"Boston’s turn to host Super Bowl is coming" by Ben Volin | Globe Staff, February 04, 2014
NEW YORK — Here’s another bet that seems pretty safe:
Boston will host a Super Bowl sooner rather than later.
The notion seemed crazy for the first 47 or so Super Bowls, but not any longer. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been open about his desire to bring the NFL championship game to the region. And based on the success of last week’s events, you can bet that the cold-weather Super Bowl is about to become a “thing.”
Just listen to Kraft’s recent comments on the subject . He’s not hiding his intentions....
“I’m a great supporter of playing this game in all elements,” he said Friday. “There are a group of us that really wanted it here, and the NFL has been very supportive of that.”
And from May 2013: “We would love one day to hold it here, if it’s a good experience there.”
Well, it certainly was.
The lasting memories of the NY/NJ Super Bowl will be mild weather — it was downright balmy at game time — and great cooperation from local officials. Transportation was no problem for the media members getting back and forth between Manhattan and New Jersey throughout the week, thanks to police escorts. However, multihour waits on game day for trains on the New Jersey transit system were severely problematic.
OH!
Nothing like the experience for reporters in Russia, huh?
And we won’t mention the little snowstorm that hit New York and Boston on Monday, blanketing the field at MetLife Stadium and complicating travel plans across the Northeast. Or the snowstorm due to hit New England on Wednesday....
Did the HAARP make sweet music for the Seahawks instead (with post-game blowback)?!
Also, guess what?
I'd rather not, thanks. Why don't you just tell me, you annoying $hit?
San Diego and Miami aren’t getting Super Bowls for a while after failing to improve their stadiums with public money. That leaves the NFL looking for new host cities....
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, who conceded that he was initially skeptical of the idea of a cold-weather Super Bowl, is now fully on board.
Well, he's leaving anyway, but new Mayor Walsh is a big Patriots fan.
Related:
"Parents across Boston are mobilizing to protest possible budget cuts at their schools for the next academic year. The possible cuts, which vary from school to school, include classroom aides and other positions, supplies and materials, and funding for specialized programs."
Boston schools chief says job cuts ahead
Mayor to tap search committee for school superintendent
Will they be pulling down $280,000 a year like Johnson?
Also see: Welcoming Walsh
At least wealth did.
“I think we can do anything,” Patrick said Monday. “It will take some adjustment. It will take some investment of time and thought and planning and so forth.
And TAX MONEY!
“You know, this is a world-class community.”
With the homeless to prove it.
It’s important to note that the earliest a Super Bowl could come to the region would be in 2018 -- and as of now, there are no formal plans for Boston to submit a bid....
But in talking with people around the league last week in New York, the sense is that the owners in Foxborough and other cold-weather cities soon will be submitting bids to host the game – if not this year, then within the next couple of years. Don’t be surprised if Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore, and Nashville want in as well.
I guess it is now.
And you can bet Boston will get one of the first cracks at it. A pecking order exists in NFL ownership circles, and Kraft is right at the top. He’s on some of the most important ownership committees, including the Management Council executive committee, and is chairman of the broadcast committee.
Per protocols.
Kraft also was a key figure in the 2011 collective bargaining negotiations with the NFL Players Association — you know, the ones in which the owners destroyed the union — and put millions of extra dollars in the pockets of himself and his fellow owners.
What? That's not how Kraft is portrayed during the games when the corporate media trains its camera on his booth! It's always what a great owner he is and how he has a connection to the common man!
Related:
"Patriots owner Robert Kraft and then-Colts center Jeff Saturday created the defining moment of the 2011 offseason when they embraced in a bear hug at a news conference announcing the end of the NFL lockout and the agreement of a 10-year collective bargaining agreement. Almost exactly two years have passed, and now that the realities of the CBA have set in, Saturday might want to take that hug back. No matter how you slice it, the owners obliterated the NFL Players Association."
But he looks like such a good guy!
