rest of the second half from the sideline Sunday -- an order met with an apparent minimum of resistance from the dour-faced quarterback -- several of his players’ association peers immediately posted their interpretation of Cutler’s docile body language via Twitter texts.
“If I’m on chicago team Jay Cutler has to wait till me and the team shower and get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room!” noted Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, who evidently was too overwhelmed by his pre-med course load at Florida State to devote any time to learning elementary grammar. (It all worked out. Dockett is an obviously talented player, worthy of his status as a mainstay of a fearsome Arizona defense that gave up a mere 27 points per game this season.)
“If he was my teammate,” Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel wrote of Cutler, “I would be looking sideways.” (As opposed to Cutler’s actual teammates. They looked interviewers straight in the eyes while vouching for his toughness.)
Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks insisted Cutler could have returned by gulping down some pain relievers: “MEDS ARE AVAILABLE,” tweeted Dr. Brooks, perhaps unaware that Cutler, as a Type-1 diabetic, typically is denied available meds.
A surprising amount of hostility toward Cutler came from Seattle defenders, who gave up 21 points in their divisional playoff game at Chicago before their uniforms got dirty.
“You dont not play in the NFC championship game cuz your knee hurt, only way I’d come out is if my knee is jus shattered,” tweeted linebacker Aaron Curry. (When Cutler was alerted of that stinging critique, his likely response could’ve been: “Aaron Who?”) At least Curry had the decency to resist pummeling Cutler with the schoolyard insults used by Seattle teammate Raheem Brock.
“Cutler u little siSsy,” Brock wrote of the siSsy who, against the Seahawks, became the first quarterback in 50 years to throw for two touchdowns and run for two touchdowns in a postseason game.
Brock then went on a rant too creepy to be dignified by in print. But, hey, Raheem, we get it. You’re the toughest of the tough, the meanest of the mean, and the 35 points your team allowed against an offense operated by the wimpy Jay Cutler were clearly a fluke.
I understand the NFLPA’s stance against the owners. I understand it when Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth, during a recent conference call with reporters, says: “We’re just not going to budge on health and safety, and we’d like to gain more ground on ways we can protect former players and current players.”
All the best on your noble quest, Domonique. The health and safety of these phenomenally entertaining athletes in the NFL should be everybody’s paramount concern.
But amid the social-media revolution, I’m wondering: How do you protect a current player from current players?
Jay Cutler hurt his knee last Sunday.
Instead of demanding an inquiry about the slippery field that posed an unsafe work place, many of his NFLPA colleagues chose to mock him.
This is a brotherhood? This article was written by John McGrath and appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Now that quarterback Jay Cutler’s sprained left knee has taken its place in Chicago lore alongside Steve Bartman’s hand, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and Al Capone’s vault, the national debate over the quarterback’s fortitude inspires a more provocative question:
How can the National Football League Players’ Association, girding for its messy showdown with owners, hope to achieve solidarity when some NFLPA members accuse an injured player of gutlessness?
Regardless of how the public perceived the supposed indifference Cutler displayed over sitting out virtually the entire second half of the NFC Championship game last Sunday -- personally, I’m convinced his absence gave the Bears their only chance of a comeback against the Packers -- he was due the respect of his peers for no other reason than the imminent storm on the labor front.
Determining an equitable distribution of profits remains the most daunting challenge to a collective-bargaining agreement that would assure the NFL of a football season in 2011. But there are related issues.
Owners are pushing for an expansion of the regular-season schedule, from 16 to 18 games. With good reason, the players’ association contends that two additional games will make its athletes more vulnerable to the physical breakdowns that can shorten careers.
And while a compromise figures to be reached that includes expanded rosters and an increase in minimum salary, it’s certain that any compromise will be preceded by an owner-mandated lockout in early March.
In the meantime, NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith is resorting to the sort of shameful rhetoric that makes it difficult to empathize with the legitimate misgivings of his constituents.
“We are at war!” Smith declared the other day. Excuse me, General Patton, but you are not at war. You never have been at war, and you never will be at war.
“Nobody stays strong without fighting,” Smith lectured a group of 20 player representatives a few months ago. “Nobody negotiates their way to strength. Nobody talks their way to a good deal. Nobody sits down and just has miraculous things happen.”
Yikes. With a blowhard like this guy calling the shots for the NFLPA, there’s a temptation to put the over-under year on the resumption of Sunday afternoon football at 2525.
As for the men who put their bodies at risk by participating in this dangerous game week after week, you’d think they might want to hang tight. Friend or foe, intense rival or roster-fringe obscurity, they’re all in this together -- part of a brotherhood -- right?
But when the Bears team doctors told Cutler to watch the rest of the second half from the sideline Sunday -- an order met with an apparent minimum of resistance from the dour-faced quarterback -- several of his players’ association peers immediately posted their interpretation of Cutler’s docile body language via Twitter texts.
“If I’m on chicago team Jay Cutler has to wait till me and the team shower and get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room!” noted Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, who evidently was too overwhelmed by his pre-med course load at Florida State to devote any time to learning elementary grammar. (It all worked out. Dockett is an obviously talented player, worthy of his status as a mainstay of a fearsome Arizona defense that gave up a mere 27 points per game this season.)
“If he was my teammate,” Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel wrote of Cutler, “I would be looking sideways.” (As opposed to Cutler’s actual teammates. They looked interviewers straight in the eyes while vouching for his toughness.)
Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks insisted Cutler could have returned by gulping down some pain relievers: “MEDS ARE AVAILABLE,” tweeted Dr. Brooks, perhaps unaware that Cutler, as a Type-1 diabetic, typically is denied available meds.
A surprising amount of hostility toward Cutler came from Seattle defenders, who gave up 21 points in their divisional playoff game at Chicago before their uniforms got dirty.
“You dont not play in the NFC championship game cuz your knee hurt, only way I’d come out is if my knee is jus shattered,” tweeted linebacker Aaron Curry. (When Cutler was alerted of that stinging critique, his likely response could’ve been: “Aaron Who?”) At least Curry had the decency to resist pummeling Cutler with the schoolyard insults used by Seattle teammate Raheem Brock.
“Cutler u little siSsy,” Brock wrote of the siSsy who, against the Seahawks, became the first quarterback in 50 years to throw for two touchdowns and run for two touchdowns in a postseason game.
Brock then went on a rant too creepy to be dignified by in print. But, hey, Raheem, we get it. You’re the toughest of the tough, the meanest of the mean, and the 35 points your team allowed against an offense operated by the wimpy Jay Cutler were clearly a fluke.
I understand the NFLPA’s stance against the owners. I understand it when Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth, during a recent conference call with reporters, says: “We’re just not going to budge on health and safety, and we’d like to gain more ground on ways we can protect former players and current players.”
All the best on your noble quest, Domonique. The health and safety of these phenomenally entertaining athletes in the NFL should be everybody’s paramount concern.
But amid the social-media revolution, I’m wondering: How do you protect a current player from current players?
Jay Cutler hurt his knee last Sunday.
Instead of demanding an inquiry about the slippery field that posed an unsafe work place, many of his NFLPA colleagues chose to mock him.
This is a brotherhood? This article was written by John McGrath and appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Friday, January 28 2011
OK, so the headline is a bit of hyperbole. (Me? Hyperbolic? Say it ain’t so!) But Steelers-Packers looks more and more like the last NFL game before the owners lock out their players, and there’s a chance a lockout could last a while.
My default position has been that the NFL is too smart to fall into a long-term work stoppage. (Yes, I was around in 1982, when half the season was lost to a players’ strike, and again in 1987, when the workers again walked out and three regrettable games using replacements were staged.) Baseball has since lost a World Series and the NBA half a season and the NHL a whole season, and pro football has sailed blissfully onward. But the bliss is about to end.
I’m not sure this NFL commissioner and these owners are as smart as those we’d come to know. History lesson: The NFL got huge because Pete Rozelle convinced his owners they were partners first and competitors second and that any TV contracts must be league contracts. (This as opposed to baseball, where each franchise works out its local TV deal for itself, which is why the Yankees mint money and the Pirates haven’t had a winning season since Sid Bream slid.)
Rozelle was the smartest commissioner in the history of sports — apologies to David Stern — and was succeeded by Paul Tagliabue, himself no dummy. But Roger Goodell is the new sheriff, and he seems markedly less clever.
In an excellent Lockout Primer, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk suggests the NFL suffers from a lack of gravitas, which is another way of saying: Too many owners want to be like Jerry Jones. The owners of yore, schooled and herded by Rozelle, knew that to miss games was bad for business. It was the players who went on strike in 1982 and again in 1987, and both times they came back to work without having gained what they wanted. The players were simply losing too much money not playing. It will take a while before these owners lose enough money to hurt.
These owners want, shock of shocks, to share less revenue. (Building your own stadium is hard, Jerry Jones wants us to know.) And the owners do have leverage: They’re rich already; they don’t have to depend on weekly checks the way players do. When regular-season games start being lost, it’s going to hurt the players more than the owners. And the side suffering more is the side apt to surrender.
To answer a question often raised: There will be a draft even if there’s a lockout. But, as Peter King of SI.com has noted, there might not be any free agency if this lockout lasts into September. And right now, I’d guess it will last at least that long. Because I have no faith in Goodell to control his owners.
Goodell just announced he would cut his salary from $10 million to $1 if there’s a work stoppage. It’s another in a series of Grand Goodell Gestures, but this commissioner is better at gesturing than he is at commissioning. And really, wouldn’t the better course be to say, “If I can stave off a lockout, my salary gets doubled”?
