Nobody would even try to calculate the odds of brothers quarterbacking in the NFL, let alone taking turns capturing the Super Bowl MVP.
But former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning is now the proud father of the past two consecutive Super Bowl MVPs, Peyton last season with the Colts and now Eli with the Giants.
``I never thought about them even playing college ball, much less pro football, much less winning Super Bowl MVPs,'' Archie said.
``It wasn't in the plan. We tried to raise kids. We raised kids just like other parents raised kids. I can't explain it.''

Posted by at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Not that the Patriots and their organization were on the confident side, but at halftime __ leading 7-3 __ the New England public relations department passed ``game notes'' they might want to have back.
Under the heading ``If the Patriots Win Today, They Would'' ... and then listed six different accomplishments.
There were three others about what a victory would mean to owner owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
Guess they can keep it their system should they return in the near future. Just might want to wait and pass it out after the game is over next time.

Posted by at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Know how coaches are always saying you have to play until the game's over?
Guess that means unless there's only 1 second left.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and most of his team, ran off the field with a second left and one more play to be run.
He never came back, as the Giants finally ran out the clock.
Belichick is never one to fill up the notepad, but his postgame press conference consisted of about five questions, all greeted with one-sentence answers.

Posted by at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Be honest, if someone had told you the score of the Super Bowl would be 7-3 going into the fourth quarter, you would have figured it as a super bore.
But there was always the threat of someone breaking a play at any moment that kept the suspense up. And then of course, came the payoff.
That last quarter made this one of my favorite Super Bowl games ever. One team making a dramatic drive, the other answering in the final seconds.
There have been so many poor Super Bowl games, it was great to watch one with some genuine dramatics.

Posted by at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The print media hammers out their stories in one of those giant white tents that you normally see for some big bash.
It's hardly a party in here, though, just a lot of writers on deadline trying to act cool under pressure. They print out over 60 pages of quotes from players of both teams, and if you actually took the time to read them all you'd ever make deadline.
We sit on those cheap, white plastic folding chairs that seem favored at weddings. Only several hours on one of these things and your rump is wishing to be anywhere else. Even another bus.

Posted by at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A requirement for all this blogging, of course, is the ability to get on-line. Also very useful for filing stories.
The NFL, in all its largess, apparently can't afford a proper wireless system.
It was a problem all week at the convention center and threatened to become catastrophic after the game Sunday. Right on deadline, it went down. Over and out.
The NFL had to create some other system just so frantic sports writers wouldn't riot. It took about 10 precious minutes. See, I'm really blogging this as way of whining to my editors.

Posted by at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The thing about the Super Bowl most people would be disappointed to know is, it's better watched from home in front of the big screen.
Everything around the stadium is a zoo and mass confusion. Most of the press is in aux box in the highest level of the stadium and in a corner behind the West end zone. Not a good view. You'll see better, and probably know more, than 99 percent of the media crammed into the stadium watching on TV.
Maybe you'd want to experience it once, but the Super Bowl is better viewed with friends back home. Also, dramatically cheaper.

Posted by at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, so there really isn't one inside University of Phoenix Stadium.
The retractable roof is already closed. It's cloudy and cool out side, and looks like it could rain.
Last year it rained almost the entire game, leaving most inside Miami's stadium drenched.
Four hours before game time here, and the freeway was already at a stop a couple miles outside the stadium. And there's no public parking available, everything is permitted.

Posted by at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK,. so turns out I wormed my way into a party Saturday night. The Taste of the NFL bash, to be exact.
It was held in yet another, disconnected part of the Phoenix Convention Center. It featured a chef from every city in the NFL, plus a player or former player.
Lots of tiny fancy dishes, but all you could eat and drink. Just like the good old days.
There was the Californian Raisin Duck with verjus California Raisin and hazelnut glaze ... offered by the Kansas City Chiefs. There was Blue Prawn Kielbasa, featuring seaweed sauerkraut, blue potato pierogie and caraway bubbles, naturally from Pittsburgh. Have no idea what it was, but I ate it.
Think my favorite was Baltimore's rockfish, corn crab cake and some soft tacos from Arizona.
Maybe I was the wrong guy for the experience. Entertainment Tonight's Pat O'Brien, a long-time acquaintance, walked by and made a quick observation: ``You're under dressed.'' I'm also sports writer.
Every team station featured wine and a player signing autographs. Some were memorable, some not. The St. Louis Rams brought Jack Youngblood, who of course never played in St. Louis.Earl Morrall was there for the Indianapolis Colts, and he never played there, either. Still beat the New Orleans Saints who brought Kevin Houser. He's their long snapper.

Posted by at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something is clearly missing from my Super Bowl experience.
Parties.
Couldn't score an invite to the Maxim party. Hugh apparently forgot about me again at the Playboy bash. ESPN, the NFL commissioner, Victoria's Secret, Matt Leinart, Penthouse ... all somehow forgot to get me word I was eagerly anticipated at their event.
Some of these are actually open to the public for a fee ($2,000 for Playboy). The Arizona Republic lists 80 Super Bowl parties and events.
Maybe I can find the UCLA-Arizona game on at the hotel bar.

