As Super Bowl weekend approaches, excitement is building in Arizona, and skysports.com is there.
As the weekend approaches, excitement is building in Arizona as Super Bowl weekend appraoches, and
skysports.com is there to soak up the atmosphere - and speak to all the big names.
11 AM - 1 PM RADIO ROW, DOWNTOWN PHOENIX
After seeing various comments coming from the Super Bowl XLII favourite New England Patriots, I decided it's high time I headed down to Radio Row.
It doesn't start well, as I mistake Jacksonville Jaguars running back sensation Maurice Jones-Drew for New Orleans Saints sensation Reggie Bush. I feel - and quite rightly so - an idiot. Drew (thankfully) manages to deal with my idiocy, but tells me that he may well be going to Milan for a fashion show.
Run into Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, who's sadly been hurt all this year. He's promoting the EA Madden Bowl, which will happen later tonight. He's going to be hosting the event. I ask him if he's planning on playing. He doesn't.
Indianapolis Colts strong safety Bob Sanders wins the award for the NFL's best defensive player, over San Diego Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie. "So, do you ever think that your quarterbacks should give you the spotlight?" I ask at the conference, referring to Messers Rivers and Manning collectively. "I know who my quarterback is," says Sanders, which gets a laugh.
After the presentation, Cromartie says the change in the Chargers fortunes over the course of the season was the increased love for Chargers coach Norv Turner. "He certainly yells less than Marty Schottenheimer did," he says. "Norv's just not that kind of guy."
Run into Kansas City Chiefs standout rookie receiver Dwayne Bowe, who's sporting enough bling to sink the QE2. "I'd give my year an 8-1/2 out of 10," he tells me, before reminding me that LSU - his alma mater - won the National Championship this year. He gives me an insight into JaMarcus Russell, current Oakland Raiders incumbent and his former college QB. "You've gotta have pretty good hands, because Russell throws it 90 miles per hour," he says.
1 PM
Unsurprisingly, our old friend (we met him yesterday didn't we??) Adrian Peterson wins the "Rookie of the Year" award. "The awards are great, but I'd rather be participating in the big game on Sunday," he says. Then he goes back to thanking God.
Patrick Willis, who plays linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers, praises his former Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning. "He's a guy who knows how to get it done...I'm rooting for him". You and New York City, Patrick.
Joe Thomas, the Cleveland Browns offensive linesman, is taking his mum and dad to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii...Awwwww....
2.15 PM
The nice people at Doritos are putting three unsigned music acts up for public vote. The acts, Landon Austin from Dallas, Nivla from New York City, and Kina Grannis from Los Angeles - now living in Austin - have made the final three. If they win, they get a 60 second video played at the Super Bowl in front of an audience of tens of millions. Not a bad start eh?
We're offered the chance to see them in a private interview. Skysports.com is understandably chuffed.
Austin is the first, playing an accapella tune called "Waitin", about a girl who he fancied in high school but didn't tell her how he felt. "I might tell her if it gets aired at the Super Bowl," he says. The tune, by the way, is fantastic - sounding a little like John Meyer. I contemplate doing a duet with him while he plays the Meyer classic "Waitin' for the World to Change", but I decide they've got more of a musical future than I do. I know I'm right on this one.
The next one up are Nivla, a group from New York City whose family are from South Asia. Their tune, "Kinda Girl", is an Indian-influenced hip-hop track, which you can see fill any UK dancefloor, in the same way as Punjabi Mc's "Mundian To Bach Ke" did a few years ago. It's exceptional.
And then I go off to Grannis. "Message from your heart" informs me that it reminds me to take care of my wife, who's been nice enough to give me the week off to do this job. Her voice is brilliant. America has chosen these three well, I think to myself. "I can't even imagine what it would be like to get this played at the Super Bowl," she says. "When I was out in LA it always seemed like your break was around the corner and it never happened. A record deal would be a validation of my efforts". I can't help but agree.
Meanwhile, I'm told that American Idol winner Jordan Sparks' press conference about singing the National Anthem at the 'Big Game' was pretty good, too. When asked if singing the 'Star Spangled Banner' was the pinnacle of her career, she said: "Yes, this is the pinnacle of my career - which is about two months old!"
I wonder if Simon Cowell could get Leon to do next year's in Tampa....
