NFL’s new ‘Opening Night’ doesn’t live up to expectations
HOUSTON — Super Bowl media day was, in a word, meh.
ESPN’s Chris Berman sensed the lack of a bona-fide vibe almost immediately Monday night at Minute Maid Park. Something seemed missing. He should know: This is the cable network announcer’s 35th Super Bowl. ESPN carried the show live on television, as did the NFL Network.
“The last few years, (media day) has taken an even harder left-hand turn,” careening away from sports journalism and toward pure entertainment, Berman said. “My favorite day of the week, other than the game, was media day in the stadium where they were going to play. The players were in their uniforms. In my business, it was good for ‘pictures.’ I saw the eyes of the young players walk out as if to say, ‘Ooh. We are going to be playing here Sunday.’”
Not Monday night. The NFL billed the extravaganza as “Opening Night.” Broadway it was not.
Sure, there was a giant stage featuring a plush, red-velvet curtain. Players were trotted out. There was the requisite loud music, jumbo video screens and a gaggle of former NFL stars, including Deion Sanders and LaDainian Tomlinson, milling around the field as “reporters.”
But the “room” lacked electricity. At times, the stadium was eerily quiet. After all, this was a baseball stadium. Sort of a buzz kill.
For the most part, players were subdued.
“It’s just amazing to see the fan love out here,” said the Falcons linebacker Vic Beasley, trying to sound upbeat.
A love-fest it was not. The crowd, at times, looked indifferent.
Where were the crazy “media” denizens dressed up as hot dogs? Where was MTV’s one-time Super Bowl queen, “Downtown” Julie Brown? (OK, mothballs.)
“Not enough goofies this year,” remarked veteran USA Today NFL columnist Jarrett Bell.
There was that Super Bowl regular, Phillip Hajszan, representing an Austrian television station. One year, he dressed as Mozart. This time, he wore some other goofy 17th-century get-up and walked around with another Austrian man dressed in a long, blue gown and wearing a women’s wig. He also had a beard.
Meanwhile, players from the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons seemed more like bit players in an overwrought production.
The Patriots’ reputation as “America’s Most Hated Team” preceded them. There was their taskmaster, the “King of Drone,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick doing his somnambulance-inducing thing at the podium. During his weekly radio show, Belichick got downright quotable before he arrived in Houston on Monday.
“Yeah, I think we all know this is a circus without the trapeze and the dancing elephants,” he said. “It’ll be the media night unlike any other, except at this event. But we’ll embrace it and enjoy it.”
When the NFL Network’s Scott Hanson introduced the Patriots, boos cascaded down from the stands.
Eddie Ureina, a 9-year-old boy sitting in the front row, wasn’t surprised when he heard the negative reaction. Asked why he thought some fans turned on the Patriots, his answer was stunningly succinct:
“They cheat,” said the third-grader from Houston, wearing a Houston Texans jersey and cap.
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was asked by the Review-Journal whether he would be surprised if the Patriots were booed when they were introduced to the crowd.
Appearing surprised by the question, Ryan looked as if he had just swallowed Belichick’s whistle. Atlanta’s star signal-caller tried to stand in the pocket by dodging repeated similar queries from the R-J, then finally said in exasperation, “I guess I wouldn’t be. I hadn’t thought about it.”
“Opening Night” looked, and sounded, more like the curtain coming down.
“I’m all for the fans who spend five bucks who never will get close to the Super Bowl,” said ESPN’s Berman. “But if it’s media day, make it media day. I kind of liked it the way it was. Then again, I am an old-timer.”
Jon Mark Saraceno can be reached at jsaraceno@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jonnysaraceno on Twitter.