For the first time, the players seem to be hitting the right notes. (Antonio Cromartie’s rant notwithstanding.) They’re positioning themselves as victims, not instigators. The NFL Players Association has even launched a Web site — NFLLockout.com — to take its case to the people. And that’s another key difference: If the players are convinced they’ve been wronged, they might actually stick together this time.
A guess: This Super Bowl won’t be the last pro football game we ever see, but it will be the last we see until October. This article was written by Mark Bradley and appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
OK, so the headline is a bit of hyperbole. (Me? Hyperbolic? Say it ain’t so!) But Steelers-Packers looks more and more like the last NFL game before the owners lock out their players, and there’s a chance a lockout could last a while.
My default position has been that the NFL is too smart to fall into a long-term work stoppage. (Yes, I was around in 1982, when half the season was lost to a players’ strike, and again in 1987, when the workers again walked out and three regrettable games using replacements were staged.) Baseball has since lost a World Series and the NBA half a season and the NHL a whole season, and pro football has sailed blissfully onward. But the bliss is about to end.
I’m not sure this NFL commissioner and these owners are as smart as those we’d come to know. History lesson: The NFL got huge because Pete Rozelle convinced his owners they were partners first and competitors second and that any TV contracts must be league contracts. (This as opposed to baseball, where each franchise works out its local TV deal for itself, which is why the Yankees mint money and the Pirates haven’t had a winning season since Sid Bream slid.)
Rozelle was the smartest commissioner in the history of sports — apologies to David Stern — and was succeeded by Paul Tagliabue, himself no dummy. But Roger Goodell is the new sheriff, and he seems markedly less clever.
In an excellent Lockout Primer, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk suggests the NFL suffers from a lack of gravitas, which is another way of saying: Too many owners want to be like Jerry Jones. The owners of yore, schooled and herded by Rozelle, knew that to miss games was bad for business. It was the players who went on strike in 1982 and again in 1987, and both times they came back to work without having gained what they wanted. The players were simply losing too much money not playing. It will take a while before these owners lose enough money to hurt.
These owners want, shock of shocks, to share less revenue. (Building your own stadium is hard, Jerry Jones wants us to know.) And the owners do have leverage: They’re rich already; they don’t have to depend on weekly checks the way players do. When regular-season games start being lost, it’s going to hurt the players more than the owners. And the side suffering more is the side apt to surrender.
To answer a question often raised: There will be a draft even if there’s a lockout. But, as Peter King of SI.com has noted, there might not be any free agency if this lockout lasts into September. And right now, I’d guess it will last at least that long. Because I have no faith in Goodell to control his owners.
Goodell just announced he would cut his salary from $10 million to $1 if there’s a work stoppage. It’s another in a series of Grand Goodell Gestures, but this commissioner is better at gesturing than he is at commissioning. And really, wouldn’t the better course be to say, “If I can stave off a lockout, my salary gets doubled”?
For the first time, the players seem to be hitting the right notes. (Antonio Cromartie’s rant notwithstanding.) They’re positioning themselves as victims, not instigators. The NFL Players Association has even launched a Web site — NFLLockout.com — to take its case to the people. And that’s another key difference: If the players are convinced they’ve been wronged, they might actually stick together this time.
A guess: This Super Bowl won’t be the last pro football game we ever see, but it will be the last we see until October. This article was written by Mark Bradley and appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Friday, January 28 2011
Although the NFL emphasizes over and over that seating arrangements for next Sunday's Super Bowl are still being finalized, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Thursday that "about 105,000 or so" people are expected to be at Cowboys Stadium, which, of course, would set a new Super Bowl attendance record.
McCarthy said that roughly 100,000 tickets have been sold -- 95,000 in the stands and about 5,000 in the outdoor party plaza area. Throw in an additional 5,000 or staff and media members, and "there will be about 105,000 or so at the stadium" on Feb. 6.
The Super Bowl attendance record of 103,985 was set in 1980 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The Cowboys, of course, packed more than 105,000 into the stadium for the first regular-season home game in 2009, but around 30,000 of those were standing-room tickets in the end zone party plazas (inside the building.) The NFL is installing about 15,000 temporary seats for the Super Bowl, wiping out all three decks of the end zone plazas.
But Bill McConnell, the NFL's director of event operations, said during a stadium tour Thursday that the league will sell around 500 standing-room tickets that will allow fans to watch the game from platforms in the end zone stairwells. This article was written by Andrean Ahles and appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Although the NFL emphasizes over and over that seating arrangements for next Sunday's Super Bowl are still being finalized, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Thursday that "about 105,000 or so" people are expected to be at Cowboys Stadium, which, of course, would set a new Super Bowl attendance record.
McCarthy said that roughly 100,000 tickets have been sold -- 95,000 in the stands and about 5,000 in the outdoor party plaza area. Throw in an additional 5,000 or staff and media members, and "there will be about 105,000 or so at the stadium" on Feb. 6.
The Super Bowl attendance record of 103,985 was set in 1980 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The Cowboys, of course, packed more than 105,000 into the stadium for the first regular-season home game in 2009, but around 30,000 of those were standing-room tickets in the end zone party plazas (inside the building.) The NFL is installing about 15,000 temporary seats for the Super Bowl, wiping out all three decks of the end zone plazas.
But Bill McConnell, the NFL's director of event operations, said during a stadium tour Thursday that the league will sell around 500 standing-room tickets that will allow fans to watch the game from platforms in the end zone stairwells. This article was written by Andrean Ahles and appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Friday, January 28 2011
A few fans were burning jerseys in Chicago over the weekend, just as a few of them did six months ago in Cleveland.
A lot of fans have chosen in recent years to stay away from the Coliseum in Oakland, because the baseball team wants out and the football team has lost its way.
As unemployment has remained high, as credit has gotten harder to obtain, as working people sacrifice to survive, the air about sports, generally perceived as a sanctuary from the challenges of life, has become hotter than ever.
It will get downright volatile if fans are deprived of their beloved NFL.
Five months ago, I was certain there would be no lockout. Both sides are too smart to do that to themselves. Owners are thriving, players are prosperous. The game has never been more popular and profitable or better at siphoning cash from its addicts.
Nothing could convince me the league and its players union would be willing to jeopardize their immense popularity, much less chop down the money trees they share.
Now that the sniping is under way, I'm a little less certain a collective bargaining agreement will be in place by the March 3 deadline.
With 35 days until then, both sides are resorting to posturing, as happens when there is a looming conflict. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association director DeMaurice Smith are snorting and sniping and making the expected threats.
They are playing games with each other, orchestrating campaigns designed to catch any drop of sympathy the public may have.
When Goodell stated Wednesday that he'll reduce his annual salary from $10 million to $1 if there is a lockout, he wasn't speaking to the NFL Players Association. He wasn't speaking to or for the owners he represents.
Goodell was speaking to the fans, to those who simply want a resolution. The commissioner knows, just as Bears quarterback Jay Cutler knows, fans are edgier than ever and will find someone or something to blame. Goodell's vow is his way of whispering into the ear of an increasingly anxious public that he's willing to sacrifice for them because, hey, he cares.
"Let me emphasize that we are committed to doing everything possible to reach a new collective bargaining agreement," Goodell said in a letter to NFL owners.
Hearing about Goodell's pledge to cut his salary, Smith responded via, you guessed it, Twitter: "If we have a deal by the Super Bowl," he tweeted, "I'll go down to 68 cents."
What Goodell and Smith fail to recognize is fans don't care about their salaries. Fans, quite frankly, don't care about Goodell and Smith.
Fans care about having an NFL team nearby or seeing one from their living rooms. They care about tailgating or sitting before big-screen TVs. They care about the price of season tickets, the price of NFL Sunday Ticket, the price of NFL Network.
They care less about the chiefs in the labor beef than they do about the price of the jersey they'll torch in a moment of outrage.
The average NFL franchise is worth about $1 billion. Though one of the issues among the owners is displeasure from those who generate more earnings than others, they still share obscene amounts of TV revenue.
The average NFL player makes about $1.7 million. He's not poor, but he bears the brunt of the suffering and sacrifice while taking in considerably less than the owner.
Players at the core of the business, attracting the fans, retire after a few years with a few dollars, a lot of sweet memories and all too often, a lifetime of physical agony.
Owners rarely retire because business is too good, their egos are too big and nobody can make them leave. One owner, Buffalo's Ralph Wilson, is 92 and at least seven more are in their 80s.
Though it's virtually impossible for an NFL owner to go broke, it happens to players with alarming frequency. Sometimes, it's bad investments. Mostly, though, it goes back to inadequate retirement benefits relative to the tremendous punishment their bodies absorb.
Sadly, most fans -- especially those under 40 -- don't care about that, either. They love the game and they love their teams. They crave the action. If you don't believe the end of each football season leaves millions of Americans with a hangover, ask a real fan.
Imagine, then, the unrest should there be no season. Or, worse, a season with players we don't know representing the teams we thought we knew.
If fans will burn jerseys when a LeBron James leaves town or a Jay Cutler disappoints a city, we don't want to see where that destructive energy could go without sport as a natural outlet. This article was written by Monte Poole and appeared in The Contra Costa Times.
A few fans were burning jerseys in Chicago over the weekend, just as a few of them did six months ago in Cleveland.
