Its funny how the time honoured cliché seems to be spinning outta control - as those last two NFL Conference Championship games seem such a distant memory, albeit actually only having occurred a Fortnight ago, right?
As I must confess that I didn’t watch any of the Day’s first game between the visiting Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots. Having decided to forego that game in order to catch the Day’s “late” game at Candlestick Park instead, as I was most intrigued to see if Cinderella could work her magic and sprinkle some winning Stardust upon those most upstart San Francisco 49ers, albeit I was sorta secretly rooting against them - although I should have been pulling for the 49ers, after all being the winners of my “Home” NFC West Division… Yet alas, I missed the entire first half before turning on the ‘Telie only to try watching a very distorted third quarter Whilst I was too occupied with company instead before turning off the TV to listen to some riveting motorsports radio show with the score knotted 17-17 with under two minutes remaining.
Having traveled to Indianapolis several times now, including last year’s Centennial Indy 500, I’ve been mildly interested in the cities preparations for this year’s big Shindig, yet it all seemingly came crashing down when I was grocery shopping the other day with my wonderful Shopper Cheryl, when we passed by an aisle with some very muted video playing on top of a display. Asking Cheryl what’s that all about? Oh, it’s for some sort of Football game I think… Which made me burst out into laughter, as it was so damn refreshing to hear somebody being totally oblivious to the Superbowl Hypefest!
And a very good friend in Indy says that they’re expecting 110,000 visitors for the game at LucasOilDome which only seats 70,000 with all of the Downtown Hotels having been booked for weeks now, not to mention the travesties occurring in the typical yearly quadrupling of prices, i.e.; parking, hotel rooms, etc. Not to mention the city denying a temporary permit for the Homeward Bound, which saw the ACLU stepping in on its behalf and filing a Federal lawsuit against the city of Indianapolis in order to allow the Homeless to continue their longstanding practice of selling Newspapers in the Downtown corridor, as Indy had tried locking them out of the 1.0-mile Superbowl “clean” zone where special license’s are required in order to hawk merchandise. As the paper solely benefits the Homeless by paying them 75-cents for every paper sold for $1.00…
And then there’s this year’s just concluded Media Day “Gong Show,” as apparently anybody and their dog Molly can now attend, as this year saw the introduction of a selected number of Media Day tickets being sold to the public, as the 7,300 tickets with a face value of $25.00 were scooped up in a matter of minutes with scalpers reportedly doing a brisk business whilst basically charging double for these tickets; URGH!
And what prey tell did this enable you to? Well those willing to buy these got to sit in a reserved Grandstand seating area and listen to various player interviews via a portable radio included, whilst binocular rentals were available at the ultra-ultra low price of $10.00. As I thought that the NFL couldn’t sink any lower after the ridiculousness of money grubbing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones fleeced a few thousand folks to shill out two “Benjamin’s” apiece to stand outside in the parking lot and watch the game on some big screens…
Then again this is all peanuts, did somebody say peanuts? Get you’re fresh roasted salted peanuts here; Hurry Hurry Hurry - only $5.00! OOPS! That’s Jarrett’s line isn’t it? As in something ‘bout five dollar foot longs, eh?
While I cannot even fathom how much a Ball Park frank, you know, the ones that plump when Yuhs cook ‘em will cost? Not to mention some watered down beer, which you may or may not pay more for the same amount as a small or large cup… Just ask us Seahawks fans about that little controversy at Qwest Field two seasons ago… Which is before we even get to the price of admission, i.e.; a Superbowl ticket, which I believe I heard the “Secondary Market” is now averaging $3,100 for, after having peaked at nearly four-grand!
But back to the Media Day Gong Show, as the Indianapolis Star’s Bob Kravitz wrote a pretty funny piece chronicling his day’s outing where he mused that even some Nickelodeon guy was replete in a Captain America outfit! Before he and other hundreds stood 25+ yards away straining to hear “Pretty Boy Floyd 2.0” Tom Brady toss out some senseless MediaSpeak sound-bites…
All of this prior to Kravitz’s first Ines Sainz spotting, you know the TV Azteca reporter, right? As this ChaCha poser claimed her 15-minutes of fame whilst wearing one of her numerous “Minimalist” outfits inside the New York Jets locker room a few seasons ago… As NO word on whether or not Brett Favre was trying to show her in person his new shoes or not?
Although Kravitz went on to muse that Misses Sainz was upstaged by Televisa’s Marisol Gonzalez, whose red dress apparently was so pleasing to his eye that he’d have been willing to slather glue all over a chicken suit if she’d asked him too… And this is all before we even get to the nine-plus hour marathon called Game Day; Aye Karumba!
And although I know its another shameless Advertising ploy, about the only good thing I can find towards the Superbowl frenzy was last weekend’s lining-up of 33 ‘Supercarz on what reputedly was renamed Seahawk Street, when in conjunction with the Indy Racing Experience, 33-past Indy Cars were displayed together on Meridian Street towards The Monument Circle, which indicates Indy’s Downtown. As these now obsolete racing cars were wrapped in each of the 32 National Football League Franchises respective liveries, plus one extra done up in Superbowl XL VI tribute scheme…
As Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star said on Trackside with Kevin & Cavin Tuesday night; behind the mondo Vince Lombardi mural currently displayed upon the JW Marriot, which is destined to become a Kodak Postcard moment by everybody invading the city… The Indy 500 Supercarz were the second biggest draw of the weekend! As I’d like to say I think it’s a great coup pulled off by INDYCAR…
Indianapolis: Dallara’s Welcome NFL Crowd
Yet, with all of the NEVER ending self-promotion Hypefest, i.e.; Today Show taping at Superbowl Villa with Al Roper riding a Zip-line and co-host Ann Curry reportedly wearing a white poufy coat ‘cause it was cold in Indy; Blah-blah-blah… And that doesn’t even include the six-hour Preamble all day Sunday!
Thus, I think I’ll boycott this year’s Souper Dooper Bowl and watch my seven-plus hours of recorded Rolex 24 at Daytona Sports Car race instead…