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is well-liked among his fellow owners, as is Denver’s Pat Bowlen. But with San Diego and Miami out of the picture, and Arizona, San Francisco, Houston, and New Orleans already chosen as recent sites, the path is clear for Kraft to wield some power and bring the big game to New England.
Of course, there are a few logistical problems that would have to be dealt with. One is infrastructure; a host city needs about 30,000 to 35,000 hotel rooms to house all of the media, employees, and fans. Boston has 35,000 hotel rooms if you extend the area out to Interstate 495, and Providence can chip in another 6,000.
So this likely would have to be a Boston-Providence partnership, with Providence playing the role of New Jersey — putting in a lot of the work without getting much of the credit. Because, let’s be honest, this thing will be billed as a Boston Super Bowl. The game will be held in Foxborough and events will take place across the region, but Boston is obviously the draw.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to pull off, weather permitting of course. The media center and operations could be focused in a touristy part of downtown. The two teams easily could stay in hotels in Quincy and Braintree, as NFL teams often do when they play the Patriots. Media interviews could be done at the team hotels — a mere 20-minute trip from downtown with an escort — and then one team could bus down to Foxborough every day for practice, while the other team buses up to, say, Boston College for theirs.
It wouldn’t be much different from the setup last week, when the media were bused to Jersey every day, the Broncos were bused to Florham Park for practice, and the Seahawks worked at the Giants’ facility.
Hey, as long as the sports reporters at the Super Bowl are taken care of....
Obviously, Boston isn’t nearly as big as New York, which can handle a major event and not even blink. Traffic across the region would be horrible that week, and I don’t even want to think about how bad Route 1 would be on game day.
But....
He won't have to worry, what with the taxpayer-supplied police e$cort and all.
--more--"
Let's get some pre game in:
"Obama on defense in pre game interview" Associated Press, February 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama defended himself against an array of Republican criticism in an interview during Fox’s Super Bowl pregame show.
The president traded barbs with interviewer Bill O’Reilly in a live interview that covered his troubled health care law rollout, the 2012 attacks on the US diplomatic mission in Libya, and revelations that the IRS targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.
That impeachable IRS scandal has faded into oblivion, while Benghazi and the health law just make me want to cry again.
‘‘I try to focus not on the fumbles but on the next plan,’’ Obama said.
Obama would not say why he didn’t fire Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after the failed launch of the government’s online marketplace. He also declined to say that the biggest mistake of his presidency was telling Americans that if they liked their health care they could keep it, and argued that the website is now working the way it’s supposed to.
He did a George W. Bush, and then lied about the website again?
‘‘We’ve got 3 million people signed up so far. We’re about a month behind where we anticipated we wanted to be,’’ Obama said.
He responded to O’Reilly’s questions about why administration officials initially described the attack in Benghazi, Libya, as a spontaneous mob protest of an anti-Islamic, American-made video.
He rejected ‘‘the notion that we would hide the ball for political purposes when a week later we all said in fact there was a terrorist attack taking place.’’
‘‘That wouldn’t be a very good coverup,’’ Obama said.
Which makes the limited hangout all the more effective.
--more--"
Looks like you will be stuck on the sidelines for a while:
"Snowstorm fouls up traffic, delays many Super Bowl revelers heading home" Associated Press, February 04, 2014
PHILADELPHIA — A winter storm dumped several inches of wet, heavy snow on parts of the eastern United States on Monday, snarling air and road travel for commuters and Super Bowl fans, cutting power, and closing schools and government offices.
Flakes began falling during the morning commute Monday and continued throughout the afternoon in Philadelphia, creating slushy sidewalks and streets. The Philadelphia and New York areas were expecting about 8 inches, erasing all memory of Sunday’s mild weather.
In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie declared a state of emergency with travel conditions hazardous. Nonessential government employees were dismissed early.
Did he order any bridges closed?
Government offices, courts, and schools closed in parts of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; scattered power outages were reported throughout the region.
As the storm moved out, the weather service reported about 8 inches of snow near Frostburg, Md., while parts of southern Ohio got about 10 inches....
Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona was among the stranded travelers after her return flight to Phoenix was canceled Monday, a spokesman said. Brewer attended the Super Bowl in New Jersey as part of the ceremonial handoff of hosting duties; next year’s Super Bowl is in Glendale, Ariz....
Related:
"One former Christie loyalist, David Wildstein, indicated Friday there was contradictory evidence to show that the governor knew about the closings as they were happening. Five people close to the Republican governor and possible 2016 presidential candidate have been fired or resigned amid the scandal, including Wildstein, who is seeking immunity from prosecution. The support from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other prominent Republicans put party faithful on the offensive and Wisniewski on the defensive as East Rutherford, N.J., hosted the first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city on Sunday. Christie, who did not take questions at Super Bowl ceremonies and received a smattering of boos at an event in New York's Times Square on Saturday, was scheduled to appear on a radio call-in program Monday night. He and his family watched the game from a luxury box at MetLife Stadium."
Say goodbye to the nomination, Chris.
Opening the Gates of the 2016 Presidential Campaign
It's Giuliani vs. Wildstein in a pre-primary preliminary.
Also see: Ex-Chris Christie aide invokes Fifth Amendment
Globe's hidden ball trick?
I wouldn't have searched for my verbatim print piece if they had not.
Another storm is likely to hit the same region beginning Tuesday night, bringing a combination of rain, freezing rain, and snow, said Gary Szatkowsi, a weather service meteorologist in Mount Holly, N.J.
It's going to leave a foot up here so it looks like I will be busy shoveling out rather than blogging, folks. Sorry, but not really.
--more--"
Seeing as you are stuck in town:
"16 teen prostitutes in NYC area rescued" by Katie Zezima | Associated Press, February 05, 2014
NEWARK — Sixteen juveniles forced into working as prostitutes in advance of the Super Bowl were rescued in the New York City area by the FBI in the weeks before the game, the agency said Tuesday.
Officials said the children, some of whom had been reported missing by their families, ranged in age from 13 to 17. Six were found in Newark, six in New York City, and four in New Haven.
One of the minors, a 17-year-old girl, had spent the past two years with her pimp, said Michael Osborn, chief of the Violent Crimes Against Children unit at the FBI.
More than 50 adult women who were forced to work as prostitutes were also rescued. More than 45 pimps were arrested and numerous guns seized, according to investigators.
Some of the victims were from other countries, authorities said.
Which means they were likely illegals. That's not what the propaganda pre$$ and government brochure that encouraged them to come to the land of opportunity said.
Osborn said pimps forced their victims to come to the New York City area from 13 states ahead of the game held Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The rescues and arrests all took place during the two weeks leading up to the game.
Authorities said the Super Bowl and other big sporting events provide potentially lucrative opportunities for sex traffickers. There are scant statistics and significant debate over how much trafficking actually increases during such events, but New Jersey, like previous hosts for the game, paid particularly close attention to it.
‘‘We’re constantly evaluating intelligence to determine where the biggest threats are,’’ Osborn said. ‘‘Large sporting events draw a lot of people into a compressed area with a lot of disposable income and as part of that you attract a certain criminal element.’’
The operation came after months of investigative work. As Super Bowl Sunday approached, law enforcement officers working on the operation saw advertisements starting to spike and suspects starting to travel, Osborn said.
So the FBI was already watching them all?
Time to legalize it so prostitutes can be protected!
--more--"
Heard there was a good party though, even if I find some things gross.
Good time for a commercial:
"Super Bowl ads lose edge, focus on familiar:" by Mae Anderson | Associated Press, February 04, 2014
NEW YORK — As Super Bowl ads go, so goes America.
The A-list advertisers who aired commercial spots during Sunday’s big game steered clear of controversy while trying to appeal to weary consumers with iconic American images and family-centered topics.
Advertisers always steer clear of controversy unless they are cooping it, and the I can do without the insulting and offensive propaganda pitch.
