Deion Sanders Puts Pads up for Sale

The post went up nearly a week ago. Move.com has pics of the two places Deion has on the market. Looking to live way north of town and price is no object? His Prosper mansion is listed at $21 million. If, however, you want to live near downtown Dallas and you’re on a budget, his Azure condo is listed at $7.5 million.

He has made history with his interceptions and kick returns as a cornerback and sometime wide receiver, and now Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has two homes listed on REALTOR.com®

The two properties are both in Texas, with his Prosper home listed at $21 million, and his Dallas home listed at $7.5 million.

Detroit Lion Excitement?

It’s not easy being a Detroit Lions fan, there’s been a lot of losing over the years but things seem to be looking up as the team won their last 4 games to finish 6-10. Some genius out there recently took the audio from the Chrysler commercial with Eminem that aired during the Super Bowl and combined it with some great Lion footage.

If this doesn’t get excited for the next Lions’ season (if there is one) then I don’t know what will.

NFL Notes for 2-4-11

NFL teams could soon dump playbooks for iPads?

NFL teams including the Dallas Cowboys could soon be abandoning their traditional paper playbooks and game-day printouts of plays in favor of iPads or other tablets. Pete Walsh, head of technology for the Cowboys, said his team and at least a “couple” of others are currently considering abandoning their playbooks in favor of iPads, a move they feel could save them as much as 5,000 pages of paper printouts per game. Walsh explained this potential philosophical and technological shift to CNET during a discussion about Cowboys Stadium technology at Super Bowl Media Day here Tuesday. The stadium will play host on Sunday to Super Bowl XLV between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. For tech-friendly sports fans, it’s an appealing image–coaches and players sitting on the sidelines of the giant Cowboys Stadium, iPads in hand, studying likely plays for the next few series, or sifting through overhead photos of the last plays in order to assess their performance, or that of their opponents. Still, it’s also a bit difficult to imagine old-school NFL coaches agreeing to carry around a shiny gadget like an iPad instead of their trusty playbooks–or reviewing glossy color photos on the 9.7-inch screen rather than shuffling through paper printouts of the last passing play. One can imagine such coaches agreeing to hand over their playbooks only through tightly gritted teeth. But Walsh suggested that this migration could well be coming, though he didn’t say how long it would be before we see football pros stalking the sidelines with tablets. –CNET News

Rusty picks the Steelers!

After a moment of indecision on Friday, Rusty, the Star-Telegram’s longhorn steer, chose the Pittsburgh Steelers as his favorite to win the Super Bowl by selecting from two trays of food representing the teams in downtown Fort Worth. Of course, this is the “new” Rusty. Here is a story on the “old” Rusty

Guess who Jerome Bettis is picking for the Super Bowl?

Don’t you love Super Bowl hype? I had a chance to interview Jerome Bettis last night at Wing Stop in Arlington.

The Snowy Knoll Theory

Good morning from snowed in north Texas, home of Super Bowl XLV.

Does anyone remember the 70 degree temperature here last week?

The mood was excellent for a Super Bowl. The Super Bowl teams arrived and not 60 minutes later, we all were iced/snowed in here and it hasn’t let up yet.  Not to worry saith the weather people, 50′s on Saturday and near 60 for Super Bowl Sunday. I call bull! After another 2-4 inches of overnight snow, now the weather gurus are saying 40′s for the Super Bowl.

You mean these weather people get paid ultra big bucks and get media passes to the Super Bowl, and are just as good as I am at predicting the weather? Pashaaa!

Did Jerry Jones and the NFL coerce the weather people to say it’s all ok, come on to Texas and spend money? It’s a theory.

1 to 6 inches of Dallas snow makes dangerous drive (Fox 4 News)

Media Day at the Super Bowl and Traffic

Media day is a circus I would imagine.

For many north Texans, we couldn’t get out to go to work, but somehow, there was no problems for the Packers and Steelers to get to Media Day at Cowboys Stadium today. In fact, some people say the highway department made sure they got there:

Sportscaster and Dallas Cowboys legend Daryl “Moose” Johnston lives near downtown Dallas, but on Tuesday morning he took Texas 183 on his way to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, where he was scheduled to appear for Super Bowl media day. Johnston could have taken Interstate 30, but he figured Texas 183 would be de-iced in Irving, near where the Green Bay Packers are staying for the Super Bowl.

He figured wrong.

