Heavily-Scripted, Hollywood-Style Sports Event, AKA Super Bowl, Moving Along In Arizona
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Jeff Goulding
GLENDALE, Arizona — While Rihanna told a convention center room packed with reporters that she faces the challenge of squeezing 17 years of performances into a 13-minute Super Bowl halftime show, a pleasant fella by the name of Maylan was driving a golf cart-looking vehicle outside State Farm Stadium 13 miles northwest of downtown.
It was Thursday morning, three days before Super Bowl 57 matches the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles before 73,000 fans who will be crammed into the venue with exterior architecture that looks like a Jiffy Pop silver-colored popcorn container. Compared to the giant “Allegiant Stadium” lettering on the black-sheened exterior of the Raiders stadium in Las Vegas, the “State Farm Stadium” sign seemed smallish.
The over-the-top, Vegas-style pageantry of the Super Bowl may appear ridiculously comical, but it’s still a football game played by two teams on a 100-yard field. The game’s production comes off as very Hollywoodish and scripted, complete with these NFL instructions for media covering the Rihanna presser on the convention center’s third floor.
To handle the crush of media for Rihanna, the NFL advised press:
Upon arrival to Press Conference AB, media will be placed into a queue.
Press Conference Room AB doors will remain closed until 9am.
At 9am sharp – PR STAFF will start moving media into Press Conference AB in an orderly fashion.
Space is allotted on a first come, first served basis.
All TV cameras must be on riser, or in overflow areas in back of room.
Photographers have the following options;
- Front section of riser – PR staff will be there to guide you
- Any seat in room – Photographers in seats are not allowed to use any sticks to increase height.
- Overflow areas in back of room
Out at the stadium, LVSportsBiz.com photographer Jeff Goulding arrived to meet up with Nikon camera representatives who advised Goulding to go to a media center at the site for camera maintenance package that he paid.
Access denied to the stadium. No Nikon session. No Nikon response.
Security was clueless and declined to help. Hospitality: pathetic. You know retail stores have replaced human cashiers with machine scanners, it’s as if the training for security for the Super Bowl has turned the security workers into machine robots, spitting out the same scriped terms without the humanity of helping a worker who had emails advising him to get his camera maintenance service done at the stadium.
Two helicopters circled the stadium over and over and over again.
There were lots of security people.
But the friendliest, most humane person of all at the stadium was Maylan, who explained that workers were building cosmetic stands to funnel fans toward the ticket gates. He worked for a marketing company hired to work on the cosmetic touches outside the venue.
Other workers applied blacktop next to the curb so that fans would not trip on curbs and fall outside the stadium.
But there is a game to be played besides the hype and cosmetics and here are pool sports reports from the Chiefs and Eagles practices Thursday as supplied by the NFL.
Eagles:
By Lindsay Jones, The Ringer
Pro Football Writers of America
TEMPE – The Philadelphia Eagles spent much of their nearly two-hour practice Thursday afternoon focused on their third-down packages in preparation for Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“That’s our big tempo practice right there,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “Get in, work, let it be sharp and crisp on both sides of the ball.”
Sirianni said he was looking not just for strong execution of his team’s offensive and defensive game plans, but to see how focused his players were on the small details – and he came away from Thursday’s session encouraged by his team’s performance and demeanor.
“I really felt that way today, that the detail was spot on,” Sirianni said. “That’s how you know, on a Thursday, that’s how it’s supposed to look.”
The Eagles had their full roster of players available to practice for the second consecutive day, though several veteran players and others who are coming off injuries took a lighter load of snaps during team drills. The players listed as limited on the team’s injury report with a injury designation were CB Avonte Maddox (toe), G Landon Dickerson (elbow/rest), RT Lane Johnson (groin/rest), WR Britain Covey (hamstring); the following players took a limited load of snaps strictly to rest: CB James Bradberry, WR A.J. Brown, DT Fletcher Cox, DE Brandon Graham, C Jason Kelce, G Isaac Seumalo, CB Darius Slay and DE Josh Sweat. Defensive end Robert Quinn (foot) was a full participant in practice.
Punter Arryn Siposs practiced for the second consecutive day this week, though he remains on injured reserve.
Thursday’s third-down work was especially important for the Eagles’ starting defense as they prepare for Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Philadelphia’s backup quarterbacks Gardner Minshew and Ian Book did their best to mimic Mahomes, particularly in the Chiefs’ ability to extend third-down plays.
“You just try to simulate it as much as you can,” Sirianni said.
Thursday’s practice ended with what Sirianni calls a “good on good” period, with the starting defense lining up to practice a prescribed situation against Jalen Hurts and the offensive starters.
Chiefs:
By Conor Orr, Sports Illustrated
Pro Football Writers of America
TEMPE, Ariz. — Following a brief pre-practice huddle, an energized Kansas City Chiefs team embarked on their longest and most significant practice period of the week with loud whooping and cheering.
Head coach Andy Reid said the practice, which has mirrored what they’ve done throughout the second half of this season, divides the beginning of the week with much lighter Friday and Saturday practices to come. Thursday’s workout, which lasted one hour and 40 minutes from first horn to huddle breakdown, took place under clear, cloudless skies, full sun and a moderate southwestern breeze.
“[I wanted them] to move around fast, get their timing down,” Reid said. “You’re not waiting until the game to get all of that. And they did. They went through it with helmets on. We did it yesterday without a helmet, today we put the helmet back on and went.”
He complimented the work done by the team’s practice squad which had the challenge these past two weeks of mirroring an Eagles team with diverse skill sets.
“It’s very important,” he said.
Wide receiver Kadarius Toney (ankle), who was the only member of the Chiefs listed as a non-full participant in Wednesday’s workout, was present and involved in practice Thursday and was listed as a full participant.
“Yesterday, he did everything we asked him to,” Reid said. “Today, he did the same thing.”