Those safe themes were evident in many of the ads, from Toyota’s Highlander ad featuring singing Muppets to Chrysler’s two-minute Bob Dylan spot focused on American engineering, and Bud Light’s ad, which showed Arnold Schwarzenegger playing ‘‘tiny tennis.’’
I didn't want to say Dylan was a sell-out, and if I had a name I probably would sell it, too, but....
Super Bowl ads can be a bellwether for the economy because they show which companies are willing to spend $4 million on a 30-second spot....
That is so offen$ive given the income inequality and suffering of American citizens.
Super Bowl ads are also an indicator of consumer attitudes. Advertisers used nostalgia and family-heavy themes on Sunday to play to viewers who are fatigued from a depressed economy and tepid job market.
That would be about 95% of us -- in this age of recovery gaining momentum!.
‘‘We’ve had an extended recession, and psychologically we’re not back into a mode where people are comfortable with heavy consumption,’’ said Ray Taylor, marketing professor at the Villanova School of Business.
Unless it is the top 5%!
‘‘A lot of consumers have been hit financially for an extended period of time. As a result, returning to things people are familiar with or appealing to their emotions will tend to work. It’s a particularly good time to be nostalgic with consumers.’’
That's not working for me, either. Sorry.
The timing helps explain why Budweiser’s reassuring ‘‘Puppy Love’’ ad won the USA Today Ad Meter, which gauges the popularity of Super Bowl Ads. The spot depicts a budding friendship between a yellow Labrador puppy and a Clydesdale.
I'm so glad a BEER ad won the award.
Now let's hope some college girl isn't raped tonight.
Either way, let's have a beer!
--more--"
Just toa$ting my weekend with the Globe:
".... Since this is the cultural blog, it serves that we would talk about The Stupor Bowl. Actually it was a pretty good game, something of a teaching clinic, on any number of levels. Things I noticed; Bob Dylan doesn't have enough money so now he's selling cars. That doesn't bother him so... it shouldn't bother me, 'I guess it's time for my (bootheels) Chrysler Tunabaker to be wandering".
I didn't listen to the ads, except for brief seconds, when I didn't turn the sound down right away but I didn't turn the picture off, which would have been counter-productive because I was watching the game after all. Then there was half time, a half time that the announcers and the people writing the followup today simply gushed over. It consisted of a fifties club band, something you would see at the Copa and of which variations performed at high school proms during that time. It opened with a spotlighted ego trip of the main player trying to give the impression he is a hot drummer. Steve Gadd he is not. Then he went into his bad Michael Jackson imitation or... was that a parody? Then... yes, then, the surprise guests showed up with their shirts off and launched into a testosterone, spittle flecked rap production, not one word of which was intelligible to me. I think to myself, am I being too harsh? No... it was ludicrous. It mostly showed the level of dilution that permeates the entertainment world these days. Now, I didn't realize that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a white rap group but... that's where the money is because the same people selling you elephant shit Madonnas and Piss Freak Jesus art are also in control of the music business and when your avocation, vocation and passion, is to drag every willing soul down into the bowels of Hell with them, this is the kind of thing you finance for the programming effect and as a heads up to any and all who might want to get into that business. Of course, they closed the production with a blowjob for all of those dying in Israeli Banker Wars.
Any number of celebrities showed up, shilling for one thing or another. Scarlett Johanssen closed out the program with a commercial for Palestinian Genocide Juice, manufactured by the occupying forces in the stolen lands of Palestine. I'm only partially equipped to comment on this because I did have the sound down but WTH, a picture is worth a thousand words. There will be over a thousand words in this posting. Hopefully I can paint the picture. In the Crass Media today is a lead story that appears across the board, wherever you go, it's headlined as, "Five Super Bowl ads you don't want to miss", or some variation. There wasn't anything to really get excited about that I could see. The chihuahua with the head of the Great Dane was moderately entertaining but all this sort of thing is sham hocus pocus and we go to war over this and kill people in foreign lands over this. Were you aware that a few decades ago, Coca Cola had an assassination squad in South America?
