And another thing...

Supe precdiction, Take 3

OK, so it's not exactly a prediction. More of an observation or six.

But first, since this is my Blob, I'd like to whine a little.

How come when I cover media day at the Super Bowl, the most bent thing I see is a Televisa Deporta reporter interviewing people via sock puppet?

This year, of course, there's all kinds of weirdness. I've been cruising the various Super Bowl blogs -- mostly ESPN.com's "Hashmarks" -- and here's what I've found out so far:

* A woman reporter from TV Azteca showed up in a wedding dress and proposed to Tom Brady.

* A Telemundo reporter dressed as a swami predicted that he'd just gotten a communication "from Mars" that told him Pats by five. (The communication from Mars bit I totally buy).

* Brady was asked about the meaning of life, and revealed that his favorite band is U2.

* Eli Manning was asked what position he used to play in the Manning backyard ("Permanent center," he said), said his favorite sports movie  was "Hoosiers" and revealed that, yes, the rumors are true: He's Mom's favorite.

* Famously gap-toothed defensive end Michael Strahan was asked who the best gap-toothed person is. He picked SpongeBob SquarePants. (Squidward was rumored to be seriously ticked).

* Bill Belichick revealed that his favorite movie is "The Bourne Identity" (what's with the movie questions?)and likes salty snacks. He also said that if he wasn't a football coach he'd be "some sort of fashion designer," that his idol is Ginger Rogers, and that, late at night, he dresses up in women's clothes and goes ballroom dancing.

OK, OK. So I made up that last part.

None of the rest, though.

-- Ben Smith   

Supe prediction, Take 2

. . . in which I accurately forecast two things: I will not be there, and neither will you unless you just won the lottery, knocked over a casino with George Clooney and friends or pulled off a successful fund-raiser for your I Wanna Be President, Now Give Me Cash campaign.

Just read an interesting piece on ESPN.com that says Patriots and Giants fans are driving Super Bowl XLII ticket prices to astronomic levels. Face-valued anywhere from $700 to $900 -- which is a big enough bite considering tickets to the first Super Bowl started at $12 -- Supe XLII tickets are now running as high as $19,446 on resale on StubHub. Officials there say the average asking price is, gulp, $4,300.

I don't know about you, but if I'm gonna spend $19,446 on something, it better have four wheels and a sporty little five-speed that walks through the gears like a whisper on silk.

The tickets, of course, are only half the story. The rest is the requisite airline and hotel price-gouging, plus the parties to which you will either not be invited or can't afford -- like the Big Ticket Gala, a black-tie event at the tony Phoenician in Scottsdale that's emceed by Chris Berman and is headlined by Jay Leno. Tickets for that little deal start at $1,250.

On the plus side, there's a cool Cabela's megalomart in Glendale. And admission is free.

Not enough to get me out there, though. I'll stay home. Or show up unannounced at my sister's because, No. 1, I'm a good brother who cares deeply about what's going on with her, and No. 2, she and my brother-in-law just bought a 51-inch HD TV.

-- Ben Smith   

Freedom rings for now

OK, I'm back. I've dragged my rotting carcass out of bed because I just saw Stacy Clardie's story about the suddenly resurrected Freedom, and I felt compelled to say it doesn't exactly fill me with great confidence.

Yeah, I know it should. Yeah, I read the quotes from the CIFL honchos and Todd Ellis' attorney and it all sounds hunky-dory, as if Ellis' banishment last week was all just a big misunderstanding.

But my experience with indoor football has rendered me tone deaf to optimism. Five days ago, after all, the CIFL made it clear Ellis was out, out, out. Then the lawyers got involved (I'll let you imagine what was threatened and counter-threatened in that little pas-de-deux), and suddenly he's in, in, in and everybody's friends again. So how do you believe any of these people?

As for Ellis, yeah, he's paid up with the league, and he's about to be paid up with the Coliseum. So the Freedom is ready to rock, at least for now.

"At least for now" being the operative words. I say it's 50-50 it happens, at least in the current configuration.

Who knows what happens down the road with ownership. And who knows what happens with the league, which sources have told me is in a profoundly rickety state.

Indoor football's back?

OK. We'll see.

-- Ben Smith 

 

Sick call

I've been struck low by the dreaded Crap That's Going Around, so I'm sitting out a couple of days. Be back soon.

And so you know, I heard the wise guy in the back who just shouted, "Take your time."

Later.

-- Ben Smith

Mardi WHAT?!

OK, so this is only marginally about sports. And since my employer sponsors the event, I could get in real trouble here.

But I just heard that the Three Rivers Festival folks are holding public forums today to discuss the direction of the event, and mainly how they can put it on the map as one of the top events of its kind in the nation -- as big as, to use one stated example, Mardi Gras. And since my business is opinions, I've got an opinion. Several, in fact.

Opinion No. 1: Mardi Gras? Are you serious?

Opinion No. 2: TRF will never be Mardi Gras because, first of all, we don't have a French Quarter. And second of all, we don't have a French Quarter.

