Fans pay for front-row view of bunch of people working

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - Super Bowl hoopla reached a new money-making high on Tuesday when a sellout crowd of more than 6,000 people paid $25 each to watch reporters question NFL players in the annual Media Day circus.

Touts outside the site of Sunday's Super Bowl showdown between the New York Giants and New England Patriots were charging more for the historic first-ever public viewing of a weird, wacky event that has taken on a life of its own.

"It's great," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "It's part of the deal. It's nice once in a while to get a unique question. We all understand this is very much a part of the reason why the game is so popular worldwide. You just try and enjoy it."

What once had been simply an easy way to obtain notes in the days before Super Bowl workouts began has evolved into a session with working reporters mixed with odd questions and even odder questioners seeking their own fame.

One so-called reporter from children's television network Nickelodeon was dressed in black superhero tights with an orange cape.

"Nice outfit," chided New England quarterback Tom Brady. "Halloween?"

But New York quarterback Eli Manning said his brother Cooper, who did not reach the NFL like his famous quarterback siblings, would have loved the guy.

"Cooper would have been really excited and only answered questions from the Nickelodeon guy all day," Manning said.

In all, more than 5,000 reporters from around the world chased after players from both teams as spectators watched and listened on small radios that could be tuned to a particular player's channel.

In many cases, the public had a better hope of hearing players than the reporters crowded 20 deep around such stars as Brady and Manning, who drew cheers when he mentioned brother Peyton, the Indianapolis Colts star passer.

"It's a circus," Patriots guard Logan Mankins said.

"For me personally, I'd rather not be here. I'd rather be at the hotel watching film or even just taking a nap, but I know it's part of the job. We have to be here."

Brady, who will match John Elway's record with a fifth Super Bowl start, looked out over the spectators and reporters and his teammates and smiled.

"Look at this," he said. "How could you ever take this for granted? It's pretty cool."

Asked about NFL advice from his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, Brady said, "Throw the ball quickly - she doesn't like it when I get hit very often."

Asked about the sport the rest of the world calls football, Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora said he sees Manchester United's most intense rival as Chelsea rather than Manchester City, even though the Manchester clubs share the top of the English Premier League table.

"I think Man United versus Chelsea, in the past few years, is a bigger rivalry than Man City," Umenyiora said. "I know they are in the same city but I still think Man United-Chelsea is a more intense rivalry."

Fake players wore jerseys hoping to provide wacky answers for any reporter who might mistake them for NFL talent, while New England receiver Chad Ochocinco was followed around by his Ochocinco News Network.

A long-bearded man asked players how crucial hair would be in the Super Bowl while another quizzed players on their breakfast cereal choices.

"It's definitely surreal," Patriots cornerback Kyle Arrington said.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 02/02/2012 page24)