NFL To Refund Thousands More Super Bowl Seat Victims Along With More Bad Super Bowl Blunder News

I don't think the Super Bowl ended up being quite the wonderful boost to North Texas that North Texas boosters hoped it would be.

This morning brought the news that approximately 2,000 more fans will be getting a ticket refund or a ticket to a future Super Bowl. These additional disgruntled fans were disgruntled due to being delayed in getting access to the seats they had paid for.

A research firm, San Diego based Competitive Edge Research & Communication is employed to survey opinions, nationwide, of Super Bowl host cities.

Polling data found that positive opinions of Arlington went from 17.4 percent before the game to 14.9 after the game.

Even worse for Arlington, 73.7 of those polled had no impression of the town before the game, with that number managing to increase to 74.4 percent after the game.

I'm thinking making no impression is better than making a bad impression.

An Oklahoman newspaper columnist, Jenni Carlson opined, "Our good friends in North Texas want the Super Bowl back in five years, want to host the biggest spectacle in sports again, want to be the site of the game's momentous 50th anniversary. Good luck with that. Super Bowl XLV? More like Blunder Bowl. Everything that could go wrong did. Some of it was out of anyone's control -- who could've foreseen not one but two snowstorms rolling through the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Super Bowl week? -- but plenty of other things were man-made disasters."

There were a couple good letters to the editor this morning in the Dallas Morning News regarding the man-made Super Bowl disasters....

Waiting for Super Bowl seats

Much has been made about the displaced fans in the temporary seats who were grossly inconvenienced, and my sympathies go out to them. 

However, little has been mentioned about the thousands of us who waited outside the Blue Entrance for over two hours without moving and with no one telling us what was going on.

Jerry Jones and the NFL cannot get a pass on this, as they had years to plan for all contingencies and severely dropped the ball. Spending thousands of dollars only to be frustrated with an organizational debacle of epic proportions is simply unacceptable.

Gary S. Black, Dallas

Jones disgraced many

Jerry Jones' enormous greed and ego has brought shame to Dallas and disgraced not only himself, but the city of Dallas, Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys Stadium and the NFL. His ego-driven attempt to set a new Super Bowl attendance record created not only safety issues for visiting Packer and Steeler fans, but destroyed what would have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

I can only imagine the grief, humiliation and discomfort these fans suffered, and that doesn't include enormous amounts of money that was spent for seats that weren't even available when they were purchased. 

To those fans, I apologize for the horrible experience, and I hope you don't associate most Cowboy fans and North Texans with Jones. We sincerely hope to see you again under better circumstances. We can and will do better.

Ronnie Smith, Garland

Don Meredith; 1938-2010

Just taking a minute to remember "Dandy" Don Meredith, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and member of the classic Monday Night Football broadcast team for 12 seasons, along with Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell. Keith Jackson was MNF's play by play man during it's first season.

Don Meredith was 72.


"Turn off the lights.....the party's over".




Update 12/7/10 This morning I read a great column by Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger with some comments on Meredith and Monday Night Football's impact on American culture and media back in the day. Included in the column were some classic "Dandy Don-isms".

There was the time that Spiro Agnew, then the country’s vice president, visited the Monday Night booth. “I didn’t vote for you,” Meredith told him, “but you do have a nice suit on.”

or.....

....the time when, discussing what it was like to play for Dallas legend Tom Landry, he said, “He’s such a perfectionist that if he were married to Dolly Parton, he’d expect her to cook.”

and

....his assessment of teammate Walt Garrison: “If you needed 4 yards, you’d give the ball to Garrison and he’d get you 4 yards. If you needed 20 yards, you’d give the ball to Garrison and he’d get you 4 yards.”

He was one of a kind. MNF has been trying replicate the magic of Gifford, Meredith, and Cosell for a quarter of a century now. Tirico, Chuckie and Jaws are good, so were Michaels and Madden, and Michaels, Gifford and Dierdorf.

But the MNF crew of the 1970's and early 1980's was the gold standard, as iconic in sports broadcasting in their way as ALL IN THE FAMILY and HAPPY DAYS were to TV comedy in that era.

As Howard Cosell might have said it...."Rest in peace, Dan-DAH Roooo."

 

New Jersey To Host Super Bowl XLVIII In 2014!

The Super Bowl is coming to a cold weather city in 2014.

And that cold weather city is.....East Rutherford, New Jersey!

That's right. It's not "The City That Never Sleeps". But it is the city that will host Super Bowl XLVIII (when will it be OK to can the stupid Roman numerals? Didn't they go out of fashion in 476AD, or is the NFL waiting for the Empire to strike back?).

Officially the bid went to New York/New Jersey (doesn't "J" come before "N") over Tampa Bay and the announcement was made today by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. And almost immediately the New York electronic media went gonzo...wasn't it great that the game was coming to New Yawwwwk!