A lot of fans have chosen in recent years to stay away from the Coliseum in Oakland, because the baseball team wants out and the football team has lost its way.
As unemployment has remained high, as credit has gotten harder to obtain, as working people sacrifice to survive, the air about sports, generally perceived as a sanctuary from the challenges of life, has become hotter than ever.
It will get downright volatile if fans are deprived of their beloved NFL.
Five months ago, I was certain there would be no lockout. Both sides are too smart to do that to themselves. Owners are thriving, players are prosperous. The game has never been more popular and profitable or better at siphoning cash from its addicts.
Nothing could convince me the league and its players union would be willing to jeopardize their immense popularity, much less chop down the money trees they share.
Now that the sniping is under way, I'm a little less certain a collective bargaining agreement will be in place by the March 3 deadline.
With 35 days until then, both sides are resorting to posturing, as happens when there is a looming conflict. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association director DeMaurice Smith are snorting and sniping and making the expected threats.
They are playing games with each other, orchestrating campaigns designed to catch any drop of sympathy the public may have.
When Goodell stated Wednesday that he'll reduce his annual salary from $10 million to $1 if there is a lockout, he wasn't speaking to the NFL Players Association. He wasn't speaking to or for the owners he represents.
Goodell was speaking to the fans, to those who simply want a resolution. The commissioner knows, just as Bears quarterback Jay Cutler knows, fans are edgier than ever and will find someone or something to blame. Goodell's vow is his way of whispering into the ear of an increasingly anxious public that he's willing to sacrifice for them because, hey, he cares.
"Let me emphasize that we are committed to doing everything possible to reach a new collective bargaining agreement," Goodell said in a letter to NFL owners.
Hearing about Goodell's pledge to cut his salary, Smith responded via, you guessed it, Twitter: "If we have a deal by the Super Bowl," he tweeted, "I'll go down to 68 cents."
What Goodell and Smith fail to recognize is fans don't care about their salaries. Fans, quite frankly, don't care about Goodell and Smith.
Fans care about having an NFL team nearby or seeing one from their living rooms. They care about tailgating or sitting before big-screen TVs. They care about the price of season tickets, the price of NFL Sunday Ticket, the price of NFL Network.
They care less about the chiefs in the labor beef than they do about the price of the jersey they'll torch in a moment of outrage.
The average NFL franchise is worth about $1 billion. Though one of the issues among the owners is displeasure from those who generate more earnings than others, they still share obscene amounts of TV revenue.
The average NFL player makes about $1.7 million. He's not poor, but he bears the brunt of the suffering and sacrifice while taking in considerably less than the owner.
Players at the core of the business, attracting the fans, retire after a few years with a few dollars, a lot of sweet memories and all too often, a lifetime of physical agony.
Owners rarely retire because business is too good, their egos are too big and nobody can make them leave. One owner, Buffalo's Ralph Wilson, is 92 and at least seven more are in their 80s.
Though it's virtually impossible for an NFL owner to go broke, it happens to players with alarming frequency. Sometimes, it's bad investments. Mostly, though, it goes back to inadequate retirement benefits relative to the tremendous punishment their bodies absorb.
Sadly, most fans -- especially those under 40 -- don't care about that, either. They love the game and they love their teams. They crave the action. If you don't believe the end of each football season leaves millions of Americans with a hangover, ask a real fan.
Imagine, then, the unrest should there be no season. Or, worse, a season with players we don't know representing the teams we thought we knew.
If fans will burn jerseys when a LeBron James leaves town or a Jay Cutler disappoints a city, we don't want to see where that destructive energy could go without sport as a natural outlet. This article was written by Monte Poole and appeared in The Contra Costa Times.
Friday, January 28 2011
On Wednesday morning, N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell sent an internal memo to his staff telling it that he would take a $1 salary if owners lock out players. His promise to slash his compensation from about $10 million was reported on Twitter by an NFL Network reporter, provided by the league to the Sports Business Journal, then reported and posted on Twitter by other outlets, including NFL.com.
Hours later, DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the players union, responded on Twitter that he would work for 68 cents if an agreement is reached by the Super Bowl.
The Goodell-Smith volley was the latest in a dispute that is the first in sports history to be played out extensively on digital turf. With the current labor agreement between the league and the union expiring March 3, the two sides are jabbing, countering and needling each other on Twitter, Facebook and on Web sites devoted entirely to the possible lockout. Their online dueling is designed, in part, to woo fans to their corners.
“Fans buy the tickets, fans buy the products, fans fill the stadiums and can have influence on politicians,” Paul Hicks, the league’s executive vice president of communications and government relations, said in an interview. “I think owners and players are highly sensitive to fan opinion.”
Hicks is a central figure in the league’s strategy to disseminate information as quickly as possible, like Goodell’s recent letter, which was e-mailed to five million fans and explained the league’s collective-bargaining position.
“You need to sell your idea and use every opportunity you can at a speed that is not generally normal in a business environment,” Hicks said. “We have a campaign mentality. We want to market our proposals and the way we want the game to be in the future.”
News conferences used to be the primary arena for leagues and unions to state their cases and respond to what the other side was saying.
Now a retort is a click away. Both the league and the union hope for an extensive back-and-forth on Twitter among like-minded users.
On Jan. 21, the league took to Twitter to highlight a poll that said 99 percent of respondents opposed Congressional involvement in the stalled labor talks. In his riposte, George Atallah, the union’s assistant executive director, whose role is similar to Hicks’s, wrote, “Those are Kim Jong-il’s,” referring to the North Korean leader.
Atallah and Hicks play their similar roles in different ways. Hicks, 54, is rarely quoted, unlike his predecessor, Joe Browne, and does not use Twitter, although members of his staff do. Atallah, 32, has become a public personality because of the labor dispute; he uses Twitter regularly and is frequently interviewed.
“I have a responsibility to make sure the players’ side is accurately portrayed and to the media to be a credible source of information,” said Atallah, who has a media staff of six. “Player engagement leads to fan engagement.”
The union has asked fans to lobby Congress, sign petitions and unite with players on “Let Us Play Day” earlier this month to demand that there be no lockout.
Both Atallah and Hicks had previously worked at public relations firms. Atallah was hired by Smith in 2009 from Qorvis Communications. Hicks arrived at the league last summer from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, taking a position that has traditionally gone to a league insider, or a former sportswriter.
“Paul’s been here for five months,” said Browne, now a senior adviser to Goodell, “and there are very few half-truths that the union has put out that we haven’t responded to.”
Doug Allen, a former official of the players union, said that in 2006 when there were tense talks that eventually led to an extension of the labor agreement, the union had a modest Web site.
“We did a little, but no social media,” he said. Now, with both sides better equipped (only the union uses Facebook), he added, “It alters the atmosphere, but I’m not sure it changes the leverage on both sides. It would, if one side were doing it and the other weren’t.”
Indeed, the digital back-and-forth illustrates, 140 characters at a time, the divide that exists behind closed doors between the negotiators over revenue sharing (the league wants to share less); the proposed 18-game season and the impact on players’ health with two extra games; the urgency (or lack thereof) of the talks, and the league’s refusal to let the union look at its books.
“A while ago,” Atallah said, “the N.F.L. did some post about there not being enough meetings — that we didn’t want to meet — and we happened to be in a meeting at the time. So I tweeted it.”
On any given day, the online exchanges and competitive claims might look alternately substantive or silly. Regardless, there is a sense that the league and the union have learned from politics, and the need to respond to their opponent’s positions.
The league’s NFLLabor.com Web site on Wednesday offered a glimpse of its strategy. One item reported on Goodell’s phone call on Tuesday to a Denver Broncos fan and blogger; another post quoted the Falcons’ owner, Arthur Blank, as saying that the league is “ready to do whatever it takes” to reach a new agreement but that the union must “step up with the same sense of urgency.”
A section of the union’s lockout Web site comes with a clock counting down to the labor agreement’s expiration date, and links to articles and Twitter posts that favor its position.
The success of the online strategies, however, cannot be easily measured. William B. Gould IV, a law professor at Stanford University and a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, said that the league and the union are trading views online about issues that are easily understandable to football fans.
“They’re trumpeting their positions to the public,” he said. “But my sense is that this stuff does not fundamentally change things in disputes that are difficult to resolve.” (source New York Times)
On Wednesday morning, N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell sent an internal memo to his staff telling it that he would take a $1 salary if owners lock out players. His promise to slash his compensation from about $10 million was reported on Twitter by an NFL Network reporter, provided by the league to the Sports Business Journal, then reported and posted on Twitter by other outlets, including NFL.com.
Hours later, DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the players union, responded on Twitter that he would work for 68 cents if an agreement is reached by the Super Bowl.
The Goodell-Smith volley was the latest in a dispute that is the first in sports history to be played out extensively on digital turf. With the current labor agreement between the league and the union expiring March 3, the two sides are jabbing, countering and needling each other on Twitter, Facebook and on Web sites devoted entirely to the possible lockout. Their online dueling is designed, in part, to woo fans to their corners.
“Fans buy the tickets, fans buy the products, fans fill the stadiums and can have influence on politicians,” Paul Hicks, the league’s executive vice president of communications and government relations, said in an interview. “I think owners and players are highly sensitive to fan opinion.”
Hicks is a central figure in the league’s strategy to disseminate information as quickly as possible, like Goodell’s recent letter, which was e-mailed to five million fans and explained the league’s collective-bargaining position.
