Kevin_C's Blog

This morning I hitched a ride with Butch Stearns and photojournalist Walt McGraw to the Patriots hotel in Scottsdale; Butch says that as the Pats gain more Super Bowl experience, they seem to pick hotels that are further and further away from the Media Center and/or the Stadium.

Right after we arrived Bill Belichick took the podium and did his typical press conference boogie.  The room was set up with different players seated at tables, a few select players at their own mini-podiums, and Tom Brady, in a partitioned off room, standing at a large podium.  You could tell once Brady finished his q&a portion of the event because  the area with the rest of the players suddenly became what Charlton Heston would call “a madhouse…. A madhouse…!”



Butch and Walt are old pros at this – it was amazing watching them hop around, getting the sound they needed.  This was my first event of this sort, and I’m not used to the dealing with rampaging media hordes of this magnitude.  Still, I took a bunch of photos, and would occasionally hear players talking in athlete-speak (you know the quotes, “Everybody will be the deciding factor of this game”, etc.)  There was also a sense, from the players, that they were pretty happy they didn’t have to deal with the media as much for the rest of the week and could focus on the game.  This has, admittedly, been a long week for everyone, and we’ve still got miles to go before we all go home.  Both Brady and Moss said they missed seeing their families, and Brady said he just wanted to focus on Sunday’s game and get that over with.



One of the interesting things I saw was reserve defensive lineman Le Kevin Smith, sitting by himself and quietly rocking out to his iPod.  I asked him what he was listening to, and even getting that information proved difficult.  “You wouldn’t know it”, was the response.  I pressed on, because I’m all about the tough interview.  He asked me why I wanted to know.  Truth is, I was just interested.  I finally got “some underground hip-hop” out of him.



With all the photos taken, I’m thinking of starting up a new website, called LolPats, based on the popular LolCats meme.  Just think: photos of Tom Brady with an “I Can Haz Gizele Now?” caption.  Randy Moss with “I’m in ur endzone, scoring ur pointz.”  Tedy Bruschi with “19-0 Perfekt Seesun.  KThnx.”  This could be huge.

I’m off to the NFL Experience!  Blog at you soon!  In the meantime, I’m going to listen to some underground hip-hop.  You wouldn’t know it.

Kevin

P.S. More pictures by clicking this link.