Three things you would have to see to believe at the Super Bowl
1. So your name is Tom Brady, and you’re in Phoenix during the week of Super Bowl XLII with the Patriots poised to make history. If you’re the New England quarterback, you’re loving life. But if you’re a retired Fortune 500 executive with the same name of America’s hottest athlete right now, you’re a little cranky.
“Yeah, it’s been a little bothersome,” Brady the retired businessman said Thursday. “Radio stations and a couple reporters have called. I mean, so we have the same common name. So what?”
So Super Bowl week cannot end soon enough for one local.
“I’ll be a little glad when it’s over, yeah,” Brady said.
2. On the talk-show circuit, Jerry Rice spent more time on the radio the last couple of days than the guys who do the traffic and weather. He was jostled more on radio row than he ever was in an NFL secondary, and when he left the Phoenix Convention Center, Rice couldn’t go more than 10 yards without someone asking him to pose for a picture. Yet at the end of a long day of being Jerry Rice, two young kids asked Rice for one more photo just before he stepped onto an elevator taking him up to his room. And Rice not only stopped to pose for the kids but spent a couple of minutes talking to them about the Super Bowl too. That’s a Hall of Fame effort if there ever was one.
3. One of the coolest moments any Super Bowl could produce came late Wednesday night at a dinner Mike Ditka put together for Gridiron Greats. The room included about 50 former NFL players, a mix that included contemporary greats as well as old-timers. Bob Costas donated his time to emcee the event, eloquently, and every player in the room was introduced and acknowledged. The most interesting thing for a guy from Chicago: If you think Ditka is revered in his own city — and he undoubtedly is — you should have heard the thunderous roar when Costas introduced Da Coach as the night’s closing speaker to a standing ovation. Even “Iron Mike” melted a little at the show of warmth and his voice cracked when he started to speak.
Best Bear nugget
During an emotional news conference promoting the latest initiative for Ditka’s Gridiron Greats, an online auction, Chiefs player Kyle Turley let it slip that Bears center Olin Kreutz had contributed to the cause. According to Turley, Kreutz wrote a check for $50,000 toward humanitarian efforts to help needy retired players. It was part of “Gridiron Guardian Sunday” Dec. 23 when Turley led an effort by active players to donate that Sunday’s game check.