3PM TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS HALFTIME SHOW PRESS CONFERENCE
Aged rockers Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are taking questions about their halftime show, and the place is suitably packed. "I was a poor athlete," says Petty.
One reporter says that she's always had a massive crush on him, calling him "smoking hot." "Bless you heart honey," he replies.
He adds that the decision by Hilary Clinton's people to put "American Girl" on as one of her wannabe-presidential backing tracks didn't have his backing. "You wouldn't want to take any advice from me on the presidency."
3.30 PM RADIO ROW
We run into Pittsburgh Steelers offensive linesman Max Starks, who tells me that he's now an unrestricted free agent. "I'd love to go back to Pittsburgh", he says, "but it depends on the deal they offer me."
Dallas Cowboys player Akin Ayodele is our next 'victim', who tells us that quarterback Tony Romo loves to sing - particularly to inform by 80s band Journey. He got family in Dulwich, by the way.
4 PM NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION PRESS CONFERENCE
A storm is looming once again between the NFL Players' Association and the owners. The owners, apparently, aren't happy with the fact that they only make 40 per cent of revenues. Gene Upshaw, the man in charge of the NFLPA, isn't overly happy with the way the owners are behaving. "It's not going to happen on this watch," he says. "We don't want the owners to believe there's a Santa Claus."
4.45 PM MEDIA CENTER
Houston, we have another owner. Skysports.com is informed that former Philadelphia Eagle and current Sky Sports pundit Ian Allen has bought the Ipswich Cardinals, who currently plays in Division 1 South of the British American Football League.
8 PM - 2 AM EA SPORTS MADDEN BOWL PARTY, SCOTTSDALE
If you want to mix with NFL players (who also double as computer game wizards), you'd be best advised to beg, borrow or plead tickets to the EA Sports/ESPN Madden Bowl party at the Martini Ranch in Scottsdale.
Playing the Madden Bowl - EA's version of the Super Bowl except with more free beer and less screaming crowds - is Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson, Baltimore Ravens running back Willis McGahee, Dallas Cowboys All-Pro tight end Jason Witten, super rookies Patrick Ellis and Marshawn Lynch (who play for the 49ers and Bills respectively), San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawn Merriman, Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow, and last but certainly not least, New England running back Laurence Maroney. And yes, he says, Bill Belichick has allowed him out to play in the Madden Bowl.After close games and, well, not so close games, it's a Marshawn Lynch - Willis McGahee final. The prize is, by all accounts, and extraordinarily heavy Madden Bowl championship trophy, which looks like a mini version of the one doled out to Champions League winners. McGahee blows out Lynch by nearly 40 points in the final. "I'm so grateful for Matt Leinart to take time out of his busy schedule to do this," says McGahee when presented with the trophy, to which Leinart gives a big - if slightly embarrassed - smile. Leinart's going to be one of the faces of EA Sports next year, I'm told. Former Madden Bowl winner and MVP Alex Smith is also there to see the award handed on, but he looked a little miffed not to be invited back. "You were too good the last couple of times," I try to explain, which gets a wry smile in reaction.
As the party rages on, Skysports.com does the big 'meet and greet', which includes glad handing with the likes of St Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne, Cleveland Browns wideout Braylon Edwards, Chargers tight end Antonio Gates, those chaps Cromartie and Bowe again, and Bowe's Kansas City Chiefs teammate linebacker Napoleon Harris. The most amusing encounter we have is when an autograph hunter comes up to Jackson and says: "Hey Vernon, can I have your autograph?" He thinks Jackson is 49ers tight end Vernon Davis. Needless to say, he doesn't get his autograph and stumbles off into the melee around us.
Holding court in the after party at the Shaker Room are quarterbacks Donovan McNabb and Matt Hasselbeck, as well as Carson Palmer of the Bengals, who connected just a couple of times with that guy Johnson in the regular season. Also there are some of the NFL's key movers and shakers, including a chap from the Paragon organisation, who's negotiated deals for little known 'soccer' players Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, and Del Piero.
As well as being a fantastic 'who's-who' of the NFL, the venue itself was a cracker, with a great sound system and bar staff to match. Thankfully, the nice people at EA supplied the crowds with the beer, wine and spirits, making for some considerable booty-shaking on the dancefloor. Thank God (for me and everyone else), none of it was done by me.