“You need to sell your idea and use every opportunity you can at a speed that is not generally normal in a business environment,” Hicks said. “We have a campaign mentality. We want to market our proposals and the way we want the game to be in the future.”
News conferences used to be the primary arena for leagues and unions to state their cases and respond to what the other side was saying.
Now a retort is a click away. Both the league and the union hope for an extensive back-and-forth on Twitter among like-minded users.
On Jan. 21, the league took to Twitter to highlight a poll that said 99 percent of respondents opposed Congressional involvement in the stalled labor talks. In his riposte, George Atallah, the union’s assistant executive director, whose role is similar to Hicks’s, wrote, “Those are Kim Jong-il’s,” referring to the North Korean leader.
Atallah and Hicks play their similar roles in different ways. Hicks, 54, is rarely quoted, unlike his predecessor, Joe Browne, and does not use Twitter, although members of his staff do. Atallah, 32, has become a public personality because of the labor dispute; he uses Twitter regularly and is frequently interviewed.
“I have a responsibility to make sure the players’ side is accurately portrayed and to the media to be a credible source of information,” said Atallah, who has a media staff of six. “Player engagement leads to fan engagement.”
The union has asked fans to lobby Congress, sign petitions and unite with players on “Let Us Play Day” earlier this month to demand that there be no lockout.
Both Atallah and Hicks had previously worked at public relations firms. Atallah was hired by Smith in 2009 from Qorvis Communications. Hicks arrived at the league last summer from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, taking a position that has traditionally gone to a league insider, or a former sportswriter.
“Paul’s been here for five months,” said Browne, now a senior adviser to Goodell, “and there are very few half-truths that the union has put out that we haven’t responded to.”
Doug Allen, a former official of the players union, said that in 2006 when there were tense talks that eventually led to an extension of the labor agreement, the union had a modest Web site.
“We did a little, but no social media,” he said. Now, with both sides better equipped (only the union uses Facebook), he added, “It alters the atmosphere, but I’m not sure it changes the leverage on both sides. It would, if one side were doing it and the other weren’t.”
Indeed, the digital back-and-forth illustrates, 140 characters at a time, the divide that exists behind closed doors between the negotiators over revenue sharing (the league wants to share less); the proposed 18-game season and the impact on players’ health with two extra games; the urgency (or lack thereof) of the talks, and the league’s refusal to let the union look at its books.
“A while ago,” Atallah said, “the N.F.L. did some post about there not being enough meetings — that we didn’t want to meet — and we happened to be in a meeting at the time. So I tweeted it.”
On any given day, the online exchanges and competitive claims might look alternately substantive or silly. Regardless, there is a sense that the league and the union have learned from politics, and the need to respond to their opponent’s positions.
The league’s NFLLabor.com Web site on Wednesday offered a glimpse of its strategy. One item reported on Goodell’s phone call on Tuesday to a Denver Broncos fan and blogger; another post quoted the Falcons’ owner, Arthur Blank, as saying that the league is “ready to do whatever it takes” to reach a new agreement but that the union must “step up with the same sense of urgency.”
A section of the union’s lockout Web site comes with a clock counting down to the labor agreement’s expiration date, and links to articles and Twitter posts that favor its position.
The success of the online strategies, however, cannot be easily measured. William B. Gould IV, a law professor at Stanford University and a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, said that the league and the union are trading views online about issues that are easily understandable to football fans.
“They’re trumpeting their positions to the public,” he said. “But my sense is that this stuff does not fundamentally change things in disputes that are difficult to resolve.” (source New York Times)
Friday, January 28 2011
The Super Bowl is notorious as an event not for the faint of wallet.
Game tickets were going for $2,450 and up on Web resale sites this week, and travel packages for a party of two were selling for $3,000 to $4,000.
Even something as mundane as a game-day parking space was fetching upwards of $900 at ParkWhiz.com, a website that offers about 7,000 reserved spots at 43 lots in the vicinity of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington , Texas , site of Super Bowl XLV.
For fans already anxious about the game (and the amount of money they are spending to see it), the site offers the assurance they won't be circling in unfamiliar territory frantically looking for a parking space as game time draws near.
They can go on ParkWhiz.com, shop for a space that fits their budget, reserve it and print out a ticket.
"It's peace of mind," said Aashish Dalal, CEO of ParkWhiz.com and a Pittsburgh native who said he remains a "diehard Steelers fan" 15 years after transplanting himself to Chicago .
Parking operators pay the website a commission to list their spaces, and they set the rates. On Tuesday, they ranged from a bargain-basement $55 for a spot a mile from the stadium to $990 for the Dom Perignon of parking right next to the venue.
"People have purchased it for that amount," said Mr. Dalal, who grew up in Ross and attended North Hills High School . "That's what's great about this country ... capitalism at its finest."
ParkWhiz.com offers reserved parking around 90 major venues in the U.S. , including Heinz Field and the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh . The website only accepts licensed operators, bringing credibility "to an industry much maligned for its shady practices," he said.
The site allows users to tailor their search for various amenities, including handicapped parking, nearby restrooms and whether tailgating is permitted. It also offers an application for smart phones.
Mr. Dalal said the idea for the service grew out of his own frustration at the uncertainties of finding parking at a major event.
"I've always hated parking. We'd run around. We'd be late. We'd leave an hour early ... you never know when to leave," he said.
At the Super Bowl, 90 percent to 95 percent of the parking spaces will be reserved in advance, Mr. Dalal said. The prices likely will fluctuate based on demand.
George Baker, founder of a similar service, ParkHub.com, projected that the available parking will be gone by next Wednesday.
He launched his site last year after customers began calling lots and asking attendants to save spaces for them. ParkHub.com lists about 40 lots and issues an "e-parking ticket" that includes directions to the lot. Operators pay the site a 15 percent commission on sales.
Rick Gann, whose father owns two properties with about 175 parking spots, was listing their availability for $221 apiece on the two websites on Monday. The spaces are at Bodacious Bar-B-Q and the Candlelite Inn, in the shadow of the stadium.
He said he was hoping to clear $175 per space after commissions, a one-day haul of more than $30,000.
"The thing is, we really don't know what the market is. We've never had a Super Bowl here. We're like everyone else. We want as much as we can get. If we're not getting any takers, we'll lower it," Mr. Gann said.
True to his word, by Tuesday the asking price had fallen to $162.
To prove his Pittsburgh chops, Mr. Dalal is giving away a Super Bowl parking pass for the best answer to "What it means to be a Yinzer." Entries are accepted at facebook.com/parkwhiz. (source Pittsburgh Post Gazette)
The Super Bowl is notorious as an event not for the faint of wallet.
Game tickets were going for $2,450 and up on Web resale sites this week, and travel packages for a party of two were selling for $3,000 to $4,000.
Even something as mundane as a game-day parking space was fetching upwards of $900 at ParkWhiz.com, a website that offers about 7,000 reserved spots at 43 lots in the vicinity of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington , Texas , site of Super Bowl XLV.
For fans already anxious about the game (and the amount of money they are spending to see it), the site offers the assurance they won't be circling in unfamiliar territory frantically looking for a parking space as game time draws near.
They can go on ParkWhiz.com, shop for a space that fits their budget, reserve it and print out a ticket.
"It's peace of mind," said Aashish Dalal, CEO of ParkWhiz.com and a Pittsburgh native who said he remains a "diehard Steelers fan" 15 years after transplanting himself to Chicago .
Parking operators pay the website a commission to list their spaces, and they set the rates. On Tuesday, they ranged from a bargain-basement $55 for a spot a mile from the stadium to $990 for the Dom Perignon of parking right next to the venue.
"People have purchased it for that amount," said Mr. Dalal, who grew up in Ross and attended North Hills High School . "That's what's great about this country ... capitalism at its finest."
ParkWhiz.com offers reserved parking around 90 major venues in the U.S. , including Heinz Field and the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh . The website only accepts licensed operators, bringing credibility "to an industry much maligned for its shady practices," he said.
The site allows users to tailor their search for various amenities, including handicapped parking, nearby restrooms and whether tailgating is permitted. It also offers an application for smart phones.
Mr. Dalal said the idea for the service grew out of his own frustration at the uncertainties of finding parking at a major event.
"I've always hated parking. We'd run around. We'd be late. We'd leave an hour early ... you never know when to leave," he said.
At the Super Bowl, 90 percent to 95 percent of the parking spaces will be reserved in advance, Mr. Dalal said. The prices likely will fluctuate based on demand.
George Baker, founder of a similar service, ParkHub.com, projected that the available parking will be gone by next Wednesday.
He launched his site last year after customers began calling lots and asking attendants to save spaces for them. ParkHub.com lists about 40 lots and issues an "e-parking ticket" that includes directions to the lot. Operators pay the site a 15 percent commission on sales.
Rick Gann, whose father owns two properties with about 175 parking spots, was listing their availability for $221 apiece on the two websites on Monday. The spaces are at Bodacious Bar-B-Q and the Candlelite Inn, in the shadow of the stadium.
He said he was hoping to clear $175 per space after commissions, a one-day haul of more than $30,000.
"The thing is, we really don't know what the market is. We've never had a Super Bowl here. We're like everyone else. We want as much as we can get. If we're not getting any takers, we'll lower it," Mr. Gann said.
True to his word, by Tuesday the asking price had fallen to $162.