Posted by at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The boss man wanted to know now many Super Bowls I've now been to and if I had any favorites.
Tried to figure it out, and think this will be No.15. Should have been at Super Bowl XVII between the Redskins and Dolphins at the Rose Bowl, but it's the one I have no particular memory.
My first was the Steelers-Rams at the Rose Bowl in 1980, which probably remains my favorite. Rams gave them a great game, lead went back and forth. And, of course, it was my first.
After that, Super Bowls have a way of blurring together. Particularly since most of the games have been less than memorable.
Remember Phil Simms going nuts against Denver in Super Bowl XXI in 1987, also at the Rose Bowl, and Doug Williams doing likewise as the Redskins scored 35 consecutive points the next year in San Diego.John Elway finally winning one in 1998 in San Diego.
After awhile, you tend to remember more the location, which is why New Orleans and Miami will always be favorites, even if the game proves a dud. Bourbon Street can be a highlight regardless of the game. And it's always hard to beat the activity of South Beach.

Posted by at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The odd thing about the Phoenix Super Bowl is that almost none of its activities actually take place in Phoenix.
The game is played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, over 17 miles outside Phoenix. Have no idea why it's called Glendale. Unlike ours, there is no glen there. There is precious little around the stadium, set out in a patch of otherwise empty desert. The City of Glendale itself is five miles east of the stadium.
The Giants stayed in Chandler, 27 miles outside Phoenix, and the Patriots stayed in Scottsdale, another 12 miles out.
The NFL types and some media are staying in downtown Phoenix, but most of the media hotels are by the airport.
Of course, the last time they held a Super Bowl here it was in Tempe at ASU.

Posted by at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Super Bowl media center is a strange place to be a night.
It's a buzz of activity during the day, almost electric. Radio Row bustles with noise and football stars. The halls are packed. Journalists almost elbow to elbow.
But right now it's so quiet it's eerie.
All of Radio Row has called it a night. Some have actually packed up and headed home __ including 570-KLAC __ their work done.
It's 9 p.m. here, and in a press room that once had hundreds, there's now me, five others and a skeleton security crew. You can't even call home and say something mushy because everyone can hear everything said in this cavernous room.
The whole week's build up pretty much winds down media-wise by Friday anyway. Players are no longer available, and there's only the coaches offered in the morning.
Tonight is the Commissioner's Party, what was once an extravagant media bash. Only the media are no longer invited. They're somewhere, because they're sure not here.

Posted by at 8:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's this guy who's been walking around the press room in a kilt.
I have no idea. We're going to play it safe and guess he's a journalist from Scotland.
Somebody is interviewing him, apparently for a blog.
Sorry, I draw the line on blogging when it comes to kilts.

Posted by at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can't wait until the thrill of the next bus ride. The rides and the drivers can prove an accidentally entertaining bunch.
After rising at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday to fly here, catch a quick shuttle to my airport hotel and jumping on a media Super Bowl bus to the University of Phoenix Stadium media day, actually dozed off.
Woke to the bus driver apologizing to me and her other passenger. Seems we had gone 15 minutes the opposite direction of the stadium.
``I don't know what happened,'' she said. ``I punched in the stadium on the GPS and it took me here.''
Didn't have the heart to tell her that outside the window at the moment was the Arizona State stadium.
Then there was the guy last night taking a couple of us back to the hotel, noting that downtown was dead. He was closing in on 60, combs his hair at least once a week and tucks in his shirt about as often.
``The place you want go is the Crows Nest at the PGA tournament,'' he gushed. ``Nothing but hot, available women. The ratio is unbelievable. They line up a mile to get in there. Crows Nest or Birds Nest. You have to go.''
He was oblivious to our wedding rings, among other things.

Posted by at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Once there was a golden age of freebies in sports writing, before we became all responsible and professional and everything. Al Davis infamously once offered TVs to beat writers in L.A. Don't think it worked out for him.
The Super Bowl was never exactly a haven for all this, but at least you used to get a nice travel or laptop bag. Food was plentiful in at the media lounge. There would be a nifty Super Bowl baseball cap and boxed pens. Ah, those were the days.
Now you get a not-so-nice pen and a notebook. So good to be on the inside.
Food has been reduced to chips and salsa, though water, soda and __ don't tell the boss __ beer remain available without coin.
The media center has various sponsors giving out Alicia Keys' new CD and NFL videos of the Pats and Giants. The host committee is the mother lode, though, offering Cold Stone ice cream, a media pin, some kinda stuffed animal mascot thingy, some kinda ipod charger and a jump-start flashcard.
Next year's host committee offers chocolate and orange lip balm. Wait check that, that's the one in Florida in 2010, not to be confused with the one in Florida in 2009, which offered a cigar.
I'd go on, but Cold Stone calls. You do what you can.

Posted by at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Super Bowl media center sucks up the entire Phoenix Convention Center.
The main working area is has a collapsible wall separating the print media from the electronic types. Never know when some good fisticuffs might break out.
Once the electric heads were lined up in what was is called Radio Row outside the main press, but now it's swollen like some out of control virus from a bad '60s sci-fi flick.
Current players not in Sunday's game and former players are rife in Radio Row, typically making several stops with different talking heads.
Quarterbacks are popular visitors. Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger have all stopped by. So has Reggie Bush, maybe on the way to find a new house for his parents.

Posted by at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)