*******
I was pretty sure of how the game would go and that's how it went. I gained some small satisfaction from that (mostly the sight of John Elway, the very picture of arrogance in his sky booth with the lights shut off so you couldn't see his face. He didn't see that coming.) but overall it was what it was and emblematic of the persistent hypnosis that the general public operates under. That hypnosis is all important to the ones engineering it. Without it how would they sell their cars, their soft drinks, their insurance policies and a vast assortment of sundry others, which includes their wars and international meddling abroad, without any regard for the inhabitants of whatever country they are doing it in? Without the ability to sell more and more junk and more and more empty dreams, all of which are advertised, with beads of spring water, glistening on the ass of a pneumatic blowup doll leaning on an expensive car hood, with a glass of scotch in her hand, only incidentally human in appearance.
****************
At least one thing of positive note occurred at The Bowl....
--MORE--"
Game over.
".... Since this is the cultural blog, it serves that we would talk about The Stupor Bowl. Actually it was a pretty good game, something of a teaching clinic, on any number of levels. Things I noticed; Bob Dylan doesn't have enough money so now he's selling cars. That doesn't bother him so... it shouldn't bother me, 'I guess it's time for my (bootheels) Chrysler Tunabaker to be wandering".
I didn't listen to the ads, except for brief seconds, when I didn't turn the sound down right away but I didn't turn the picture off, which would have been counter-productive because I was watching the game after all. Then there was half time, a half time that the announcers and the people writing the followup today simply gushed over. It consisted of a fifties club band, something you would see at the Copa and of which variations performed at high school proms during that time. It opened with a spotlighted ego trip of the main player trying to give the impression he is a hot drummer. Steve Gadd he is not. Then he went into his bad Michael Jackson imitation or... was that a parody? Then... yes, then, the surprise guests showed up with their shirts off and launched into a testosterone, spittle flecked rap production, not one word of which was intelligible to me. I think to myself, am I being too harsh? No... it was ludicrous. It mostly showed the level of dilution that permeates the entertainment world these days. Now, I didn't realize that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a white rap group but... that's where the money is because the same people selling you elephant shit Madonnas and Piss Freak Jesus art are also in control of the music business and when your avocation, vocation and passion, is to drag every willing soul down into the bowels of Hell with them, this is the kind of thing you finance for the programming effect and as a heads up to any and all who might want to get into that business. Of course, they closed the production with a blowjob for all of those dying in Israeli Banker Wars.
Any number of celebrities showed up, shilling for one thing or another. Scarlett Johanssen closed out the program with a commercial for Palestinian Genocide Juice, manufactured by the occupying forces in the stolen lands of Palestine. I'm only partially equipped to comment on this because I did have the sound down but WTH, a picture is worth a thousand words. There will be over a thousand words in this posting. Hopefully I can paint the picture. In the Crass Media today is a lead story that appears across the board, wherever you go, it's headlined as, "Five Super Bowl ads you don't want to miss", or some variation. There wasn't anything to really get excited about that I could see. The chihuahua with the head of the Great Dane was moderately entertaining but all this sort of thing is sham hocus pocus and we go to war over this and kill people in foreign lands over this. Were you aware that a few decades ago, Coca Cola had an assassination squad in South America?
*******
I was pretty sure of how the game would go and that's how it went. I gained some small satisfaction from that (mostly the sight of John Elway, the very picture of arrogance in his sky booth with the lights shut off so you couldn't see his face. He didn't see that coming.) but overall it was what it was and emblematic of the persistent hypnosis that the general public operates under. That hypnosis is all important to the ones engineering it. Without it how would they sell their cars, their soft drinks, their insurance policies and a vast assortment of sundry others, which includes their wars and international meddling abroad, without any regard for the inhabitants of whatever country they are doing it in? Without the ability to sell more and more junk and more and more empty dreams, all of which are advertised, with beads of spring water, glistening on the ass of a pneumatic blowup doll leaning on an expensive car hood, with a glass of scotch in her hand, only incidentally human in appearance.
****************
At least one thing of positive note occurred at The Bowl....
--MORE--"
Game over.
