|
|
|
Super Bowl rains on Miami's reputation |
|
February 09, 2007 |
 Miami Beach |
 Dysfunctional? |
 Zamboni |
Los Angeles, February 9, 2007 – Competitive Edge Research, a public opinion polling firm, issued its report on the 2007 Super Bowl and found that Miami’s public image actually went down as a result of the Super Bowl!
Competitive Edge’s polling asked a sample of 500 people whether they had a positive or negative impression of Miami. Prior to the Super Bowl, 27% had a positive impression, 24.2% had a negative impression and 46.4% had no impression. After the game, the positives dipped from 27% to just 22.8% but the negatives also dropped, from 24.2 to 18.6%. Those with no impression of Miami went up, from 46.4 to almost 55%, possibly due to the constant rain throughout the game. All people knew about Miami is that it rains there.
Competitive Edge also noted that in the past five years, the Super Bowl has raised the profile of the host city only once, in San Diego for the 2002 game. Otherwise, the survey indicates that having a Super Bowl in your city is good for a surge around the time of the game, but is no guarantee of tourist interest beyond that. Not what the NFL wanted to hear!
= Tonight’s menu =
>> The 30-20 Lakers play the seventh game of their eight-game road trip with a 3-3 record so far in Toronto against the 26-23 Raptors, who are in first place in the Atlantic Division. Kwame Brown and Luke Walton are still out for the Lakers, who are 3-5 in their last eight games, while Toronto has won nine of its last 11. So the home team is favored by four with an over-under of 204, so the sharpies have penciled in Raptors 104, Lakers 100.
>> In Philadelphia, the 24-25 Clippers will try to get back to .500 against the 17-33 Philadelphia 76ers. The Clippers are only 7-17 as a road team, but the Sixers are almost as bad at home at 9-12. For Los Angeles, Tim Thomas and Corey Maggette are both doubtful so Philadelphia is favored by one with an over-under of 191. Plenty of good seats are available and the oddsmakers have the game a thriller at 96-95 for the home team.
= NBA/pro basketball =
>> The New York papers have been going wild over Knicks center Eddy Curry’s comment that if current coach Isiah Thomas is fired at the end of the season, Curry would be, in his own words, “trying to get out of here.” Thomas has made the 24-year-old Curry the centerpiece of the franchise and he has responded with career highs of 19.6 points per game and seven rebounds a game. Now in the driver’s seat, Curry told reporters that “We all know that if Isiah’s not here, we don’t know who’s going to be here. Everybody’s bought into that and we just want to win some games.” Or else!
>> More Knicks: Thomas says he’ll make sure there is no problem in the Knicks’ locker room if the team had an openly gay player. So who is he trying to trade for?
>> Lakers coach Phil Jackson hasn’t made his famous annual gift of a specially-selected book for each of his players to read and spouted off to the local media that all players do is play video games and watch porn movies! Reporter Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press asked Detroit Pistons assistant coach Ron Harper – who played for Phil Jackson on five different NBA championship teams – about the comment and he said he still had his book from Jackson . . . and had never read it! Said Harper, “Why should I read some book he picks out? I still have it, though. It looks very nice on the shelf in my house.”
>> Money talks: Chicago Bulls rookie Tyrus Thomas got hit with a $10,000 fine by General Manager John Paxson for saying that his only interest in the All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest was the prize money. Thomas’s invitation may be in some doubt now and he apologized, chalking it up to inexperience. The event will pay out prizes of $35,000 to win, $22,500 for second and $16,125 for third and fourth, whether Thomas participates or not.
>> NBA All-Star wrap: giant billboards and building wraps are going up all over town in advance of the February 18 All-Star Game at the Thomas & Mack Center. But the best idea came from adidas, which is putting the lion that is the entrance to the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in an adidas jersey!
>> Last add, NBA and Las Vegas: former NBA great and now commentator Charles Barkley put his network, TNT, in a difficult position this week with his admission that he spent Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas and won $700,000 on blackjack and betting on the Super Bowl. Charles Elmore of the Palm Beach Post noted that while TNT doesn’t have a policy about its on-air talent betting on events they cover, they should. Why? Because Barkley:
“is the sport’s most influential analyst. What he says contributes to the perceptions and expectations of fans and bettors before a game.
“Altering the betting line could potentially benefit Barkley financially.
“In addition the credibility of his analysis is in jeopardy if there is any suspicion he has money riding on the game. You don’t want fans wondering if Barkley is disgusted on any given night because the Heat is not scoring enough to help relieve the pressure on Dwyane Wade, or because the Heat failed to cover the spread.”
= NFL/pro football =
>> NFL coaching carousel: despite rumors that he would be fired at the end of this past season, Marty Schottenheimer will be back as the coach of the San Diego Chargers. But he might be the only one left in San Diego at the rate things are going! You already know about defensive coordinator Wade Phillips going to the Cowboys. But let’s remember that offensive coordinator Cam Cameron is now the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, that linebackers coach Greg Manusky has left to become defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers and that tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski is now the offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns. But Marty is still there!
>> More coaches: when it became clear that San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Norv Turner wasn’t going to be the new head coach in Dallas, it was time to prepare a new contract to keep Turner in place. The 49ers’ offense perked up considerably in the second half of the season as did the play of quarterback Alex Smith and Turner got the credit.
>> Super Bowl follow-up: Bears defensive lineman Tank Johnson could face jail time after his guilty plea for possession of firearms, a violation of his probation from a 2005 misdemeanor gun-possession charge, but was allowed to leave home confinement for weekday morning workouts with the Bears. Quarterback Rex Grossman was spied in warmer climes, in Las Vegas at the new Playboy Club at The Palms, smiling at three bunnies during a visit.
= College football =
>> Rules are rules: University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer was all set to speak to the Lakeland High School football banquet on Thursday night, but received eight messages on his cell phone as soon as he landed that he would be in violation of an NCAA rule against speaking at a high school banquet within 48 hours of the first day of the recruiting signing period. So Meyer called in and said he couldn’t attend and had to return to Gainesville. He had good reason to go to the event; Florida signed seven players from that team, which won its third straight state championship!
>> Overflow: USC isn’t the only school that has too many players for a single position; Tennessee does, too. The Trojans may have 10 tailbacks on the team next season, but Phil Fulmer brought in eight wide receivers in a massive, 32-player class that has been ranked in the top five in the nation. Now if he can only get the rules changed to allow 12 players on the field at the same time . . .
>> New feud: it’s on between Illinois coach Ron Zook and Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis. Zook signed a top-quality class this week, amazing for a program that has been 4-19 under his care over the past two seasons. But there was plenty of negative recruiting against him, says Zook, whispers from coach of rival schools saying Illinois used illegal inducements to sign players. Zook was also irritated by a comment from former Michigan State coach John L. Smith in the New York Times, who expressed surprise at the quality of the Illinois class and said “Where there’s smoke, there’s probably fire.” In response, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a back-page headline that said: “Zook: I’m not a crook.”
= All around the world =
>> If cycling fans think the Floyd Landis affair with the Tour de France amid allegations of doping is disheartening, consider this study from the Harvard Medical School: riding a competition-style bicycle for more than three hours a week can lead to erectile dysfunction! The report says male cyclists should be sure to raise the handlebars, use a gel-filled seat and wear padded biking shorts!
>> Hockey alert: headline in the wild tabloid, the Weekly World News: “Zambonis deployed to restore dwindling ice cap.”
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
>> Don’t forget to register for our drawing for free sports memorabilia! Just click on the “Register & Win” tab at left; enter today!
|
|
