Ed: Keisel Joins Media Day Circus

Tuesday, 29 January 2013 08:56

Written by Ed Bouchette

Good morning,
    NEW ORLEANS – Media Day. More like the circus has come to town and it’s not the event we call the Super Bowl. It’s the “media” who will turn out at the Superdome this morning for a session with the 49ers and this afternoon for another with the Ravens.
     The media do turn out, but so do a lot  of whackos trying to draw attention to themselves, like the woman “media” representative who came dressed in a bridal gown and asked Tom Brady to marry her.
  Or, like this press release I received yesterday:
 FOX Sports Radio correspondent Vic “The Brick” Jacobs always makes a statement at sporting events with his stand-out attire, unique personality and “Feelin’ You!” mantra. He will be at Media Day in New Orleans tomorrow, rocking the worlds of the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens as “The Super Bowl Samurai.”
Vic, who will be representing FOX Sports Radio in full gear and reciting warrior verse to the players, stated: “In this sports world of lies, corruption and prevarication, we need to evoke the spirit of the ways of the warrior – loyalty, chivalry, honesty, courage and wisdom.”
Look for “Samurai Vic” at Media Day and witness what is sure to be a true cultural shock.
    I’ll be looking for Vic only to try to avoid him.
Onto some other stuff:
--- Brett Keisel is here and will be making the rounds at “media” day. Of course, Keisel is neither in the Super Bowl or in the media but he is being sponsored by Head & Shoulders. Hey, that’s good enough for me.
    -- Someone found a cache of Joe Greene memorabilia – and not-so-bilia – in a storage facility in Arizona. Here’s the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/sports/football/joe-greenes-keepsakes-no-longer-his.html?pagewanted=all&;_r=0
---  This from media colleague Austin Rhodes in Georgia:
   “There must be a simple answer as to why this is not explored in the interest of player safety...but other than expense...I will be damned if I can figure it out.
The players are bigger, faster, and stronger. Why not mandate all games be played on thick, natural grass? It slows everyone down significantly, but still allows them to move. Works like a charm for younger football players down this way!”
  Good, simple idea that, of course, the NFL will never consider.
--- No chat today or this week. Super Bowl clutter.
--- Some of your questions now:
 --- YOU: Ed, Might the Steelers have any interest in Alex Smith, the now-deposed QB of the 49ers? Or would salary cap issues put an end to those thoughts?
ME: Better question, why would Alex Smith want to come to Pittsburgh so he can be a backup to Ben Roethlisberger? He wants to start somewhere.
--- YOU: My DC buddies are all over this Danny Smith possible hire via your tweet and making sure I hear about it. I guess Danny Smith doesn’t have that great of a track record. I guess the Steelers see something in his methods that will help us out. Just wanted to pass this along without getting lost in the rants of the comments section of the story at the PG.
ME: Yes, the Redskins special teams were terrible last season. This from Mark Maske in the Washington Post:
“He received criticism early in the just-completed season when the Redskins had a pair of punts blocked, that on the heels of having a league-high five field goal attempts blocked during the 2011 season. The Redskins also had issues with their field goal kicking early this past season, as kicker Billy Cundiff struggled after being signed just before the season following a training-camp competition between Graham Gano and Neil Rackers.”

--- YOU: Hi Ed , I wanted to send you an e-mail instead of doing it on your chat room . I have a question regarding Ben roethlisberger . With Bruce ariens recently hired as Arizona cardinals head coach and bens contract soon to exspire in two years what do you think the chances are Ben gets drawn to Arizona to be with his favorite coach and Bruce pulling for Ben ? It is scary to me to see this aligning up for that to happen and with steelers cap issues always seem maxed out or over maybe steelers wouldn't be able to match high offers Ben may get from other teams ?

ME: Why would the Steelers want to part with one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL? And if they did, who would play quarterback for them? And the man’s name is Arians.