Mmmm...am I missing something? Was part of the deal that the game should be played in Buffalo, because that's the only professional football franchise within the sovereign state of New York. There are two NFL teams that have "New York" in their name and on their uniforms, and they've been in violation of truth in advertising for decades....both teams play their home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey. When you go to the New Meadowlands Stadium and and park your car, New Jersey gets a piece of that. You buy a hot dog and a Bud, NJ gets the sales tax on that as well. Apparel sold in the stadium, New Jersey gets some of that in sales tax.

Got the picture?

You can see Manhattan in the distance from the stadium; the Empire State Building is 8 miles away (according to GOOGLE MAPS)....or a "15 minute drive"- yeah, what the hell are they smokin'? The only way to cover that in 15 minutes is if your name is Obama and the cops leading your motorcade are clearing the way.

The weather in February? I've seen it 60 degrees in that month....but this past year February was the snowiest month in recorded history for the region....EVER!

But what the heck....we'll watch the participating teams play on the Frozen Tundra as the Ghost of John Facenda looks down and smiles on them...and starts to cheer if one team is the Philadelphia Eagles.

I wonder who will play the halftime show, The Boss or Bon Jovi? Can Richie Sambora still play lead guitar while wearing mittens?

And how are all of the stars of the TV shows being hawked by the network broadcasting the game going to be recognized when they are bundled up like Dr. Zhivago escaping from Siberia?

But most importantly....will the geographically challenged talking heads covering the game actually be able to tell you what state they are actually in without consulting their GPS?

On that note....check out the ESPN video below.






Wait!

I just thought of something.....according to the Mayan calendar the world will end in 2012.

Too bad, East Rutherford.

So this is much ado about nothing. Kindly disregard everything I said in this entry, and enjoy yourself while you still have time.

NFL Picks For Divisional Weekend

I'm kind of pressed for time and will be gone for most of the afternoon, but before I exit here's my picks for this weekend's NFL Divisional games.

Ravens at Colts.....love Ray Rice and the Baltimore ground attack, but it looks like Joe Flacco might be a little more beat up than generally known. The Ravens need a passing attack to score more points than Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and the Colts will put up. Colts win 31-14.

Jets at Chargers.....keep riding the crest of the wave into SoCal. On paper it looks like a mismatch, Rivers has had a fantastic year for the Chargers while Sanchez is still taking baby steps in his pro career. But there's just something about the way the Jet's defense has been playing that indicates they just might be able to force some turnovers and win a squeaker. I'll go against the conventional wisdom and take the Jets in a nail biter, 24-21.

Cowboys at Vikings....if you've ever read my pro picks before you'll know what's coming next; ABC- "Anybody But (the) Cowboys". It doesn't matter that Favre and Childress will have a steel cage death match after the season is over, or that Adrian Peterson will fumble at least once. Romo must fall, once again, to the guys with the horned helmets. 21-10 Vikings.

Cardinals at Saints.....Cardinals will win on the road for no other reason but Kurt Warner is playing at an amazingly high level. I agree with most of the smart guys on this; Brees and Warner will give us an old fashioned AFL shootout. Cards win, 42-31.

Then again....I could be (and probably am)....very wrong.

Wild Card Weekend NFL Picks/ Carroll Leaves USC For Seahawks!

OK guys, I'll go on the record and give you my picks for this weekend's Wild Card weekend NFL games. Mind you, I've given up on all sound reasoning on picking pro games years ago, because there really isn't any. And this year was probably even more bizarre than most- I mean, what are the odds of having two teams play each other in the last regular game of the season, only to meet again in the next week during the first round of the playoffs?

And to have that happen in three of the four games scheduled. Albert Einstein once said that "God does not play dice".

There has to be divine intervention at work....when all else fails, either credit or blame The Big Guy.

So without further ado....here's my picks.

Jets 24, Bengals 20....a tight game won by the Jets D and the running of Thomas Jones. And they're the local team- I have to take them. I can't imagine life without one of Rex Ryan's post game pressers. He may not be the best coach in the NFL yet, but he surely might be the funniest.

Eagles 30, Cowboys 21....David Akers kicks three field goals to be the difference for the Birds. Besides, its as simple as "ABC"...."Anybody But (The) Cowboys". And the Eagles are my brother's team.

Ravens 28, Patriots 17.....Because of Pro Bowler Ray Rice. Greatest Rutgers player ever now the best the school has sent to the NFL. Also, Welker is out for the Pats, Brady is beat up, and who knows if Randy Moss is copping an attitude this week?

Packers 35, Cardinals 21.... Because the Cards are only allowed to win playoff games every 50 years. 2060 is a long way down the pike. And I really like the way Aaron Rogers and the Pack closed out the year.

That's it....

But of course.......I could be wrong.


This Just In!!! Pete Carroll to leave USC to take over the Seattle Seahawks! They say the third times the charm. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter its a done deal.



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