Media Day gone away: Now it's time for some football

January 28, 7:27 PMTampa Bay Sports ExaminerTed Fleming

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Cards' head coach Ken Whisenhunt is just
happy the circus known as Media Day
is over to get things back to normal
(AP/Gene J. Puskar)

Super Bowl Media Day is the goofball circus come to town. With each passing year it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous as it is beginning to be more about the “media” than it is about the players who are actually going to play in the big game.

From Subway’s Jared to Ross, the Tonight Show intern, a drag queen to an escapee of a Daniel Boone movie with a raccoon hat included in his “wardrobe,” a sense of sanity settled over downtown Tampa Wednesday.

Head coaches can now get their teams prepared for Sunday with a somewhat normal schedule and players are thinking about football than the endless repetition of inane questions. The best one may have been directed at Washington Redskins’ Doug Williams when he was asked if he felt like baseball’s Jackie Robinson because he was the first black quarterback to start in a Super Bowl (XXII).

Festivities aside, Arizona Cardinals’ head coach Ken Whisenhunt is just happy to get back to football.

“The biggest thing this week is getting back to a normal week,” he said. “You’re always going to have distractions, but everything that we do in a normal week of preparation is what you really have to focus on this week, from the meetings times to your practice times to your practice schedule.

“Obviously there are a couple things that are a little bit different - for instance, having to meet with the media before you practice, but I think it’s all about the ability of our team to really focus on the fact that there is a football game on Sunday. It’s not a media event and it’s not a family event. (It’s) being able to keep that business-like approach on field that we’ve been able to do the last three weeks.”

Pittsburgh’s head coach Mike Tomlin was of the same mind although the Steelers went through their typical middle of the week schedule prior to any game.

“It’s been kind of a regular Wednesday morning for us,” he said. We came over to this facility (University of South Florida) and had our normal Wednesday morning routine of a game week. We met special teams-wise this morning, had the team meeting, and then broke up into offensive and defensive units and then positions from there. So we continue to put one foot in front of the other, and prepare ourselves to hopefully be our best on Sunday. Hopefully that’s enough to have a winning performance.”

There was some concern on the part of Ben Roethlisburger on the specially designed football just for this game and how he thinks it will affect his grip.

“I was just talking to our equipment guys, and I told them we should break these 12 balls in,” said the Steelers’ quarterback. “They looked and me and said, ‘Twelve balls? No, it’s 54.’ They’ve had a lot to break in. It’s tough because they do have the big logo on them and it’s not the easiest thing to grip in the world and we’re the only position that has to deal with it on a constant basis, so we’ve been working on them and getting them ready.

"I’m sure Kurt (Warner) will have his gloves on, which I did in the first game (Super Bowl XL) and it helps a bit. For me, it’s just going to be an adjustment because my hands will be sweating for the first time in probably three months or so.” 

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