To prove his Pittsburgh chops, Mr. Dalal is giving away a Super Bowl parking pass for the best answer to "What it means to be a Yinzer." Entries are accepted at facebook.com/parkwhiz. (source Pittsburgh Post Gazette)
AT SUPER BOWL XLV ON FOX
Award-winning singer and actress LEA MICHELE will sing “America the Beautiful” as part of Super Bowl XLV pregame festivities at Cowboys Stadium in North Texas on Sunday, February 6, the NFL and FOX announced today. The performance will be televised live on FOX prior to kickoff.
More than 153 million viewers in the U.S. watched last year’s Super Bowl, the most-watched television program in history. The pregame show and Super Bowl XLV will be broadcast worldwide.
Michele joins VICKI CARR (Super Bowl XI), RAY CHARLES (Super Bowl XXXV), MARY J. BLIGE & MARC ANTHONY (Super Bowl XXXVI), ALICIA KEYS (Super Bowl XXXIX), FAITH HILL (Super Bowl XLIII) and QUEEN LATIFAH (Super Bowl XLIV) as the only artists to perform the song at the Super Bowl.
The NFL previously announced that CHRISTINA AGUILERA will sing the National Anthem as part of Super Bowl XLV pregame festivities and THE BLACK EYED PEAS will perform in the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show.
The pregame and halftime shows are an NFL NETWORK PRODUCTION and will be executive produced by RICKY KIRSHNER.
Award-winning singer and actress LEA MICHELE will sing “America the Beautiful” as part of Super Bowl XLV pregame festivities at Cowboys Stadium in North Texas on Sunday, February 6, the NFL and FOX announced today. The performance will be televised live on FOX prior to kickoff.More than 153 million viewers in the U.S. watched last year’s Super Bowl, the most-watched television program in history. The pregame show and Super Bowl XLV will be broadcast worldwide.
Michele joins VICKI CARR (Super Bowl XI), RAY CHARLES (Super Bowl XXXV), MARY J. BLIGE & MARC ANTHONY (Super Bowl XXXVI), ALICIA KEYS (Super Bowl XXXIX), FAITH HILL (Super Bowl XLIII) and QUEEN LATIFAH (Super Bowl XLIV) as the only artists to perform the song at the Super Bowl.
The NFL previously announced that CHRISTINA AGUILERA will sing the National Anthem as part of Super Bowl XLV pregame festivities and THE BLACK EYED PEAS will perform in the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show.
The pregame and halftime shows are an NFL NETWORK PRODUCTION and will be executive produced by RICKY KIRSHNER.
For The First Time Super Bowl XLV Goes Mobile with The Official Guide & Game Program Presented By Van Heusen
NFL fans will be able to experience all aspects of Super Bowl XLV at SUPERBOWL.COM with dynamic video programming, new community features, in-depth event coverage from reporters and expert analysts, plus an interactive trivia challenge.
For the first time, the NFL is making available to fans two Super Bowl-themed mobile apps to complement SUPERBOWL.COM. THE SUPER BOWL XLV OFFICIAL GUIDE PRESENTED BY VAN HEUSEN is the perfect mobile companion for any fan looking to navigate North Texas and Super Bowl XLV. The first feature is an interactive event guide that provides detailed information about North Texas. The guide lists NFL events that are open to the public throughout the region and contains a 3D map rendering of areas of North Texas integrated with Yelp, Citysearch, Urbanspoon and Google to put the region in fans’ hands. The map includes a social location service integration to see who is checking in and where. The second feature is a precise 3D rendering of Cowboys Stadium with a complete map of the interior, including restrooms and concessions clearly marked. The game day guide also lists Super Bowl Sunday parking detail, including the ability to locate a parking lot and the stadium entrance convenient to a specific seat at the game. “The Super Bowl XLV Official Guide Presented by Van Heusen” is available for free from the iTunes App Store (on iOS devices) and at www.itunes.com/appstore and on the Android Marketplace.
THE SUPER BOWL XLV GAME PROGRAM PRESENTED BY VAN HEUSEN is a first ever digital version of the iconic souvenir program optimized for a tablet. With additional interactive content, the Program chronicles the Green Bay Packers’ and Pittsburgh Steelers’ road to Super Bowl XLV, captures memories of past Super Bowls and recaps key moments from the 2010 season. “The Super Bowl XLV Game Program Presented by Van Heusen” is available for free from the iTunes App Store and at www.itunes.com/appstore.
SUPERBOWL.COM contains detailed information on events during the week, a visitor’s guide and how to buy Super Bowl XLV tickets. Fans may visit SUPERBOWL.COM to find out locations around North Texas of all official NFL Shops at Super Bowl XLV as well as information about The NFL Experience, pro football’s interactive theme park. Fans may follow @nfl and @superbowl on Twitter for the most up-to-date information on player and celebrity appearances at The NFL Experience.
Fans may watch live online streaming of the week’s biggest events including Super Bowl XLV Media Day, the Commissioner’s news conference, the announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011 and much more.
Users may choose what they want to watch from the NFL.com cameras on Media Day (Tuesday, February 1 at 11:00 AM ET/10:00 AM CT) at Cowboys Stadium, the home of Super Bowl XLV. There will be one camera covering each of the 12 featured members of the competing teams, as well as one camera with NFL Network and NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson reporting from Media Day.
NFL.com also will feature a powerful lineup of reporters and analysts, including senior columnist Vic Carucci, senior writers Steve Wyche and Jason La Canfora, analysts Bucky Brooks and Gil Brandt and former NFL personnel executive Pat Kirwan. Information and insight from NFL Network reporter Albert Breer, and analysts Michael Lombardi, Solomon Wilcots, Sterling Sharpe, Jamie Dukes and others round out the comprehensive coverage. In addition, NFL Blog Blitz, powered by SportsFanLive.com, will continue their coverage of the NFL teams from the fan’s perspective.
On game day, fans around the globe can listen to international radio broadcasts of Super Bowl XLV. NFL.com will stream broadcasts from 11 countries including Spain, Germany, China, Russia and Japan.
For the eleventh consecutive year, fans will be able to vote for the Chevrolet Super Bowl XLV MVP on NFL.com. In addition, fans also will be able to visit NFL.com on web-enabled mobile devices to vote for the MVP. In the fourth quarter of the game, fans, along with a media panel, will select the MVP, who will be awarded the Pete Rozelle Trophy. Combined votes on NFL.com and web-enabled mobile devices will count 20 percent towards the MVP.
Fans can test their Super Bowl knowledge with the NFL Two-Minute Trivia Super Bowl game. To prepare for the challenge, check out the comprehensive history section that includes watch highlights from the first 44 Super Bowl games.
NFL fans will be able to experience all aspects of Super Bowl XLV at SUPERBOWL.COM with dynamic video programming, new community features, in-depth event coverage from reporters and expert analysts, plus an interactive trivia challenge.For the first time, the NFL is making available to fans two Super Bowl-themed mobile apps to complement SUPERBOWL.COM. THE SUPER BOWL XLV OFFICIAL GUIDE PRESENTED BY VAN HEUSEN is the perfect mobile companion for any fan looking to navigate North Texas and Super Bowl XLV. The first feature is an interactive event guide that provides detailed information about North Texas. The guide lists NFL events that are open to the public throughout the region and contains a 3D map rendering of areas of North Texas integrated with Yelp, Citysearch, Urbanspoon and Google to put the region in fans’ hands. The map includes a social location service integration to see who is checking in and where. The second feature is a precise 3D rendering of Cowboys Stadium with a complete map of the interior, including restrooms and concessions clearly marked. The game day guide also lists Super Bowl Sunday parking detail, including the ability to locate a parking lot and the stadium entrance convenient to a specific seat at the game. “The Super Bowl XLV Official Guide Presented by Van Heusen” is available for free from the iTunes App Store (on iOS devices) and at www.itunes.com/appstore and on the Android Marketplace.
THE SUPER BOWL XLV GAME PROGRAM PRESENTED BY VAN HEUSEN is a first ever digital version of the iconic souvenir program optimized for a tablet. With additional interactive content, the Program chronicles the Green Bay Packers’ and Pittsburgh Steelers’ road to Super Bowl XLV, captures memories of past Super Bowls and recaps key moments from the 2010 season. “The Super Bowl XLV Game Program Presented by Van Heusen” is available for free from the iTunes App Store and at www.itunes.com/appstore.
SUPERBOWL.COM contains detailed information on events during the week, a visitor’s guide and how to buy Super Bowl XLV tickets. Fans may visit SUPERBOWL.COM to find out locations around North Texas of all official NFL Shops at Super Bowl XLV as well as information about The NFL Experience, pro football’s interactive theme park. Fans may follow @nfl and @superbowl on Twitter for the most up-to-date information on player and celebrity appearances at The NFL Experience.
Fans may watch live online streaming of the week’s biggest events including Super Bowl XLV Media Day, the Commissioner’s news conference, the announcement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011 and much more.
Users may choose what they want to watch from the NFL.com cameras on Media Day (Tuesday, February 1 at 11:00 AM ET/10:00 AM CT) at Cowboys Stadium, the home of Super Bowl XLV. There will be one camera covering each of the 12 featured members of the competing teams, as well as one camera with NFL Network and NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson reporting from Media Day.
