It didn’t take a grown man wearing an orange cape and a black mask–on Nickelodeon, they call him PickBoy–asking Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme what kind of hair gel he uses to illustrate how silly Super Bowl Media Day can be.
But it did drive the point home Tuesday with a sledgehammer.
For the record, Delhomme laughed off the question and concealed his beauty secrets as expertly as he did the Panthers’ game plan.
Delhomme, a horse buff, did reveal he named one of his fillies “She Hate Me,” in honor of Carolina teammate and former XFL icon Rod “He Hate Me” Smart. Delhomme also credited his days as an Amsterdam Admiral in NFL Europe for teaching him much more than the difference between red lights and the red zone.
A few hours earlier, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady spent considerable time discussing the New Hampshire presidential primary and his family’s political affiliation.
In what might have rated as breaking news in New England big enough to pre-empt daytime programming, Brady confirmed he recently registered to vote and plans to do so in the Massachusetts primary.
Asked for whom he would cast his ballot, Brady replied, “I have not decided.”
If he were that uncertain in the pocket, to reach for a football reference, the Patriots never would be in the Super Bowl.
How does any of this relate to Sunday’s game against the Patriots?
It doesn’t, but the Super Bowl has as much to do with football as the Miss America pageant has to do with IQ. It’s secondary, especially with 3,000 members of the media from all over the globe gathered on the field of Reliant Stadium all looking for nuggets–and not from the buffet table.
“I’ve seen the circus before at the [NCAA] Final Four, and this is the biggest circus I’ve seen,” said Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers, a former University of North Carolina basketball player who played in the 2000 Final Four.
A Brazilian TV crew, for example, was disappointed to learn two minutes into its interview that Panthers tight end Marco Battaglia didn’t speak Spanish and was born in Queens, N.Y. Battaglia still tried sending the boys from Brazil away happy.
“This will be a low-scoring game–like a soccer game,” Battaglia said.
Nearby, the youngest reporter on hand, 13-year-old Justin Phillips, got up the nerve to approach Panthers defensive end Mike Rucker. Phillips, of Cary, N.C., was selected after a nationwide search by a kids TV network and came armed with a notebook and curiosity.
“Can you name the Roman numerals for this Super Bowl?” he asked Rucker.
Rucker, who appeared stumped, replied: “X-X-X . . . V . . . one, two, three. I mean, I, I, I.”
That sounded more probing than any of the questions posed by Warren Sapp, the Buccaneers defensive tackle serving as a roving reporter for the NFL Network. Sapp spent as much time answering questions as asking them, and was one of several NFL stars in town wishing they still were working at their day jobs.
Raiders wide receiver Jerry Rice presided over a contest between NFL old-timers Jim Taylor of the Packers and Bobby Bell of the Chiefs to find “the NFL’s loudest snorer of all-time,” according to the news release.
Perspective has been known to appear during Super Bowl week as often as the New Orleans Saints. Still, credit Carolina rookie wide receiver Walter Young, a former Illinois and Rich East star, for trying to remain grounded amid the frenzy.
A radio reporter asked Young if he would cut off his left hand in exchange for winning the Super Bowl and having a 100-yard receiving day.
“No way,” Young said.
