Blogger and NEWSWEEK Contributor Robert Cox continues to file from the Super Bowl:

I have to admit I was dragging after the Paris Hilton party last night.  I got home after midnight and then stayed up for another hour and a half uploading and labeling photos for my Super Bowl flickr photo account and writing a blog post.  I did not get down to the Media Center today until 2 PM but happily everything was squared away and I got my official Super Bowl media credential. Unfortunately, it is a “day pass” and so I have to go back each morning to get another one. Hmmmm.  What the heck am I complaining about?  I have media credential for the Super Bowl--heck they even offered me a seat in the press box (I declined because I already have a ticket and it would hardly seem fair to take a seat from a reporter when all I want to do come game time is cheer on the Giants).

Credential hanging around my neck, I breezed past security (I love that feeling!) and went down to the lower level of the Phoenix Convention Center to check out "Radio Row".  Along the way I found the media lounge, which was pretty nice--free snacks and drinks, a billiard table, foosball table and Xbox (playing Madden of course).  I helped myself to a couple of bottles of Aquafina and moved on.  Radio Row was, for want a better word, nuts--less a row and more a sprawl of tables with microphones and A/V equipment, all emanating from a central hub which was the NFL Network Total Access set. 

Having spent an hour yesterday poking around the Biltmore hotel I was happy to discover that – duh! – Mike Francesca and Christopher Russo (my two favorite sports guys) were set up in Radio Row and were live on the air as I arrived.  They mentioned Phil Simms was coming on after their next break so I decided to wander around a bit more until Phil showed up.  My head turned involuntarily when radio hosts began shouting "Shula...Coach Shula" as the legendary Dolphins coach breezed past me.  I managed to get a nice photo of the back of his head as he walked away from me. A moment later I quite literally bumped into famed comedic actor Paulie Shore (not!) which was easy to do because he is about four feet tall.  By then, I had made my way over by the NFL Total Access set when Frank Caliendo arrived, you know, the impressionist from those “Frank TV on TBS” ads that ran non-stop during the baseball play-offs last fall.  Caliendo has the Jimmy Kimmel gig on Fox’s NFL pre-game show and is VERY funny (except on Frank TV where he has been a bit uneven).

[You can see videos of Caliendo and Shula being interviewed here]

Working my way around the room and back towards the WFAN/YES Network set to wait for Phil Simms I saw, much to my surprise, Nils Lofgren of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band.  While Springsteen is great, I first became a fan of Nils when he was a kid playing on Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night album which is one of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time. Lofgren is a big sports fan and was promoting the Gridiron Greats Super Jam, a charity event to raise money for down-on-their-luck former NFL players.  Apparently, there had been a mixup with the folks at ESPN Radio Los Angeles.  Nils showed up at 2 PM Phoenix time but the producer booked him for 2 PM L.A. time which is 3 PM Phoenix time so ESPN Radio considered him an hour early.  Nils was on a tight schedule and so they agreed to have him go on an hour early.

Now to the business at hand.  I had missed the chance to interview Giants players and coaches the day before because I did not yet have my media credential so I really wanted to get out to the Wild Horse Pass Resort in Chandler but Chandler is about 20 miles from downtown Phoenix and with traffic that can be more than an hour drive – too much for a taxi.  I ended up making a deal with my Dad who lives in Phoenix that if he drove me out to Chandler I would go with him to the nearby Gila River casino and gamble.  A taxi would have been cheaper because I ended up leaving $200 on the blackjack table (will Newsweek reimburse me?).  As the dealers rotated, they each noticed by Giants NFC Champions Locker Room Hat and proceeded to tell me all about the different Giant players who had been gambling in the casino.  As a Giants fan I do not want to get any players in trouble but apparently there were about half a dozen players who had been spending a fair amount of time in the casino including, not surprisingly, Lawrence Tynes who probably figured he was on enough a roll to make a visit to the tables worthwhile.  I feel I can mention Tynes because let's face it, Coach Tom Coughlin can hardly bench the guy who kicked the game-winning overtime field goal that  sent Coughlin to the Super Bowl for the first time.

Back to the casino - by the time we left it was dark.  A nearby tourist attraction called Rawhide, a mocked up western town with actors and stuntmen who play cowboys and gunslingers, was lit up in orange and purple.  A closer look showed it to be the location of the Playboy Super Bowl party.  Now that would certainly top a Paris Hilton party and I really wanted to go.  I might have even been able to use my media credential to get into the party.  But what to do with my father – make him wait outside for an hour or so or risk having to hoof it the whole long way back to Phoenix in the dark.  I looked around and noticed that I was pretty much the middle of nowhere so opted to skip the Playboy party.  Instead, my Dad and I went over to the Wild Horse Pass Resort to see what the Giants were up to on Super Bowl eve eve.

As we parked outside the resort three Giant team buses pulled up – it was players and family coming from a team barbeque.  I was not comfortable taking pictures of the players in that sort of private moment so I just walked with them into the hotel.  Inside, my Dad and I decided to get a bite to eat and just hang in the hotel lounge.  Few players were mingling in the lobby or lounge.  Most were apparently in their rooms or with their families, which I considered a good sign for Sunday.  There was not supposed to be any media in the hotel after Thursday so I left my camera in my bag and did not take any notes.  Let me just report overhearing one team official say to no one in particular “well, we’re in countdown mode now”.   After two hours hanging out with the Giants entourage my sense was the Giants organization is relaxed and focused.

Let the countdown begin!

Click for Bob's Super Bowl XLII Photo Album