NFL.com also will feature a powerful lineup of reporters and analysts, including senior columnist Vic Carucci, senior writers Steve Wyche and Jason La Canfora, analysts Bucky Brooks and Gil Brandt and former NFL personnel executive Pat Kirwan. Information and insight from NFL Network reporter Albert Breer, and analysts Michael Lombardi, Solomon Wilcots, Sterling Sharpe, Jamie Dukes and others round out the comprehensive coverage. In addition, NFL Blog Blitz, powered by SportsFanLive.com, will continue their coverage of the NFL teams from the fan’s perspective.
On game day, fans around the globe can listen to international radio broadcasts of Super Bowl XLV. NFL.com will stream broadcasts from 11 countries including Spain, Germany, China, Russia and Japan.
For the eleventh consecutive year, fans will be able to vote for the Chevrolet Super Bowl XLV MVP on NFL.com. In addition, fans also will be able to visit NFL.com on web-enabled mobile devices to vote for the MVP. In the fourth quarter of the game, fans, along with a media panel, will select the MVP, who will be awarded the Pete Rozelle Trophy. Combined votes on NFL.com and web-enabled mobile devices will count 20 percent towards the MVP.
Fans can test their Super Bowl knowledge with the NFL Two-Minute Trivia Super Bowl game. To prepare for the challenge, check out the comprehensive history section that includes watch highlights from the first 44 Super Bowl games.
01/26/2011
Ryan, you've won a Super Bowl before. What advice are you giving to the younger guys on this team?
RYAN PICKETT: Oh, I haven't won one.
Gotten to one, sorry.
RYAN PICKETT: Gotten to one. The advice to them is enjoy this time, but stay focused on the game because I went and lost and that wasn't a fun experience at all. As a matter of fact, I'm still sick to this day that I got there and lost. So just try to pass small things like that to them.
What's on your checklist this week before you get on the plane?
RYAN PICKETT: What's on my checklist?
Yes. How much do you want to have done before you go down there?
RYAN PICKETT: I mean, that's why we've gotten all the business taken care of now. Coaches, they made us get our tickets done and take care of our families and stuff these last two days. So tomorrow and on, from that point, it's going to be all Pittsburgh and all football.
So when we get on the plane, we’re already in our game plan. We'll be ready for Pittsburgh.
Nota completa...
Ryan, you've won a Super Bowl before. What advice are you giving to the younger guys on this team?
RYAN PICKETT: Oh, I haven't won one.
Gotten to one, sorry.
RYAN PICKETT: Gotten to one. The advice to them is enjoy this time, but stay focused on the game because I went and lost and that wasn't a fun experience at all. As a matter of fact, I'm still sick to this day that I got there and lost. So just try to pass small things like that to them.
What's on your checklist this week before you get on the plane?
RYAN PICKETT: What's on my checklist?
Yes. How much do you want to have done before you go down there?
RYAN PICKETT: I mean, that's why we've gotten all the business taken care of now. Coaches, they made us get our tickets done and take care of our families and stuff these last two days. So tomorrow and on, from that point, it's going to be all Pittsburgh and all football.
So when we get on the plane, we’re already in our game plan. We'll be ready for Pittsburgh.
Nota completa...
01/26/2011
What do you take away from that Pittsburgh game last year?
JOSH SITTON: Good question. It was a tough game. It was a tough loss for us. And really it was kind of like all the games we lost this year.
Last-second losses. Losing by a point or three points. You know, it's one of the games you've got to finish. There's a couple of drives that we could have put the game away on offense and obviously last drive for the defense ‑‑ it's all about the finish.
And I think down the stretch this year we've learned how to finish those games and we've had a few of those close games including the playoff games, so I think we've learned how to finish better.
They're known for blitzing and their aggressive packages but you guys seem to handle that pretty well. Does that give you source of confidence going into that or is it irrelevant?
JOSH SITTON: It's a big thing. And we go against defense like that starting in March. With Dom Capers, you see the type of things that Dom Capers does and all the blitzes he brings and different looks. They rattle our brains, the whole offseason, and it just helps us with these other exotic defenses like Pittsburgh.
Nota completa...
What do you take away from that Pittsburgh game last year?
JOSH SITTON: Good question. It was a tough game. It was a tough loss for us. And really it was kind of like all the games we lost this year.
Last-second losses. Losing by a point or three points. You know, it's one of the games you've got to finish. There's a couple of drives that we could have put the game away on offense and obviously last drive for the defense ‑‑ it's all about the finish.
And I think down the stretch this year we've learned how to finish those games and we've had a few of those close games including the playoff games, so I think we've learned how to finish better.
They're known for blitzing and their aggressive packages but you guys seem to handle that pretty well. Does that give you source of confidence going into that or is it irrelevant?
JOSH SITTON: It's a big thing. And we go against defense like that starting in March. With Dom Capers, you see the type of things that Dom Capers does and all the blitzes he brings and different looks. They rattle our brains, the whole offseason, and it just helps us with these other exotic defenses like Pittsburgh.
Nota completa...
01/26/2011
When Aaron is out extending the play, what's the mindset of a receiver when he's out in the pocket and scrambling all around?
GREG JENNINGS: Get open. You’ve got a quarterback fighting for extended life. Obviously he has extended a play to make a play and it's our opportunity to obviously get open, get separation from our defenders.
Is that all ad‑libbed? Is there some method to the madness when it's going on?
GREG JENNINGS: It's a little method to a scramble. You want the shortest guy on the route to kind of work up, come back down. You obviously probably want somebody going deep. But you have to be smart about it. But most of the time it's pretty much ad‑libbed. You can't really draw that up in practice.
As much as you would like to, it's just guys just got to go to work and be smart about the situation and get open.
What's going through your head when you see a guy like Aaron Rodgers run down Brian Urlacher?
GREG JENNINGS: Get him. (Laughter) But we were all ‑‑ we worked these drills every day in practice. You throw a turnover or you have a turnover and everybody pursues to the ball. So obviously once we saw the pick, the pick was made, we're all hustling. But obviously he's in the best position.
He did a great job not only getting him down, but if he didn't get him down, at least he made him cut back, slow down, so some of the guys can kind of rally up and try to get him. But you don't ‑‑ you never want your quarterback really tackling a guy like Urlacher. But in that situation we have to do whatever we can do to get that guy down. He did an outstanding job.
Nota completa...
When Aaron is out extending the play, what's the mindset of a receiver when he's out in the pocket and scrambling all around?
GREG JENNINGS: Get open. You’ve got a quarterback fighting for extended life. Obviously he has extended a play to make a play and it's our opportunity to obviously get open, get separation from our defenders.
Is that all ad‑libbed? Is there some method to the madness when it's going on?
GREG JENNINGS: It's a little method to a scramble. You want the shortest guy on the route to kind of work up, come back down. You obviously probably want somebody going deep. But you have to be smart about it. But most of the time it's pretty much ad‑libbed. You can't really draw that up in practice.
As much as you would like to, it's just guys just got to go to work and be smart about the situation and get open.
What's going through your head when you see a guy like Aaron Rodgers run down Brian Urlacher?
GREG JENNINGS: Get him. (Laughter) But we were all ‑‑ we worked these drills every day in practice. You throw a turnover or you have a turnover and everybody pursues to the ball. So obviously once we saw the pick, the pick was made, we're all hustling. But obviously he's in the best position.
He did a great job not only getting him down, but if he didn't get him down, at least he made him cut back, slow down, so some of the guys can kind of rally up and try to get him. But you don't ‑‑ you never want your quarterback really tackling a guy like Urlacher. But in that situation we have to do whatever we can do to get that guy down. He did an outstanding job.
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01/26/2011
Shawn, can you just talk about how Masthay really developed this season?
SHAWN SLOCUM: First of all, we go back to when he got here last spring, and he was in great competition, and he went through a real growth process there. I think competition brings the best out of players. And then we got into training camp, he won the job. We start the season and he had to learn how to be an NFL punter.
And one of the things we talked about was that it's his job to keep the effectiveness of the returner under control and I think as the season went on, I thought he got better and better with that. I think it's evident with how we played against Chicago and how he performed against Chicago with 16 punts in two ballgames with the effectiveness of Hester.
I think he's also learned to deal with the weather elements that we've got in Green Bay. And, fortunately, in the Super Bowl we've got a controlled environment. So I expect him to be good in that game.
Shawn, when you talk about how he had to learn to become an NFL punter, what are some of the biggest things that, when they come out of college, the mechanics and techniques you have to work on?
SHAWN SLOCUM: I'll tell you, the first thing is the football. The footballs are guarded, and by design, they are tried to be made exactly the same. And they rotate throughout the game. And you start with one ball. The key, I think, back in the old days, guys would fix the footballs up to fly a little better. But that's a big deal. It's slicker most of the time and it travels a little bit differently.
We play a lot of games in the NFL toward the latter part of the season when the weather is really an issue. In college, most of the seasons are over, with the exception of the bowl games, by mid‑November. So playing in December and January is definitely an issue for a kicker or a punter. Those things as well as just the skill level, the pressure that comes from the punt rushes, and the talent of the returners. It's all different.
Nota completa...
Shawn, can you just talk about how Masthay really developed this season?
SHAWN SLOCUM: First of all, we go back to when he got here last spring, and he was in great competition, and he went through a real growth process there. I think competition brings the best out of players. And then we got into training camp, he won the job. We start the season and he had to learn how to be an NFL punter.
And one of the things we talked about was that it's his job to keep the effectiveness of the returner under control and I think as the season went on, I thought he got better and better with that. I think it's evident with how we played against Chicago and how he performed against Chicago with 16 punts in two ballgames with the effectiveness of Hester.