“It was bad. People were sliding around. It’s as bad as I’ve seen it here,” Johnston said during Super Bowl media day at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. “I’m from Buffalo. I have no problem with my own ability to drive in bad weather. But I worry about the other people who don’t.”

As three inches of ice and snow blanketed Dallas-Fort Worth Tuesday morning, and temperatures dropped into the teens by mid-morning, traffic slid and slammed to a halt across the region. About the only road where ice wasn’t grinding traffic to a halt was I-30 between Fort Worth and Dallas — which happens to be the main road both the Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers used to get from their hotels in downtown Fort Worth and Las Colinas to get to media day in Arlington.

Is TxDot playing favorites for the Super Bowl? (Star Telegram)

Super Bowl Notes – Tuesday

Republicans pulling for Packers, Democrats cheer for Steelers

• The results show that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is the most disliked player going into Sunday’s game and the fourth most disliked player in the league — behind Brett Favre, Michael Vick and Tom Brady. <!–more Continue reading for details on the political part of the survey–>
• Considering the four teams that played in the NFC and AFC Conference Championship games, the majority of Americans believe the Steelers-Packers matchup will make for the best Super Bowl this year.
• According to the survey’s findings, this dream matchup will also be broadcast on American’s top choice for network.  The majority of Americans say Fox does the best job of broadcasting NFL games and most pick Fox as the network on which they would most like to see the game.
• Americans are rooting for the Packers (45% to 39% over the Steelers), but there are big discrepancies along race and party. The findings show that Democrats and non-whites are rooting for the Steelers, while Republicans and whites are pulling for the Packers.
• 7 in 10 say they watch the Super Bowl for the game, not the ads, including the majority of females (60%). — Hollywood Reporter

Let ‘em play says NFL Union

It appears CBS has refuseses to air a commercial that addresses the stalled contract talks between the NFL owners and players.

The 60-second commercial was set to air once Saturday after the 2 p.m. kickoff of the players’ All-Star game on CBS’ College Sports Network — the day before the Super Bowl.

CBS is one of four networks that combined to pay the league $4 billion a year for television rights to air the game, and union officials have implied the ad was yanked because of the networks’ ties to the NFL.

“We’re totally annoyed and irritated that we’re not allowed to use the time we’ve been allotted during the game,” George Atallah, assistant executive director of the players’ union, told the New York Post of the ad, which he was informed wouldn’t run because of “the content.”

Company insiders told the Post that CBS’ executives decided to reject the spot — estimated to cost about $60,000 — because it “crossed the line of fairness.” A source said the channel was nervous about having to “air the owners’ views as well as the players.”

Well, that certainly looked controversial.

CBS refuses to run NFL player Union Ad (The Hollywood Reporter)

Super Bowl Notes

Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb is going to the Super Bowl. Well, he’s going to Texas for Super Bowl week, but he’ll be working for ESPN, not the Redskins. McNabb will serve as a guest analyst next week for ESPN’s coverage of Super Bowl XLV, providing his thoughts on the game, teams and players. The safe guess is that a Redskins question or three also might pop up. “We’re excited to have Donovan back on ESPN as a part of our Super Bowl coverage,” said ESPN senior coordinating producer Stephanie Druley. “We worked with him in previous years and he always has strong opinions and great insights on the game, the teams and especially the quarterback position.” — Washington Post

Steelers defensive star spending big on Super Bowl trip

Steelers NT Casey Hampton’s “crib” isn’t in Dallas. He was born in Galveston, a city on the Gulf of Mexico. A few years ago, he moved to nearby Houston. His relatives and closest friends coming to the Super Bowl will have roughly a 240-mile drive to Dallas this week. Hampton, a five-time Pro Bowler, is personally taking care of their Super Bowl arrangements. He’s renting a house for them in Dallas. He figures that beats paying for their airfare and hotel rooms. And for at least 15 family members and friends, he’s purchased their tickets at $900 a pop. “It’s going to be expensive for me,” he said. “So from that standpoint, it’s not going to be a good thing.” Whatever Hampton ends up spending for his entourage’s Super Bowl stay, no one feels sorry for him. His base salary this season is $4 million. Plus, Hampton and the rest of the Steelers have already pocketed $21,000 for winning the divisional-round playoff game against the Ravens and $38,000 for the AFC Championship Game against the Jets. If the Steelers beat the Packers in Super Bowl XLV, each player gets $83,000 more (the loser’s share is $42,000). — Beaver County Times