Part of the responsibility of a Sportsnet reporter covering the Super Bowl is helping to build a bond with our kind neighbours from the United States of America. With President Obama in office now, it is my moral duty as a Canadian sports reporter to help bridge the gap between our two great nations.
For instance, on Wednesday, Britney and Sahara, two lovely Buccaneers cheerleaders, had a question that only an experienced football reporter from Canada like me could answer. They asked me if I could break down the responsibility of safety Troy Polamalu in Dick LeBeau’s complicated zone blitz defence.
It took a little extra work on my part, but I was able to break down how LeBeau moves Polamalu around the field to confuse opposing quarterbacks. Britney was a quick study and really understood the impact of a game-breaking safety like Polamalu can have on a game like the Super Bowl.
Thursday was an interesting day here in Tampa. In the morning Mario and I headed out to the University of South Florida to interview Hines Ward and get an update on his injured knee. Ward swears he will be good to go for Sunday’s game and credits his own personal hyperbaric chamber. We also attended Mike Tomlin’s daily media conference. It takes all of around 10 seconds of listening to Tomlin speak to understand why the Rooney family hired him as the head coach of the Steelers. Taking nothing away from the Cardinals Ken Whisenhunt, but Tomlin was the perfect man to take over as head coach of the Steelers.
Thursday marks the last time you can talk to players before Sunday’s game. The next time the players are available to the media will be after Super Bowl XLIII comes to an end.
Afterwards, we took off for our location at the NFL headquarters in downtown Tampa. For the first time since we arrived on Sunday, we saw clouds in the sky. With the win picking up speed and black clouds rolling in, we realized we were about to get soaked with a classic Florida tropical rain storm. We literally finished our last interview with Adam Schefter when the heavens opened up and it just started pouring.
That’s what they call winter down here in Tampa, a few hours of rain and temperatures plunging to the low 20’s Celsius.
Friday on Connected we will have a complete re-cap of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s state of the league address and a feature on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.