I think he's also learned to deal with the weather elements that we've got in Green Bay. And, fortunately, in the Super Bowl we've got a controlled environment. So I expect him to be good in that game.
Shawn, when you talk about how he had to learn to become an NFL punter, what are some of the biggest things that, when they come out of college, the mechanics and techniques you have to work on?
SHAWN SLOCUM: I'll tell you, the first thing is the football. The footballs are guarded, and by design, they are tried to be made exactly the same. And they rotate throughout the game. And you start with one ball. The key, I think, back in the old days, guys would fix the footballs up to fly a little better. But that's a big deal. It's slicker most of the time and it travels a little bit differently.
We play a lot of games in the NFL toward the latter part of the season when the weather is really an issue. In college, most of the seasons are over, with the exception of the bowl games, by mid‑November. So playing in December and January is definitely an issue for a kicker or a punter. Those things as well as just the skill level, the pressure that comes from the punt rushes, and the talent of the returners. It's all different.
Nota completa...
01/26/2011
How much do you watch that Pittsburgh game from last year going into next week’s game?
JOE PHILBIN: We've obviously taken a look at it already. It's kind of part of our cut‑ups. You know, when you're playing an opponent, you do your best to figure out maybe ‑‑ obviously, there's a lot of information we could gather. They have played 18 games to this point. You could pick all of them if you wanted to.
But typically what we do is we see if we can figure out what teams we're most similar to and use those for a statistical research. Obviously, last year's game, Coach LeBeau has been there. I want to say almost their entire staff defensively has returned. So it's a good reference for us.
Talk about Troy Polamalu on defense and how much of a challenge is he?
JOE PHILBIN: You know, he's an excellent football player. He's a guy that can impact a game a lot of different ways. He's more than just a good run player. Obviously he's got a great reputation as a guy that plays down low in the box and is a physical player, which he certainly is. He's obviously an excellent blitzer. They use him in different packages and bring him from different alignments.
They'll exchange his assignments sometimes. You can't always say, gee, Polamalu is playing safety on this play or he's a free safety or a strong safety. They play him at linebacker-type positions at times, so he's a versatile player. He's a dynamic player, and certainly we're going to have to have our eyes open and be alert to his location and his responsibilities.
Nota completa...
How much do you watch that Pittsburgh game from last year going into next week’s game?
JOE PHILBIN: We've obviously taken a look at it already. It's kind of part of our cut‑ups. You know, when you're playing an opponent, you do your best to figure out maybe ‑‑ obviously, there's a lot of information we could gather. They have played 18 games to this point. You could pick all of them if you wanted to.
But typically what we do is we see if we can figure out what teams we're most similar to and use those for a statistical research. Obviously, last year's game, Coach LeBeau has been there. I want to say almost their entire staff defensively has returned. So it's a good reference for us.
Talk about Troy Polamalu on defense and how much of a challenge is he?
JOE PHILBIN: You know, he's an excellent football player. He's a guy that can impact a game a lot of different ways. He's more than just a good run player. Obviously he's got a great reputation as a guy that plays down low in the box and is a physical player, which he certainly is. He's obviously an excellent blitzer. They use him in different packages and bring him from different alignments.
They'll exchange his assignments sometimes. You can't always say, gee, Polamalu is playing safety on this play or he's a free safety or a strong safety. They play him at linebacker-type positions at times, so he's a versatile player. He's a dynamic player, and certainly we're going to have to have our eyes open and be alert to his location and his responsibilities.
Nota completa...
01/26/2011
Dom, what's the first thing that jumps out at you about the Steelers when you look at that offense?
DOM CAPERS: They've got a big strong quarterback that's hard to get on the ground. You see numerous times people come flat free, and he's got a real unique ability to pump fake, get them off balance, has very good pocket instincts, and he has very good vision in terms of where the pressure's coming from.
And he's so big and strong that he's hard to get off his feet. And then he’ll step up in and flush, and the receivers will uncover down the field because he buys a lot of time for those receivers to uncover off the coverage.
Any way you can compare the way your secondary is playing now to what they had to endure when you were there last year?
DOM CAPERS: Well, we're a totally different team. I think the Steelers are an offensive team that they have the ability that they can play power football with their running game or they can spread you out and try to use their skill.
I think they've really added some good young wide receivers with speed. Of course, Hines Ward is Hines Ward. He's very instinctive and a very good route-runner. And Ben Roethlisberger makes the thing all go because he's just ‑‑ the timing can break down and some of the times he's at his best when the timing does break down.
Nota completa...
Dom, what's the first thing that jumps out at you about the Steelers when you look at that offense?
DOM CAPERS: They've got a big strong quarterback that's hard to get on the ground. You see numerous times people come flat free, and he's got a real unique ability to pump fake, get them off balance, has very good pocket instincts, and he has very good vision in terms of where the pressure's coming from.
And he's so big and strong that he's hard to get off his feet. And then he’ll step up in and flush, and the receivers will uncover down the field because he buys a lot of time for those receivers to uncover off the coverage.
Any way you can compare the way your secondary is playing now to what they had to endure when you were there last year?
DOM CAPERS: Well, we're a totally different team. I think the Steelers are an offensive team that they have the ability that they can play power football with their running game or they can spread you out and try to use their skill.
I think they've really added some good young wide receivers with speed. Of course, Hines Ward is Hines Ward. He's very instinctive and a very good route-runner. And Ben Roethlisberger makes the thing all go because he's just ‑‑ the timing can break down and some of the times he's at his best when the timing does break down.
Nota completa...
PITTSBURGH STEELERS at GREEN BAY PACKERS
PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Practice Report
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
S Will Allen (knee), CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
GREEN BAY PACKERS
Practice Report (Green Bay did not practice on Wednesday. The Wednesday practice report is an estimation).
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Practice Report
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
S Will Allen (knee), CB Bryant McFadden (abdomen), S Troy Polamalu (achilles), C Maurkice Pouncey (ankle), WR Emmanuel Sanders (foot), T Jonathan Scott (ribs)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
DE Aaron Smith (triceps)
GREEN BAY PACKERS
Practice Report (Green Bay did not practice on Wednesday. The Wednesday practice report is an estimation).
DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Erik Walden (ankle), LB Frank Zombo (knee)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION IN PRACTICE
Wednesday
LB Desmond Bishop (ankle), T Chad Clifton (neck), LB A.J. Hawk (knee), WR Greg Jennings (knee), C Jason Spitz (calf)
KICKS OFF SUPER BOWL WEEK
The NFL’s best will be in the spotlight on Sunday, January 30 (7:00 PM ET, FOX) as the 2011 Pro Bowl kicks off Super Bowl Week.
The NFL All-Star Game returns to Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii and will be the signature event to start the week leading up to Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers in North Texas (Sunday, February 6, FOX).
“It’s always an honor to be elected to the Pro Bowl,” says New Orleans Saints linebacker JONATHAN VILMA.
For the second consecutive year, the Pro Bowl will be played the week before the Super Bowl. The 2010 Pro Bowl on ESPN was watched by an average of 12.3 million viewers, the most for a Pro Bowl since 2000 (13.2 million viewers) and a 40 percent increase from the 2009 game (8.8 million viewers). The 12.3 million viewers also marked the largest viewership for an All-Star game in any sport on cable television.
Last year, the AFC defeated the NFC 41-34 at Sun Life Stadium in South Florida. Houston Texans quarterback MATT SCHAUB threw two touchdown passes and was named the game’s MVP. The 2011 game is the 41st between the AFC and NFC All-Stars with the all-time series tied 20-20.
The 43-man teams are comprised of 21 offensive and 17 defensive players plus five specialists, including a long snapper. The AFC All-Star team will be led by BILL BELICHICK and the coaches from the New England Patriots while MIKE SMITH and the Atlanta Falcons’ coaching staff will guide the NFC Pro Bowl squad.
The Falcons lead the NFL with nine players selected to the 2011 Pro Bowl – defensive end JOHN ABRAHAM, tackle TYSON CLABO, tight end TONY GONZALEZ, cornerback BRENT GRIMES, fullback OVIE MUGHELLI, quarterback MATT RYAN, running back MICHAEL TURNER, special teamer ERIC WEEMS and wide receiver RODDY WHITE.
The NFL is the only professional sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players in determining its All-Star teams. The consensus vote of each group counts one-third towards the total. Each team submits two ballots – those of the coach and the players with no one permitted to vote for a player on his own team. This year, nearly 100 million fan votes were cast on NFL.com, on wireless phones and on Facebook.
Under terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, each player on the winning Pro Bowl team receives $45,000, while each player on the losing squad earns $22,500.
The Pro Bowl’s return to Hawaii, where it had been held consecutively from 1980 to 2009, is part of a two-year agreement between the NFL and the state of Hawaii to play the 2011 and 2012 games there.
Fans can purchase tickets to the 2011 Pro Bowl at www.NFL.com/probowl and www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000.
2011 AMERICAN FOOTBALL CONFERENCE ALL-STARS
(Starters listed in Bold)
(Non-participating players listed in Italics)
(* Replacing non-participating player)
(+ Need player selected by head coach)
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
SPECIALISTS
2011 NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE ALL-STARS
(Starters listed in Bold)
(Non-participating players listed in Italics)
(* Replacing non-participating player)
(+ Need player selected by head coach)
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
SPECIALISTS
The NFL’s best will be in the spotlight on Sunday, January 30 (7:00 PM ET, FOX) as the 2011 Pro Bowl kicks off Super Bowl Week.