Opinion No. 3: If, in fact, you want to restore TRF to even its former glory, you need to do two things. You need to actually make it about something -- find a hook, a peg, an anchor event. And along those lines, if you want to restore TRF, and you're serious about it, there's only one option: Bring back the raft race.

(I told you this would be marginally about sports. This is the the marginally about sports part).

Anyway ... I realize, this being 2008, there would be huge insurance issues. Not to say pollution issues. But TRF was essentially DOA the minute the raft race went away, because the raft race gave it the one thing it's lacked since: an identity.

It was, first of all, a sporting event of sorts, and you can never go wrong, festival-wise, with sporting events. It involved the public, second of all. And it was the one thing in the whole festival that actually had something to do with the rivers, which nominally were the tie that bound, as they say.

You want to make TRF relevant again, bring it back in at least some form. Otherwise, you're just indulging in a lot of wishful thinking.

-- Ben Smith

       

 

Alstott says farewell

Mike Alstott is hangin' 'em up.

The former Purdue standout and longtime anchor of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running game announced his retirement in an emotional news conference today, leaving behind a hole in the franchise that will not easily be filled. A six-time Pro Bowler, he leaves after 12 seasons as the Bucs' all-time touchdown leader and perhaps the most popular player in franchise history.

It's the Purdue Alstott I remember most, though. The guy was just an absolute beast of a fullback, and the one indelible memory I have is of him running over everything wearing an Indiana jersey in a 51-14 Bucket blowout in 1995. It was Alstott's last collegiate game and he left his footprint on history's sternum with a 264-yard day.

Heck of a runner. Heck of a career.

-- Ben Smith      

A stunning development

Well, here's one I never saw coming.

Bill Belichick is not commenting on Tom Brady's "sprained ankle."

Gosh. You could knock me over with a feather.

-- Ben Smith

Pollute it like Beckham

Couldn't resist this one -- and not just because the whole David Beckham-comes-to-America thing is the most egregious example I've ever seen of media creating a buzz where none existed.

It seems Becks isn't just an alleged international superstar. He's also a one-man environmental train wreck.

According to FoxSoccer.com, which references the publication Soccer America, Beckham has been slammed by the British environmental group Carbon Trust as being personally responsible for 163 tons of carbon dioxide yearly. This is, needless to say, way more than the 9.4 tons normally produced by the average Englishman.

Carbon Trust bases its findings on the frequency of Beckham's air travel (250,000 miles last year), his 15 cars (including a Hummer and Lincoln Navigator) and his homes.

The group claims that Beckham's Carbon Footprint -- a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activities -- may be the largest in human history.

Don't look at me like that. You really think I could make this up?

No, the Carbon Trust people are on the level here, if not exactly in their right minds. And it comes as a relief to those of us who've been looking for someone to pin global warming on, other than the usual energy magnates and the various scum-sucking politicians who live in their pockets.

Well, now we have that someone. Come on down, Becks!

You're a much bigger star in the area of environmental degradation now than you are on the soccer pitch, where you're pretty much the Michael Jackson of the sport -- a fading has-been living on a rapidly eroding rep. Speaking as someone who never bought into the Becks hype to begin with, it's frankly gonna be far more entertaining to see how much arctic ice the man can melt this year all by himself.

Pollute on, Becks. You da Man.

-- Ben Smith

    

Footloose

Know what's cool, besides watching Steve Nash dish, Gale Sayers run and Daniel Day-Lewis act?

This is cool: Ron Hunter coaching barefoot.

If you haven't heard, Hunter, the IUPUI basketball coach, will coach barefoot tomorrow night to help bring attention to Samaritan's Feet, a Charlotte, N.C., charity whose goal is to send 10 million pairs of shoes to children around the world in the next 10 years.

Founded by a native of Nigeria, the charity found its way onto Hunter's radar partly because of a recruiting trip Hunter made to Lagos, Nigeria, four years ago, where he was struck by the abject poverty he saw there. And so in honor of the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's death, Hunter wants to send 40,000 pairs of shoes to Africa.

Already he's collected some 30,000 pairs, some of which are filling up his office right now. His players have gotten involved and so has the IUPUI student body, which has been invited to show up for tomorrow's game barefoot, too. Hunter plans on taking the shoes to Africa sometime in July.

In the meantime, he's giving the shoe leather a rest.

"If a 5 or 6-year-old kid can walk around their entire life with no shoes on, then surely, in a warm climate, in a basketball environment, I can do it," Hunter told the Associated Press.

Very cool.

-- Ben Smith

      

Cam lands

Just as everyone figured (OK, almost everyone, then), Cam Cameron didn't spent much time on the unemployment line.

Less than a month after Bill Parcells gave him the gate after his disastrous one-win season as head coach in Miami, Cameron has reached an agreement to join the Baltimore Ravens' staff, according to Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com. He'll serve as offensive coordinator under new head coach John Harbaugh, who was introduced Sunday as Brian Billick's replacement.

Oh, these coaching carousels. You need Dramamine to keep track of them, and an innate ability to suspend disbelief to figure out how some of these guys continually manage to get plum jobs.

-- Ben Smith