The NFL All-Star Game returns to Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii and will be the signature event to start the week leading up to Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers in North Texas (Sunday, February 6, FOX).
“It’s always an honor to be elected to the Pro Bowl,” says New Orleans Saints linebacker JONATHAN VILMA.
For the second consecutive year, the Pro Bowl will be played the week before the Super Bowl. The 2010 Pro Bowl on ESPN was watched by an average of 12.3 million viewers, the most for a Pro Bowl since 2000 (13.2 million viewers) and a 40 percent increase from the 2009 game (8.8 million viewers). The 12.3 million viewers also marked the largest viewership for an All-Star game in any sport on cable television.
Last year, the AFC defeated the NFC 41-34 at Sun Life Stadium in South Florida. Houston Texans quarterback MATT SCHAUB threw two touchdown passes and was named the game’s MVP. The 2011 game is the 41st between the AFC and NFC All-Stars with the all-time series tied 20-20.
The 43-man teams are comprised of 21 offensive and 17 defensive players plus five specialists, including a long snapper. The AFC All-Star team will be led by BILL BELICHICK and the coaches from the New England Patriots while MIKE SMITH and the Atlanta Falcons’ coaching staff will guide the NFC Pro Bowl squad.
The Falcons lead the NFL with nine players selected to the 2011 Pro Bowl – defensive end JOHN ABRAHAM, tackle TYSON CLABO, tight end TONY GONZALEZ, cornerback BRENT GRIMES, fullback OVIE MUGHELLI, quarterback MATT RYAN, running back MICHAEL TURNER, special teamer ERIC WEEMS and wide receiver RODDY WHITE.
The NFL is the only professional sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players in determining its All-Star teams. The consensus vote of each group counts one-third towards the total. Each team submits two ballots – those of the coach and the players with no one permitted to vote for a player on his own team. This year, nearly 100 million fan votes were cast on NFL.com, on wireless phones and on Facebook.
Under terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, each player on the winning Pro Bowl team receives $45,000, while each player on the losing squad earns $22,500.
The Pro Bowl’s return to Hawaii, where it had been held consecutively from 1980 to 2009, is part of a two-year agreement between the NFL and the state of Hawaii to play the 2011 and 2012 games there.
Fans can purchase tickets to the 2011 Pro Bowl at www.NFL.com/probowl and www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000.
2011 AMERICAN FOOTBALL CONFERENCE ALL-STARS
(Starters listed in Bold)
(Non-participating players listed in Italics)
(* Replacing non-participating player)
(+ Need player selected by head coach)
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
SPECIALISTS
2011 NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE ALL-STARS
(Starters listed in Bold)
(Non-participating players listed in Italics)
(* Replacing non-participating player)
(+ Need player selected by head coach)
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
SPECIALISTS
AT SUPER BOWL XLV ON FOX
Five-time Grammy award winning singer-songwriter CHRISTINA AGUILERA will sing the National Anthem as part of Super Bowl XLV pregame festivities at Cowboys Stadium in North Texas on Sunday, February 6, the NFL and FOX announced today. The performance will be televised live on FOX prior to kickoff.
More than 153 million viewers in the U.S. watched last year’s Super Bowl, the most-watched television program in history. The pregame show and Super Bowl XLV will be broadcast worldwide.
“I have been performing the Anthem since I was seven years old and I must say the Super Bowl is a dream come true,” Aguilera said. “I am really excited to be part of such an iconic event.”
Aguilera returns to the Super Bowl having performed during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta. She is among many great performers who have been honored with singing the Super Bowl National Anthem including: Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Whitney Houston, Harry Connick, Jr., Garth Brooks, Natalie Cole, Vanessa Williams, Luther Vandross, Jewel, Cher, Faith Hill, the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Dixie Chicks, Beyoncé Knowles and many more. (See below for a complete list of National Anthem performers from past Super Bowls.)
The NFL previously announced that THE BLACK EYED PEAS will perform in the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show.
The pregame and halftime shows are an NFL NETWORK PRODUCTION and will be executive produced by RICKY KIRSHNER.
Five-time Grammy award winning singer-songwriter CHRISTINA AGUILERA will sing the National Anthem as part of Super Bowl XLV pregame festivities at Cowboys Stadium in North Texas on Sunday, February 6, the NFL and FOX announced today. The performance will be televised live on FOX prior to kickoff.
More than 153 million viewers in the U.S. watched last year’s Super Bowl, the most-watched television program in history. The pregame show and Super Bowl XLV will be broadcast worldwide.
“I have been performing the Anthem since I was seven years old and I must say the Super Bowl is a dream come true,” Aguilera said. “I am really excited to be part of such an iconic event.”
Aguilera returns to the Super Bowl having performed during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta. She is among many great performers who have been honored with singing the Super Bowl National Anthem including: Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Whitney Houston, Harry Connick, Jr., Garth Brooks, Natalie Cole, Vanessa Williams, Luther Vandross, Jewel, Cher, Faith Hill, the Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Dixie Chicks, Beyoncé Knowles and many more. (See below for a complete list of National Anthem performers from past Super Bowls.)
The NFL previously announced that THE BLACK EYED PEAS will perform in the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show.
The pregame and halftime shows are an NFL NETWORK PRODUCTION and will be executive produced by RICKY KIRSHNER.
NFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
Sunday, January 23, 2011 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL
Aaron Rodgers, QB
On getting to the Super Bowl this quickly in his career
“I think I hoped it would (happen). The first year was an up-and-down year. Frustrating. We got on a run there, winning seven of eight, and felt like we had a team that could make a run. This year was just a different year. We were 3-3 at one point. We won four in a row and then lost. We got hurt. We were 8-6, and we had to win five elimination games, and that’s what makes it that much sweeter. You know, having to win those five, but also having to do it with those guys that we didn’t really count on at the beginning of the season.”
On the interception and subsequent tackle of Brian Urlacher
“It was a terrible throw. Once I threw it, I started sprinting, and I was hopeful that I was able to at least catch up to him. And, when he turned and faced me, I knew that I had to make a stand. I had missed a couple of tackles this season, and it’s kind of the joke that’s not real funny in the quarterback room. When you throw a pick and try to make a tackle, both Matt (Flynn) and I have looked pretty silly on a couple of those. So, I wanted to get him down. So, I’m glad I got him down.”
Nota completa...
Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
Sunday, January 23, 2011 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL
Aaron Rodgers, QB
On getting to the Super Bowl this quickly in his career
“I think I hoped it would (happen). The first year was an up-and-down year. Frustrating. We got on a run there, winning seven of eight, and felt like we had a team that could make a run. This year was just a different year. We were 3-3 at one point. We won four in a row and then lost. We got hurt. We were 8-6, and we had to win five elimination games, and that’s what makes it that much sweeter. You know, having to win those five, but also having to do it with those guys that we didn’t really count on at the beginning of the season.”
On the interception and subsequent tackle of Brian Urlacher
“It was a terrible throw. Once I threw it, I started sprinting, and I was hopeful that I was able to at least catch up to him. And, when he turned and faced me, I knew that I had to make a stand. I had missed a couple of tackles this season, and it’s kind of the joke that’s not real funny in the quarterback room. When you throw a pick and try to make a tackle, both Matt (Flynn) and I have looked pretty silly on a couple of those. So, I wanted to get him down. So, I’m glad I got him down.”
Nota completa...
NFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
Sunday, January 23, 2011 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL
CALEB HANIE, QB
On if he thought he would be playing in the NFC Championship game
“Obviously not. You dream about it and you try to envision what would happen if you have to go in the game. As the backup quarterback, that’s your job – to prepare like you’re going to play. That’s what me and Todd (Collins) have done all season is prepare hard just in case Jay (Cutler) gets hurt. He’s a very resilient guy - doesn’t get injured a lot. You don’t expect to come in and play on a day like this – especially the NFC Championship game – but that’s just how it goes sometimes. That’s football.”
On if he thought the Bears could win the game after he threw the touchdown pass to Earl Bennett in the fourth quarter
“I never felt out of it. I felt comfortable and that’s how our team has been all year. Just fight, fight and fight some more. Even if we’re down or people don’t believe in us or we may not have a good game offensively, we always try to bounce back and fight and that’s the message that Lovie (Smith) and Coach Martz has sent to us is just be resilient.”
Nota completa...
Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
Sunday, January 23, 2011 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL
CALEB HANIE, QB
On if he thought he would be playing in the NFC Championship game
“Obviously not. You dream about it and you try to envision what would happen if you have to go in the game. As the backup quarterback, that’s your job – to prepare like you’re going to play. That’s what me and Todd (Collins) have done all season is prepare hard just in case Jay (Cutler) gets hurt. He’s a very resilient guy - doesn’t get injured a lot. You don’t expect to come in and play on a day like this – especially the NFC Championship game – but that’s just how it goes sometimes. That’s football.”
On if he thought the Bears could win the game after he threw the touchdown pass to Earl Bennett in the fourth quarter
“I never felt out of it. I felt comfortable and that’s how our team has been all year. Just fight, fight and fight some more. Even if we’re down or people don’t believe in us or we may not have a good game offensively, we always try to bounce back and fight and that’s the message that Lovie (Smith) and Coach Martz has sent to us is just be resilient.”
Nota completa...